Christian Osgood warns that upgrading a Class C building to Class B fails when the surrounding market can't afford higher rents. He recommends matching a property's class to its tenant base instead. For 55+ conversions, strong demand exists as baby boomers age, but market research is essential first.
Chapters
Any downfalls of converting it from like a, a C to a B? Downfalls of converting one to a 55+, like if we got that 22-unit?
There is a certain class that your building wants to be. If you are in an area of all C buildings and you build an A, you're just going to have an underperforming A property. You— there's something that the building wants to be. Your question is highest and best use. I do not want to be my exact competitor because I'm competing against the exact same thing. We are a lower-cost place where our tenants— and I look at the cars that are in the parking lot, I look at the tenants who are walking around— the average person is someone who wants to live in that area and they want to be a B+ person who has a C+ budget. That is, that is what— that is the market that we are serving. I want to live in a nicer area than I can probably afford. We are the housing for those people. Knowing what we are, I am going to be at crazy occupancy very fast. 'Cause I know what I'm renovating to and I know what I need to do to execute the project. I would spend the time to identify what is the need of my area. So with 55+, if I'm in a market that does a good job servicing 55+, probably not interested. Most markets are grossly underserviced for 55+. This is the year that the first boomers start turning 80. The oldest boomers just hit 80. So we're getting more demand than ever. you're likely a pretty smart conversion. We love 55+. I would just do some market research before I just said, yes, this is a good idea.