9 September How to Manage Parking at Your Residential Building to Retain Tenants September 9, 2020 By sma Property Management apartment, commercial real estate tenants, multi-family property 0 HOW TO MANAGE PARKING AT YOUR RESIDENTIAL BUILDING TO RETAIN TENANTS Date, 2020 | Property Management | commercial real estate tenants, multi-family property, apartment Multi-family housing is a popular choice among families that are just starting out. They offer lower costs, more desirable locations in town and a list of other benefits compared to single-family homes. However while you might have enough space inside, you might not be able to accommodate everyone in the biggest spot outside‒your parking lot. Benefits of Offering On-Site Parking Whether it be an office building or apartment complex, being able to park on-site is a huge attraction to potential tenants. They won’t have to waste time circling the block for the last spot, fumble with change for metered parking or walk a mile from a parking garage. Tenants are more likely to sign with you if you are able to offer parking, and they will feel safer leaving their car. But if you notice that you’re having larger groups sign a lease, you can then run into the problem of having a poor ratio of spots to people. Analyze Your Current Lot Layout As you start to fill up your building during the current leasing period, it’s the perfect time to look at the spots you have. To get an accurate bearing on how many you need, follow this equation: Number of Spots / Building Square Footage = Spots per 1,000 sqft So if you have a building with 200 spots and the building is 50,000 square feet, you’d need about 4 parking spots per 1,000 square feet. You may also want to factor in a few extra spaces, as your tenants will want to have guests over. Finding out the ratio you need is just one part in maintaining the right number of parking stalls. Implement Parking Regulations After you’ve figured out how many spots you need, you then need to make sure the right people are using them. Nothing is more annoying to a tenant than pulling into the lot to see random cars taking up spaces. If you receive multiple complaints about this issue and don’t take action, your tenants will be frustrated and ultimately leave. A few of the ways that you can resolve your parking problems are: - Institute permit parking for residents - Assign numbered spaces - Issue notices to inactive vehicles - Post warnings Permit Parking Permit parking is a common option among landlords of multi-family buildings. It deters would-be spot thieves and helps you keep track of your tenants’ vehicles. All you need to do is have your new renters fill out a form with their vehicle information and issue them a tag. It is your decision whether or not you want to have a signing fee, but a good idea is to have a penalties clause. These penalties, whatever you decide for them to be, will stop tenants from lending their pass to friends to use the lot. Plus, if you have on-site security, they will know what cars belong at the building. When tenants do want to have guests over, simply issue them a guest pass to avoid any confusion. Numbered Spots Painting numbered spots in your lot is another way to track vehicles and evenly divide up space. Assign each unit a number or letter and choose how many spaces will be adequate for each. This is a trickier system to deal with as not every unit will have enough vehicles to fill their spots, leaving you with open spaces. Then you have the hassle of cars parking in each other’s open spots with no way to tell who belongs and who doesn’t. Writing Notices Oftentimes a car will appear seemingly out of nowhere, with none of your tenants claiming it. Situations like this can be a headache, but there is a way to fix your problem. Issuing notices or tickets to cars like these will either get the owner to move them or allow you to take action. Write up a note with an allotted time frame the vehicle needs to be moved in or it will be towed. Hang Warning Signs Speaking of towing, it’s a good idea to work with a company that will tow any parking offenders. Most of the time, all it takes is a sign that says unaccounted vehicles will be towed at the owner’s expense to prevent people from taking spots. People will know that the lot is private and won’t want to risk losing their car. NPI Can Inspect Your Properties Today National Property Inspections is the partner you can rely on for all of your company’s inspection needs. Schedule a consultation with our inspection coordinators to see how NPI can assist you. Comments are closed.