A well-priced Philadelphia rental can lease in a day or two. Most take about 30. An overpriced one can sit past 120. BMG handles the full leasing process — pricing, photography, syndication, showings, screening and move-in — across Philadelphia and Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery Counties, with screening built around Philadelphia’s Renters’ Access Act.
When owners move to us in Philadelphia they tend to describe the same four problems. Their previous manager stopped responding after the first contact. Nobody chased rent once it fell into arrears. Marketing was passive — the listing went up and then nothing happened. And nobody started marketing until the unit was already empty.
Our leasing process is built around those four. Your assigned agent sends a written update every week for as long as your property is on the market — inquiries, showings, applications, and a specific recommendation if the price needs to move. We start marketing occupied units roughly a month before the current tenant leaves, so the vacancy gap closes rather than opens. And we lease across the full range of Philadelphia property, from single-family homes to fifty-unit buildings, with about half our Philadelphia portfolio in the small two-to-eight unit multi-family buildings that define much of this city.
We aim to have an occupied unit listed 45-60 days before the current tenant moves out, so you are not starting from zero on the day they leave. Owners tell us this is the single thing their previous manager never did.
Your agent sends the same structured update every week: how many inquiries came in, how many showings happened, how many applications arrived, and whether we are recommending a price adjustment. No chasing required.
Listings run through the Zillow network — Zillow, Trulia and HotPads — and syndicate to Rental Beast, Rentals.com and Zumper. We also list in the MLS, which feeds Realtor.com and puts your property in front of agents with relocating clients, and we advertise on AffordableHousing.com to reach voucher holders.
Philadelphia regulates tenant screening more tightly than most cities. Every applicant receives our written criteria before they apply, every application is assessed against the same standard, and every denial comes with written notice and a copy of the credit report it was based on.
From the day your management agreement is signed to the day a tenant gets keys, here is what happens and who does it. Your assigned leasing agent is your single point of contact throughout, and stays with you until the tenant moves in.
Once the management agreement is received, our leasing department enters your owner and property details and the property is set up in our system. If the property needs marketing, our Director of New Business is dispatched to photograph it as a priority so nothing waits.
Our Business Development Representative or Director of Leasing will discuss pricing and comparables. We price against what comparable Philadelphia properties are actually renting for, not against your mortgage payment. That is an honest conversation and sometimes an uncomfortable one, particularly on recently purchased properties. Philadelphia has absorbed a large amount of new construction, and in most neighborhoods, supply now runs ahead of demand — which means the premium a property could command three years ago is often no longer there.
For a new management agreement, the Director of New Business photographs the property and shares the images with the leasing team. For properties already under management, the Director of Leasing or your leasing agent handles it. Occupied units get photographed and listed roughly 45-60 days before the tenant is due to leave.
We hold off marketing in three situations — a non-renewal, an eviction, or a voucher-holder move-out — until the move-out inspection results are in, because listing a unit we cannot accurately describe wastes showings.
The leasing team builds the listing and assigns your agent, who emails you an introduction and confirms the weekly update schedule. Once photos are in hand the listing goes live within a day, syndicating across the Zillow network and the other platforms, plus the MLS.
Your agent schedules and attends showings. Most Philadelphia properties are agent-accompanied — prospects do not get access without the agent present. MLS-listed properties can also be shown by outside agents, who request through the MLS and use the lockbox.
Every week you receive the update: inquiries, showings, applications, and a price recommendation if one is warranted.
Applications are submitted and paid for through our site at $50 per applicant, and processed by our application processor against the published criteria set out below. Volume varies enormously by location in this market — more on that further down.
Once an application is approved, your agent converts it to a tenant record and sends the lease and move-in documents for digital signature. When the lease is signed and the security deposit is paid, the property comes off the market and is held for the agreed move-in date. Your agent remains the point of contact for both you and the tenant through that period, and your property manager will continue to manage any work that is needed to prepare the property for move-in.
Before move-in your agent completes a pre-move-in inspection and flags anything needing attention to your property manager. They confirm all payments are in, utility accounts are transferred, renter’s insurance is on file, and every Philadelphia compliance document is complete — the Certificate of Rental Suitability, the lead certificate where the property predates 1978, and the rest of the tenant packet.
