Concessions and Move-In Specials
Give free rent, a rent discount, a one-time credit or a waived monthly charge on a lease, and advertise a move-in special on a listing — billed by the rent engine, stated in the lease, and shown to renters with the gross rent beside the net.
A concession is something you give a tenant off what the lease bills: a month free, $100 off the first six months, a move-in credit, or parking waived for a year. A move-in special is a concession you advertise on a listing before anybody has applied. Both live in the Lease Center under Specials & concessions on the website, and under Specials & concessions and Move-in specials in the Tools hub on the iPhone and Android apps.
The kinds of concession
| Kind | What it does |
|---|---|
| Free rent | A month (or more) of rent free. |
| Rent discount — dollars | A fixed amount off the rent each month, for a set number of months or the whole lease. |
| Rent discount — percent | A percentage off the rent each month, for a set number of months or the whole lease. |
| One-time credit | A dollar credit taken off the rent, starting with the first payment, until it is used up. |
| Waive a monthly charge | Parking, pet rent or storage waived for a set number of months or the whole lease. |
A lease can carry up to 6 concessions at once. Each one is named for you from its figures (for example "1 month free" or "$100 off for 6 months"); you can type your own name instead, and a name you typed is kept when you change the figures.
How free rent is taken
| Choice | What happens |
|---|---|
| At the start | The first rent payments are free until the value is used up. A prorated first month counts toward it. |
| Spread over the lease | The value comes off every rent payment evenly — the "net effective rent". Needs a lease end date. |
| Specific months | The rent due in the months you choose is free. |
Free rent added to a lease that is already signed starts with the next rent that has not been charged yet. It is never counted against months the tenant has already been billed for.
Charges that can be waived
Only a charge the lease actually bills every month can be waived: parking, pet rent, storage. If the lease does not bill it, Seayora says so rather than saving a waiver that would do nothing.
How a concession is billed
Seayora takes each concession off the rent as it falls due. The tenant's charge shows it as its own line — "1 month free −$2,400.00" — under the rent it reduces, on the website and both apps. A credit larger than one month carries to the next rent; a charge never goes below $0.
A month that a concession makes completely free is still recorded, at $0. Nobody is asked to pay it: AutoPay skips it, no reminder or late fee is sent for it, "Pay now" is not offered, and it is marked settled on its due date. No platform fee or roommate fee is charged on a $0 month.
Changing a concession re-prices only rent that has not been charged yet. Anything already charged or paid stays exactly as it was.
Gross rent and net effective rent
Net effective rent is the average monthly rent after concessions. The lease is signed at the gross rent, and renewals are offered against the gross rent.
Wherever Seayora shows a net effective rent, the gross rent is shown beside it.
Concessions are part of the lease
A concession is a lease term. It is printed in the lease under "Concessions", the same way the rent and the monthly charges are, so the document the tenant signs and the amount they are charged agree. If your lease template was made before this clause existed, Seayora warns you before the lease is sent and you can add the clause to the template.
While a lease is out for signature its concessions cannot be changed, because the document being signed would no longer match. Cancel the signature request, make the change, and send it again.
Changing a concession on a signed lease
Adding a concession to a signed lease is in the tenant's favour; they are emailed about the change. Removing or reducing one raises what they pay:
This lease is signed. Removing or reducing a concession raises what the tenant pays, so it needs a reason and your confirmation, and the tenant is emailed.
Every change is kept in the lease's change history with who made it and why.
Where each concession stands
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| On a draft lease | The lease is not signed yet. Nothing has been charged. |
| Not applied yet | The lease is signed and the concession starts with a later rent. |
| Being applied | It has started coming off the rent and has more value left. |
| Fully applied | Its whole value has come off the rent. |
Each concession shows what it is worth over the lease, how much has come off charges so far, and the next credit. If how much has been applied could not be read, it shows a dash rather than $0.
Move-in specials on a listing
A move-in special is shown on the listing page and on the listing cards renters browse, with its conditions and the dates it runs. While it is running, a lease you draft from that listing starts with the special as a concession, which you can still change before you send the lease. You can switch that off for a special that should only be advertised.
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Scheduled | It has a start date in the future and is not shown yet. |
| Running | It is shown on the listing and copied onto leases drafted from it. |
| Ended | Its end date has passed. It is no longer shown. |
A special cannot name specific months, because nobody has a lease yet. A special spread over the lease needs a minimum lease length, so its monthly value can be stated. Ending a special takes it off the listing at once; leases already drafted keep their concession, and the special's history is kept.
Fair Housing
A special is an advertisement, and it has to be offered on the same terms to every applicant. Seayora checks its headline and conditions and refuses wording that excludes or prefers a kind of person:
A special has to be offered on the same terms to every applicant. Its wording names who it is for or describes who lives nearby, which a rental advertisement cannot do.
A special limited to a group of people (for example "students only") is saved with a warning:
This special is limited to a group of people. Where that group is protected (age, familial status, military status and source of income are in many places), a limited offer can be a Fair Housing problem — have it reviewed before it runs.
Every special you set, change or end is kept in its history, which is the record that it was offered to every applicant while it ran.
What tenants see
A tenant sees their concessions in their rent schedule and on each charge, in the same words you see. They do not see the board of concessions across your portfolio.
Connected assistants
A connected assistant (Claude, ChatGPT and others, through the Seayora connector) can read your concessions and specials with the list_concessions tool. It cannot add, change or remove one: a concession is money off a signed contract, and removing one raises somebody's rent, so those stay with you in Seayora.
Related features and guides
- Rental Criteria: Publish What Applicants Are Held To — Documentation. Set the income, credit, rental-history, eviction, occupancy and guarantor criteria for your homes once, publish them on each listing before anybody applies, and let renters check their own numbers — with the law of each home's place folded in.
- Lease Audit: Charges the Lease Says Are Owed — Documentation. Compare every lease with what was actually billed — pet rent never added, parking billed after it ended, a late fee the lease owes, a month with no charge, a tenant still in the unit after the lease ended.
- Commercial Leases: Rent Changes, Percentage Rent, Insurance and Critical Dates — Documentation. Manage commercial leases in Seayora — gross and net structures, scheduled and CPI rent escalations, percentage rent from sales reports, certificates of insurance against what the lease requires, and renewal and termination option deadlines.
- Rental Listing Software — 60 Days Free, Then $9/Month — Feature. Advertise apartments, houses, condos, and townhomes for rent. Every listing gets its first 60 days free, then $9/month while the unit stays vacant — charged a month ahead, with the unused days refunded the moment it rents. No brokerage fee, no setup fee, no subscription.
- Document Storage & Templates — Feature. Store leases, addenda, inspection photos, receipts, and templates securely, with the right people able to reach the right documents at any time.
- Lease Renewals & Amendments — Feature. Handle renewals, rent increases, and amendments against the original lease, with the right notices and a clean signed record of every change.