The UnApartment is here to stay

What is the UnApartment?  Well, it's everything an apartment isn't but behaves like an apartment in that a renter lives there.  It is the new rental destination.  Yes, you guessed it - the single family home.  The UnApartment is beginning to cater to all age groups.
 
Let's compare the two.  The apartment - referred to as a 'door' by the property manager - is just that.  One of many doors very close to each other, that is , if you forget the New York penthouses.  You live in close proximity to others and often share a lot of amenities like washers, dryers, open areas etc.  You can't practice your trombone at night without some complaints.  If you're on a higher floor and have an exercise machine that rocks the building, you may have some rocks thrown your way by irate neighbors downstairs. 

On the other hand, the single family home offers greater privacy and distance from your neighbor.  Also, our extensive interviews with pets indicate that dogs prefer unapartments to apartments.  That backyard, no matter how little, gives them that extra stretching space and that emergency bowel release option.  Jokes aside, the unapartment just makes for better living for a family, especially one that has children or pets.  The apartment demographic is skewing towards footloose, young echo boomers who like to be close to entertainment - read that as sushi, yoga, night clubs, Pilates and the like.  A good mixture of decadence and renaissance. 
 
So what does this mean for the single family rental investor?  It means that your renter pool is getting bigger.  Especially since many of them have owned and lived in houses, are victims of the housing crisis and post mortgage trauma and prefer to live in houses but not take out a mortgage.  And that's a pretty large demographic. 
 
As always, you need to buy in the right area, at the right price and have a good management company so that you get access to this quality rental pool.

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