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Five key stats that will make you a better mom-and-pop landlord
This week, CEO of Hemlane Dana Dunford and I shared five key stats landlords should track to sharpen their rental process and results.
Michael Zuber
December 19, 2025
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Five key stats that will make you a better mom-and-pop landlord
All mom-and-pop landlords should think about this short quote from legendary Alabama football coach Nick Saban:
“Outcomes are a distraction. Focus on the process.”
How does this apply to rentals? Well, most mom-and-pop landlords don’t fail because they picked the wrong market. They fail because they manage rentals like a side quest—reacting to problems, chasing outcomes, and hoping the month ends “okay.”
But rentals aren’t a one-time deal. The first of the month comes every 30 days, forever. Which means the winners aren’t the landlords who obsess over doors, rent totals, or Zillow vibes. They’re the ones who build a process—and track the few stats that actually drive performance.
That’s why this week, Dana Dunford, CEO of Hemlane (which manages thousands of units), and I shared five key stats landlords should track to sharpen their rental process and results.
1. Rent-ready vacant days
Most landlords count a unit as vacant the second a tenant moves out.
I don’t. If a unit needs five days to turn—paint, clean, repairs—I’m not “losing money” yet. That’s the cost of doing business.
I start the clock the day the unit is tenant-ready. That means it's clean, showable, and move-in ready. After that point, that’s when I’m truly bleeding.
My target? I want rent-ready vacant days under 10 days per month, and I can tell you right now: I don’t let rent-ready units sit for 30 days. I just don’t.
Whether it’s because turns are too slow, marketing is too weak, or pricing is too aggressive—if you start tracking it this way, you’ll see where your business is broken, and where you need to fix it.
2. Turn time
Benchmark turns like a business, not a scramble. If your turn time is a surprise every time, you don’t have a process—you have a recurring emergency.
Here’s how to break it down simply:
Quick turn: About 48 hours (deep clean + touch-up paint)
Long turn: About 4–5 days (carpet, bathroom/kitchen work, multiple trades)
Full remodel: About 21–24 days (big upgrade tied to a meaningful rent bump)
The point isn’t perfection. The point is setting expectations—and then tightening execution. When you know what “normal” is, you can see slippage immediately.
3. Leasing funnel conversion
Dana makes a great point in our conversation: you can’t just watch “days on market,” or else you are getting less information and you are getting it too late.
You need to track the funnel that leads to a change in “days on market.”
Track:
Inquiries
Showings
Applications
Approvals
Move-ins
Tracking these metrics helps you because it tells you exactly where you’re stuck. If inquiries are weak, your rent is too high, or your listing or presentation is off. If showings happen but applications don’t, the property isn’t closing—often because the first impression is wrong.
It could also come down to curb appeal—if the yard looks rough and the entry looks tired, people don’t “stop the car,” and your funnel dries up fast.
Whatever the reason is that’s leading to “days on market” rising, this process tells you the truth—fast.
4. Collections and cash flow
I’m in this for cash flow. So I don’t wait until the end of the month to find out I have a problem.
I get a daily report, and I compare performance day-over-day across months. (“How did December 11 compare to November 11 and October 11?)
That gives you early warnings. If you only look at collections once a month, you’re reacting, not being proactive.
5. Delinquency resolution
Dana’s framework was simple: screaming about delinquency does nothing. Track the metrics involved in resolving delinquency faster:
Outreach attempts
Mediations attempted
Notice served date
Response type (payment plan vs unresponsive)
Time to resolution
Percent of delinquency cases resolved without going to court
That last one matters because courts are backed up—and dragging it out costs you rent, time, and turnover delays.
Being “right” feels good. Getting it resolved quickly is what protects your portfolio, reduces delinquencies, and lowers your vacancies.
The big picture
If you want to be a better mom-and-pop landlord, stop staring at the scoreboard and build a simple weekly scorecard:
Rent-ready vacant days
Turn time
Leasing funnel conversion
Collections and cash flow
Delinquency resolution (especially without court)
Then do the only thing that compounds: pick one process every month and get 1% better. Because the first of the month will always come, and perfecting your process is what makes that predictable and favorable.
ResiClub chart of the week
Last week, ResiClub’s Lance Lambert zoomed out on Freddie Mac’s weekly 30-year fixed mortgage-rate series to answer a simple question: in a “normal” year, how much do mortgage rates actually move?
My takeaway from Lance’s reporting: Even when the economy feels calm, rates still tend to swing enough to change payments, affordability, and buyer behavior.
Since 1972, the average annual range between the year’s low weekly rate and high weekly rate is 1.40 percentage points.
To put that in dollars: on a $400,000 mortgage, going from 6.00% to 7.40% bumps the monthly principal-and-interest payment from about $2,398 to $2,769—a difference of roughly $371 per month.
Why does this matter?
“As you see newly published 2026 mortgage-rate forecasts hitting the wires, it’s important to remember: those projections usually represent the average 30-year mortgage rate for the year or for Q4—not the highs or lows,” Lance wrote. “Even if 2026 turns out to be a calmer year, history tells us there will likely be multiple rate swings of meaningful size—moves that will filter directly into monthly payments and potentially drive intra-year shifts in builder incentives.”
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