On move-in day the agent meets the tenant at the property and walks through it with them before handing over keys and the rest of the tenant packet. You and the tenant then receive a welcome letter introducing your property manager, who takes over from there.
| Scenario | Timeline | What drives it |
|---|---|---|
| Best case | 1–2 days | Priced right, in a neighborhood with limited competing inventory. It happens more often than owners expect. |
| Typical | 30 days or less | Weekly updates going out and price adjustments made when we recommend them. |
| Worst case | 120+ days | Onboarded at an unrealistic rent and the price does not move. Three months on market is not unusual when that happens. |
Signed lease to move-in runs on a separate clock. For a vacant property, we hold the unit up to 35 days after a prospect applies, and longer only with your approval. Occupied and student-housing properties work differently — some lease more than 180 days before the move-in date, others a matter of weeks.
The most difficult properties we take on are new management agreements where the owner has an unrealistic view of what the property is worth. Most owners want the rent to cover the mortgage. If the property was bought in the last few years that may simply not be achievable, and pricing against a mortgage payment rather than against comparable rentals is the most reliable way to spend three months on the market.
Philadelphia has absorbed a lot of new construction and it has changed the standard. A property with basic features now competes directly with newly built and newly renovated units. An older home without in-unit laundry, air conditioning or a dishwasher is not unrentable — but it has to be priced to reflect what it does not have. Owners who adjust lease. Owners who hold out wait.
April through August is the busy stretch in Philadelphia, with noticeably more prospects looking. From Thanksgiving through February activity slows sharply, and picks back up in March. A unit that would lease in two weeks in June can sit through January.
Philadelphia regulates tenant screening more tightly than almost any city in the country. The Renters’ Access Act limits what a landlord may consider about an applicant’s rental and credit history, and sets out how a denial must be handled. BMG screens every Philadelphia applicant against the same written criteria, built around the Act and federal fair housing law. Consistent screening is also the cheapest eviction prevention there is — we rarely see a Philadelphia eviction where the resident fully qualified at application.
Credit history — Reviewed for substance, not a score. We look at the dollar amount in collections or charged off and the payment history behind it. No applicant is denied on a credit score alone.
Income verification — Income must be at least three times the monthly rent, evidenced by documentation rather than a stated figure.
Employment verification — We review proof of income and confirm it directly with the employer.
Rental history — Evictions and judgments for possession within the last four years, counting only judgments that are still outstanding and not in a judgment-by-agreement the applicant is keeping to.
Court record search — We search the Philadelphia Municipal Court record directly through the First Judicial District, and the Pennsylvania UJS portal for properties outside the city. Screening-vendor databases are incomplete and frequently misattribute records between people with similar names. Going to the source is slower and more accurate.
Landlord verification — We contact the current or former landlord to confirm the same four-year window, applying the same exclusions.
Fair housing compliant screening — The same published criteria applied to every applicant, with written notice and a copy of the credit report to anyone declined.
No automatic denial on a score alone. Where a credit report shows collections or charged-off accounts, we assess the dollar amount involved and the payment history on those accounts rather than applying a cutoff.
The pandemic window is disregarded. Negative payment history, and nonpayment-of-rent evictions or credit events, occurring between March 12, 2020 and July 30, 2021 are set aside entirely.
No credit history is not a denial. An applicant with no credit file can qualify by providing at least three months of bank statements showing a balance of at least eighteen times the monthly rent, or by supplying a guarantor with strong credit and income of six times the monthly rent.
Outstanding utilities. All outstanding utility balances other than internet must be paid in full, with proof.
A four-year look-back. We consider evictions and judgments for possession from the last four years. Philadelphia caps consideration at four years, which is shorter than the seven-year standard used in most of the country, and we apply the four.
The judgment has to be outstanding. A judgment that has been satisfied does not count against an applicant. Neither does one currently in judgment-by-agreement status where the applicant is keeping to the payment plan.
Debt to a prior landlord. More than $1,000 owed to a previous landlord, less than four years old, is a denial — and it can be cured by paying the balance in full.
The pandemic window again. Nonpayment evictions and judgments from March 12, 2020 to July 30, 2021 are excluded from all of the above.
Landlord verification. We contact the current or former landlord to confirm the same four-year window, applying the same exclusions.
Criminal history is reviewed last, only after an applicant has met the credit and rental history criteria above. An applicant who does not clear those is never screened on this basis at all.
Where we do review it, an applicant is denied if they are a registered sex offender, if they have a felony conviction within the last ten years, or if they were released from commitment for a felony conviction within the last five. These criteria are published here and applied to every applicant identically.
