Competition high for Tulsa apartment rental deals

Mortgage interest rates are somewhere in the neighborhood of 6%. That's put lots of people in a home buying mood. But as New on Six consumer Reporter Rick Wells explains, that means the search for

Monday, October 28th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Mortgage interest rates are somewhere in the neighborhood of 6%. That's put lots of people in a home buying mood. But as New on Six consumer Reporter Rick Wells explains, that means the search for apartment tenants is much more competitive.

Hot Tubs. Town Houses. Fabulous floor plans. $149 move in specials. Free rent. Apartment complexes all over town are looking for a few good folks to fill some vacancies.

Lots of people moving on to home ownership. Mortgage rates are at a 40-year low. "It's just more affordable to own your own home today than it has been 2 or three years ago with these incredibly low interest rates." Steve Ganzko is with American Residential Group among their properties is the Renaissance Uptown.

He says occupancy here has been affected as much by employment problems as by interest rates, they were doing great. "Until this late summer when Williams had some of their problems and WorldCom and that took a lot of momentum out of the market."

He estimates there are 50 thousand apartment units of all types in Tulsa. That may sound like a lot but he said it's about right. Occupancy rates are around 90% across the board. That may sound good but it's not many of these places need to get above 90% to be profitable, so they compete harder for tenants. "When things get real competitive owners start offering incentives to trying to generate traffic.â€

Competition for good tenants might land you a great deal you couldn't have gotten a year ago. One place even offers a chance to "take the year off", not sure what that means, could be great.

Be careful, it's easy to get caught up in the good deal and forget to read the fine print to be sure everything you think you are getting is in writing and also to be certain you know what you are obligated to do.