What are the income criteria for an all-bills-paid apartment?
Income criteria for an all-bills-paid apartment are that the rent cannot be more than 50% of their take-home pay.
Let look at this from an economic perceptive. The most expensive rent I’ve got as a property manager is $485 per month, but most are $400 per month. The shared accommodation is as cheap as $200 per month.
Every tenant in the property except one couple is single. Interestingly, only 2 of the tenants are less than 55 years old. Only 2 of the tenants have income from their job. The other tenants get their income from SSI.
The fact is that they can’t afford a higher rent. Our income criteria for an all-bills-paid apartment is that the rent cannot be more than 50% of their take-home pay. For a single person at the poverty level of $902 per month, that would be $451 per month. That makes these units affordable for an elderly person in Oklahoma City on a fixed income.
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Social security benefit checks for a single person are generally less than $1,000, so a social security recipient can generally afford one of these apartments.
Second, let them talk about this from a property management perspective. I have been following Fair Housing guidelines with this property. I don’t run applicants off because they aren’t old enough. That can land a property manager in big trouble.
What happens is the younger folks generally don’t stay too long. Many of the young ones who are locked into poverty level income have a drug or alcohol addiction. If they do, they generally don’t last too long. I don’t stand for that type of behavior at the property.
The tenants who stay long-term generally don’t have drug and alcohol issues. They want a safe place to stay in which the landlord takes care of the property.
The most important screening criteria for this type of property is a criminal background check. If I can see a pattern of stable, non-criminal behavior for the last several years, they are good as gold as long as they can show me they are getting a check.
There is also a sense of belonging to a community because of their shared generational identity. This is huge because they want to be surrounded by friends. Most of the vacancies we fill are from word-of-mouth referrals to fellow Baby Boomers who need a place.
The City of Oklahoma City has also been a help filling these vacancies as the area is developed. Many of the competing types of properties have been converted to office buildings or upgraded to expensive condominiums. Either way, there are fewer and fewer of these types of buildings for individuals at poverty level income.
I think this type of property (all bills paid OKC houses) will continue to be a big opportunity as the ranks of the poor and elderly continue to rise. They are going to have to live somewhere. And Oklahoma City property management company can guide you with the perfect cheap apartments in OKC all bills paid.