Every denied Philadelphia applicant receives a copy of the credit report the decision was based on. Philadelphia requires this, and it is the applicant’s route to correcting a report that is wrong. Where an applicant disputes a denial and provides evidence that they do in fact meet the criteria, written notice is sent within three business days of the decision. An applicant who requests reconsideration within 48 hours then has seven business days to provide evidence that the information was inaccurate, belonged to someone else, or was based on criteria the Act prohibits.
This varies more by location than anything else in this market, and it is worth setting expectations honestly. Properties in the counties outside Philadelphia tend to attract more qualified prospects, and denials are rare — most people who apply are approved. Inside the city it can reverse completely. In the harder neighborhoods we routinely see five denied applications for every approval, and a listing can draw ten or more applications and approve none of them.
That is not a reason to lower the standard. It is a reason to price and market properly, so the applications you get are from people who qualify.
Every day a unit sits empty costs money. Some vacancy is unavoidable; most of what we see is not. These are the six causes we run into most often in Philadelphia, and how we handle each.
The single most common cause of a long Philadelphia vacancy. We price against current comparables and we tell you plainly when the number you have in mind is not achievable. If the listing is not generating inquiries, you get a specific price recommendation in your weekly update — not a vague suggestion months later.
Owners consistently name this as something their previous manager did. We photograph and list occupied units about a month before the tenant is due to leave, so showings are already happening while the unit is still occupied and the vacancy gap is as short as possible.
New supply has raised the baseline in most Philadelphia neighborhoods. A property without laundry, air conditioning or a dishwasher is competing against units that have all three. We identify where a property sits against current competing inventory and price to that reality rather than to last year’s.
A property has to be presentable and compliant before it goes to market. If it is not, showings get cancelled and the applications you do get are weaker. We would rather spend a short period getting a unit right than accumulate a high days-on-market count that damages the listing.
If a prospect cannot see a property when they are ready to see it, they move on to the next listing. Restricted showing windows quietly cost more applications than almost anything else on this list. Most of our Philadelphia properties are agent-accompanied, and the agent works around the prospect's schedule rather than the other way around. MLS listing means outside agents can bring clients too, and a small number of properties are set up for verified self-showing.
Marketing in November is a different exercise from marketing in June. We plan lease end dates and marketing timing around the April to August peak where we can, and adjust pricing expectations for the November to February stretch where we cannot.
None of these is solved in isolation. Reducing vacancy in Philadelphia comes from pricing honestly, marketing early, and telling you what is happening every week so decisions get made while they still matter.
| Fee | Amount |
|---|---|
| Tenant placement / leasing fee | One month’s market rent, $1,000 minimum |
| Lease renewal fee | 10% of one month’s rent, $199 minimum |
| Application fee | $50 per applicant, paid by the applicant |
The leasing fee is earned when a tenant is placed, not when the property is listed — if we do not lease it, you do not pay it. The renewal fee applies when an existing resident signs on for another term, which is the cheaper outcome for you by a wide margin: a renewal costs a fraction of a placement and produces no vacancy at all.
Our Philadelphia portfolio runs a 79% renewal rate, which is the number that actually drives returns. Full fee schedule on our Fees and Rates page.
Citywide, the average Philadelphia apartment rents for about $2,038 a month, though that figure hides a lot. Rent varies sharply by neighborhood, building age, amenities and condition — and by which data source you look at.
| Apartment Type | Average Monthly Rent |
|---|---|
| Studio | $1,498 |
| One bedroom | $1,863 |
| Two bedrooms | $2,348 |
| Three bedrooms | $3,527 |
Source: RentCafe Market Analysis / Yardi Matrix, data as of August 2026. These are advertised asking rents across the wider Philadelphia market, not rents in BMG-managed properties. Data as of August 2026
If you have checked two rental sites and got two different answers, you are not doing it wrong. Estimates for a Philadelphia one-bedroom currently range from roughly $1,320 to $1,860 depending on the source, because each platform draws from a different pool of listings. Sources weighted toward large amenity-rich apartment buildings report higher numbers than those sampling the rowhomes and small multi-family buildings that make up much of Philadelphia’s rental stock.
For an owner, that spread is the reason a portal estimate is a starting point and not a price. What your property will actually rent for depends on its block, its condition and what else is available near it right now — which is what a rental analysis looks at.
That is the current portfolio average across Philadelphia and the surrounding counties, and the spread behind it is wide — some properties lease immediately, others sit three months or more, and the slow ones pull the average up.
New construction has outpaced renter demand across most Philadelphia neighborhoods, which is why pricing to current comparables matters more now than it did three years ago.
