In this solo monologue, Philadelphia property manager and attorney Kevin Moyer explains why summer is a cash‑flow pain point for landlords and rental investors. He outlines the convergence of lease expirations, turnover costs, vacancy loss, leasing fees, and seasonal AC repairs that often force owners to inject personal funds in July. Using portfolio‑level data from Otter Property Management, he shows an average July net‑income dip of about –11.5% and a recovery that begins in October and continues through the fourth quarter. Moyer advises owners to complete turnovers quickly and to a high standard, keep properties well‑maintained to attract quality tenants, and remember that cash flow is only one component of real‑estate investing—long‑term appreciation and tax benefits offset short‑term liquidity squeezes. The video ends with a reminder to stay focused on the broader investment horizon while navigating the seasonal cash‑flow squeeze.
Chapters
Hey guys, Kevin Moyer with The Rowe Report here. As you know, I'm a Philadelphia property manager and attorney. And hey, we're in the thick of summer and things are great typically from a personal standpoint, vacation, time off, but it's typically not good from a financial standpoint, from a cash flow perspective for property owners, especially in Philadelphia. So I noticed this, I started getting squeezed in the summer with my personal portfolio over time. That's when you tend to have to pony up and make an owner contribution to fund your account because the rents are not keeping up with your mortgage obligations, your repair obligations, your turnover costs. And I thought, man, is this true on scale? And it absolutely is. So summer is rough. It might be feeling good from a personal standpoint, but as far as property ownership goes, it's rough. You tend to have a multitude of factors coming into play at the same time in summer as a property owner, landlord, and investor. Summer tends to be the time when leases end, anywhere from May, June, July, and when leases end comes the inevitable turnover cost. So the cost to get your property back up to condition to lease. Not only that, you're dealing with vacancy costs. So when the property is vacant, you're not getting rent. So you're, you're not getting rent, the place is vacant by the time you sign a lease. And then if you have a property manager, you're paying a leasing fee. Or if you're not, if you don't have a property manager, you're doing it yourself, and there's cost in your time and efforts. To lease the property. So it's a lot of work. It's a lot of work to oversee turnover. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of money out of your pocket in the summertime. So if you're feeling like, man, this, this rental property, it's supposed to be making me money, not costing money, you are not alone with that sentiment over the summertime. So check it out here. I did some— I crunched some numbers across the entire portfolio from Otter Property Management, and you'll see that you got to survive the summer. So '23, '24, and '25 are both down significantly into July. Which is the lowest pain point, and then it only creeps up and really recovers into October when you see the fall recovery here. So July is going to be your cash flow weakness. I didn't even mention AC repairs. Your AC repairs tend to pop up in May. The system strained in June and July, it can't keep up, the pressure increases, the Freon leaves the system. We see it time and time and again with, uh, AC costs as well. So your cost to maintain the property, your cost of turnover and vacancy all compound to leading to an average in July of -11.5% based on what we normally see from a net income perspective. So July is your pain point, you're not alone. And the golden age as far as quarter, quarter operating goes is October, November, and December. Tenants tend to be nestled in at that time. Your maintenance costs tend to drip off. You do not have the vacancy and turnover costs, and that's when you tend to be able to rebuild your cash flow war chest for the upcoming season all over again. So just keep this in mind when you are evaluating your rental performance. The, the pain— the summer is the pain point. It is inevitable if you have multiple units, uh, that you're going to see this across your portfolio. And if you have one unit, I think over time you will feel this. But you just got to survive, survive the summer, do the right thing, complete your turnovers quickly to high standard, get a good tenant back in place so you can enjoy the fall recovery that tends to follow. So that's my advice. You're not alone. One more closing thought before we leave is that cash flow isn't everything with real estate. So just because you're getting squeezed in the summer, just because you may have to make a contribution to that operating account as opposed to seeing it stack up. Cash flow is not the only reason you're in this game. You still have the long-term benefits of appreciation. You still have the tax benefits over time of, of real estate. So just remember that in the long run, a little bit of liquidity issue is part of the game. So keep that in mind. Just keep, keep doing the right thing with your investment. Keep it, uh, keep it in the best condition it possibly can be to attract the best tenants you possibly can to survive the summer and make it into Q4.
