Twenty-eight against thirty-one
That is the whole finding. When a concession is written as a named month rather than a day count, the length of that month decides its value.
At a $60 daily rate: a free February is worth $1,680 and a free July is worth $1,860. Same offer on paper, $180 apart, and it is one of the checks move-in specials runs on a named-month concession.
The arithmetic
Daily rate = (monthly rent × 12) ÷ 365. At $1,825 rent that is $60.00 a day.
| Free month | Days | Concession value |
|---|---|---|
| February | 28 | $1,680 |
| April, June, September, November | 30 | $1,800 |
| January, March, May, July, August, October, December | 31 | $1,860 |
The spread between the shortest and longest month is three days, or 10.7% of the concession.
When it matters, and when it does not
It matters when the offer names a month: “February free”, “your first full month free” starting in a specific month, or “one month free” applied to a specific calendar month on the ledger.
It does not matter when the offer is quoted as a day or week count: “42 days free”, “six weeks free”, “60 days free”. Those are already day counts and the calendar is irrelevant.
That distinction is worth checking in the concession addendum, because “one month free” on a flyer sometimes resolves to a specific calendar month on the lease and sometimes to a fixed day count.
Ask which it is
“Is the concession a calendar month or a fixed number of days, and which month does it apply to?” One email. It is the difference between knowing your effective rent and estimating it.
A caution on chasing this
The timing effect is real and it is small. Three days of rent is not a reason to choose a worse building, a longer commute, or a lease term that does not suit you.
Where it belongs is as a tiebreak between two offers that are otherwise close, and as a check that you have understood what the concession actually is. See reading a concession on a daily rate for the full conversion method.
What actually moves the number more
In order of magnitude:
- The fee stack. Frequently $150 to $250 a month between two buildings, which dwarfs the calendar effect.
- The concession size. Six weeks against four weeks is 14 days, not three.
- The clawback. If the free rent is repayable on an early break, its value is conditional.
- The renewal. Concessions apply to year one; month thirteen resets toward market.
- The calendar month. Three days.
Run them in that order. Move-in specials does exactly that on every offer we price, and every figure carries the date we verified it.