Philadelphia has a pronounced leasing season. April through August is the busy stretch, with a noticeably larger pool of prospects looking to move. From Thanksgiving onward activity slows significantly and stays slow through February, before picking up again in March.
The practical use of that is in lease timing. Where you have a choice, setting a lease end date that puts your next vacancy in late spring or summer rather than December is worth more than most marketing decisions. Where you do not have a choice, a winter listing needs sharper pricing to compensate for the smaller pool.
BMG took over a 75-unit Philadelphia building constructed in 2022. Previous management had left it with 37 vacant units and eight delinquent tenants. At the same time, new construction nearby had pushed market rents down by hundreds of dollars over two years, and the ownership group was underwater on the building.
Our recommendation was that the only route back to the building’s underwriting was converting a substantial number of the vacant units to subsidized housing, which was paying more than $400 a month above the prevailing market rate. We coordinated the lease-up on that basis, resolved the delinquencies — through payment where possible and eviction where not — and rebuilt the operating side: faster and better unit turnovers, renegotiated vendor contracts, service contracts put out to bid, and parking charged for separately.
The building is now on an upward trajectory.
Softer than they were. Philadelphia has absorbed a large amount of new construction and in most neighborhoods supply now runs ahead of demand, so the premium a property could command in 2021 or 2022 has largely gone. The market today looks similar to 2025. Days on market are running 30 to 45 across our portfolio.
Typically 30 days or less. A well-priced property in a neighborhood with limited competing inventory can lease in one or two days. An overpriced one can sit past 120. The difference is almost always price, and we send a written recommendation when we think yours needs to move.
One month’s market rent, with a $1,000 minimum, payable when a tenant is placed. If we do not lease the property, there is no leasing fee. Lease renewals cost considerably less — see the fee table above — and produce no vacancy, which is why our renewal rate matters more to your returns than the placement fee does.
$50 per applicant, paid by the applicant when they submit through our site. BMG collects it as part of the application process.
We publish them in full, which Philadelphia requires. In short: income of at least three times the monthly rent, verified with the employer; credit is assessed on the substance of the report rather than a score cutoff, with alternatives available for applicants who have no credit file; rental history is reviewed over four years, counting only outstanding judgments; the March 2020 to July 2021 pandemic window is excluded throughout; and every denied applicant receives a copy of the credit report the decision was based on. The full criteria are set out above.
Yes. Patrick Freeze is our Broker of Record, Pennsylvania license RBR002872. Our Philadelphia leasing team hold Pennsylvania real estate salesperson licenses: Dana Anderson RSR002916, Kevin Shishko RS367287, Nicole White RS363356, Jessica DaSilva RS346908, Justin Nattrass RS366812 and Sean Maziarz RS374359.
Our own team — the Director of New Business for a new management agreement, or the Director of Leasing or your agent for a property already under management. Once photos are in hand the listing goes up within a day. For occupied units we aim to photograph and list about a month before the current tenant moves out.
Most Philadelphia properties are agent-accompanied — your agent schedules and attends, and prospects do not get access without them. MLS-listed properties can also be shown by outside agents who request through the MLS and use the lockbox.
All of them — apartments, condos, single-family homes, townhomes, duplexes, triplexes and buildings of fifty units and up, plus a small number of commercial properties. About half our Philadelphia unit count sits in small multi-family buildings of two to eight units, alongside larger buildings in the 20 to 70 unit range. There is no minimum rent and no minimum unit count.
We manage throughout Philadelphia County and across Delaware, Montgomery, Chester and Bucks Counties. Neighborhoods we work in regularly include Fishtown, Center City, Northern Liberties, Society Hill, Washington Square West, Rittenhouse Square, Queen Village, Point Breeze, Passyunk, Fairmount, Brewerytown, Port Richmond, Grays Ferry, University City, West Powelton Village, Cobbs Creek, Roxborough-Manayunk, East Falls, Germantown, Mount Airy, Frankford and Northeast Philadelphia.
Our criteria are about the property, not the location. A property needs to be in presentable condition and compliant with Philadelphia requirements before it can go to market — a current rental license, lead certification where the building predates 1978, and no open violations that would block licensing. Where a property is not there yet, we will often take it on and help get it ready. What we cannot do is market a property that cannot legally be rented.
A rental analysis takes a few minutes and tells you what comparable Philadelphia properties are actually leasing for right now — not what a portal estimate says. Contact BMG for your free property management analysis.