Multifamily Property Owner Question
Are property-wide WiFi solutions worth the investment? And why?
[{"id": "g3xr2u7", "text": "They can be profit centers but depending on the provider, it may discourage some tenants who have their own preferences.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "g3y0jed", "text": "Whenever a landlord provides something -- it's their problem.  \n\n\nI mean... if you have a washer/dryer be ready to fix them.  If you provide internet, if it breaks... it's your problem.", "replies": [{"id": "g3y0ra5", "text": "I see. But does providing those amenities also increase capacity and give you an additional revenue stream to be able to pay for maintenance?", "replies": [{"id": "g3y1ppq", "text": "Let's apply some numbers to it...\n\nAssume your occupancy isn't effected (on the flip side if you were going to increase occupancy you probably would profit -- but assuming you've got a 4-family, not a 300 unit complex).\n\nAssume your install costs are negligible.  It might be a grand at most.\n\nAssume local internet (provided by someone who isn't you) is $50/month and you can provide it for $25/month.  4X25 = $100x12 = $1200/year\n\nIf you call out a repairman once I would wager that would cost around $500.  Assume you call out a repairman once per year.\n\nFor $700/year you're going to provide internet.\n\nThis means when it's running slow, won't load, needs to be rebooted, or any minute problems pop up you're going to be handling phone calls from tenants asking for you to fix it.\n\nThe only benefit I could see is if you had a delinquent tenant you could turn it off without getting in the same trouble as turning off electric/gas/water.\n\nStill, for $700/year it's not worth providing a utility.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "g3y2hpe", "text": "WiFi - no, in my opinion.  Bulk internet package - yes.  \n\nPretty much everyone wants internet.  Bulk internet costs a lot less per tenant than if tenants pay individually, and a lot of tenants are smart enough to realize they should look at their total cost of living somewhere (although if it's \"included in the rent\" it'll affect views in search results).  No way would I want to make wifi issues my (or my PM's or leasing staff's, etc.) problem - you get the internet to the ethernet ports in their apartment and let them deal with it from there.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "g3z1s9r", "text": "I know this is still far away, but I think you might be interested. REHacking is hosting a free webinar on Oct. 6 about Multifamily Investing 101 with a case study included.\n\nYou can check all the details about the event here:  [https://www.facebook.com/events/2686542118267693/](https://www.facebook.com/events/2686542118267693/)", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "g3ztib5", "text": "For nicer buildings (that is anything not workforce / class c) we will put them into the amenity space. Funny story had a property that had property wide WiFi, the contract transferred when we closed but for some reason they we\u2019re misbilling it so it ended up getting shut off. No one knew for about 2 months until the office had someone from the servicer provider call about the shut off. Residents / staff didn\u2019t know the difference. Property is a class a 300+ unit wrap deal. I mean that\u2019s anecdotal evidence but if no one noticed that the building wide WiFi disappeared / no one complained then it probably isn\u2019t worth the money....", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "g4m5j0z", "text": "I wouldn't do WiFi. I would wire the units for Ethernet (Cat5). Once time expense.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]