Landlords are beginning to act more like airlines — using supply and demand to make quick adjustments to rent prices.
In fact, some landlords are now using sophisticated computerized models to monitor competition, upcoming vacancies and seasonal patterns to determine optimal rent. While the results are not as fast as for the airlines, rents can change quickly, sometimes day to day.
For landlords, it is about “being able to react quicker, changing your pricing more effectively to capture that incremental dollar,” says Haendel St. Juste, a senior REIT analyst with Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.