Vacancy Gap Recovery Calculator

Every vacancy day costs rent — and the longer the vacancy, the harder recovery gets.

Previous monthly rent

New monthly rent

Vacancy days

Make-ready cost

Months to recover

16.7

Vacancy rent loss

$1,833

Total cost (vacancy + make-ready)

$3,333

How the math works

Vacancy loss = daily rent × days. Total cost = vacancy + make-ready. Recovery = total ÷ monthly increase.

$2200 × (25/30) = $1833 vacancy + $1500 make-ready = $3333 ÷ $200/mo bump = 16.7 months to recover.

How to Use

Enter previous monthly rent.
Enter new monthly rent.
Enter vacancy days.
Enter make-ready cost.
Read months to recover lost rent.

Frequently Asked Questions

What's a typical between-tenant vacancy?

Stabilized multifamily: 15-25 days. Single-family rental (SFR): 25-45 days. Class A urban: 10-20 days. Class C suburban: 30-60 days. Student market (9-month lease): 60-90 days off-cycle, 3-10 days on-cycle. Vacancy is driven by (1) turnover notice timing, (2) make-ready speed, (3) marketing response rate, (4) application processing. Institutional managers track 'vacant days per unit' and benchmark against portfolio and peer groups.

Can you justify longer vacancy for higher rent?

Sometimes. If the market rent is $200/mo above your previous lease, holding empty 25 extra days to land the $200 bump pays back in 12.5 months. If the bump is $50/mo, the 25-day hold pays back only after 50 months — rarely worth it on a typical 12-24 month tenancy. Rule of thumb: $/month bump × 12 ÷ $/day vacancy cost = days of vacancy that justify waiting. Use this as a hard gate before declining applications.

Make-ready cost drivers?

Paint (most properties, $400-2500 depending on size), carpet or flooring (conditional, $500-4000), appliance replacement (opportunistic, $600-2500), cleaning ($200-500), minor repairs ($200-800), key/lock change ($50-150). SFR avg: $1200-2800. Multifamily unit avg: $800-2200. Include labor. Institutional operators budget 1-1.5 months rent for make-ready per turn — if you're above that, operational diagnosis needed.

Recovery time modeling?

Recovery months = (vacancy days × old daily rent + make-ready cost) ÷ monthly rent increase. If you're not raising rent, recovery is effectively forever — you just absorbed the loss. This is why many operators accept a 'renewal discount' (rent flat or +2%) to avoid any vacancy — renewal economics almost always beat turnover economics at small rent increases.