Best Amenities for Build-to-Rent

Today we want to explore something that needs to be considered. I've got Chase and Sherida with me here today.

When we build something to rent it... there are two spaces to be considered. A tenant is going to move into an apartment, townhouse, or home, but that doesn't compute as to the whole experience that they're going to have. They're going to have a yard or common area, HOA managed area, and even a local economy that they interact with. This all needs to be considered when we're planning, whether it's a home or a small apartment building, or a large, massive master-planned complex.

Today, we're going to talk about what you need to consider, or at least what we found to be helpful, as well as some of the painful lessons that we've learned on that front.

Chase and Sherida, what is on your mind when it comes to amenities in a build-to-rent property? That could mean something in the project itself, or nearby businesses, and/or entertainment. What are we looking for?

Sherida Zenger

I think in a project itself, if this is more of a tenant-based project, and there's we're maybe speaking of a condo community, a townhome community, something of that nature, you probably want to have some kind of a clubhouse. The pool is nice.

Obviously, there are unwanted things that come with a pool as far as I can. HOA would go. But a pool, some kind of a playground for kids. dog parks are always nice, you know if you're a pet-friendly community, grass area. Yeah. Some commentary for grass. Maybe basketball court. pickleball. That's huge right now. Pickleball...

Steve Olson

Many of those things that you just listed are all very applicable. And I think it depends on the size. When you say I'm going to put in a swimming pool and build for rent community, well, how big is the community, the cost of running and operating a swimming pool and the hassle of it, frankly, only apply, in my opinion, you need to have at least ad units to want to be able to do something like that to be able to afford it within your budgets.

Otherwise, it's just not worth it. You're gonna be going out there all the time. And you get that budget every month. And wow, we're spending a lot on this pool based on what we're bringing in. But something that chase said like this is a weird little exception. You said grass, right. And that grass, you know, you got to mow it. You got to care for it, fertilize it, you got to do all those things. We've noticed one thing in our projects in Houston, Texas, I wish we could get all the grass out of there. Right because it's expensive to water in that market all the time.

And it's Houston. There's all kinds of weird bugs and stuff in the grass and you know where we live here in Utah. kids go out and they play on the grass. It gets green in April. Right, It starts to fade by October. But you get six months out of the year where people are playing in the grab their soccer whatever and games. In Texas, it's a place to call them chiggers, right? And all kinds of bugs and you don't want to be on the grass nearly as much as I think when we talk about the landscape and the amenities, what what's the standard and what's good popular locally, but also don't let that sacrifice being creative. You mentioned pickleball A few years ago, that wasn't a thing. But now it's absolutely crazy in a lot of the projects that we do.

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