In order to be an effective, efficient and profitable landlord or property manager in today’s rental market, you have to understand on-line marketing. You have to understand how to create effective online rental ads.
If you cannot rent out your property, you are either over-priced, or under marketing. Here are a few tips to increase your marketing to a larger audience, and get higher rents and lower lower your vacancies. Remember, vacancy is your number one avoidable expense as a landlord.
Use good photos. Good photos are a must. Use as many as you can. Highlight the kitchen and major living areas. Show the appliances. When using Craig’s, use an html generator like Postlets, Vflyers, etc. to get more pictures in your ads that Craig’s will allow you to put up. These sites also publish your ad to other sites, for free. Put up a YouTube video virtual tour to email to prospective inquiries. When you do not have great pictures, renters assume you are hiding something. The old saying is true; photos are worth a 1,000 words.
Be Aggressive. Post as many ads as you can. In a free medium, an ad renewed every day or two is a must. Use other online resources to mass-distribute your ad to the most number of people. While Craig’s is the number one rental advertising place, many others are just as effective.
List The Amenities. A Washer and dryer is the number one requested amenity. Well ahead of a second bathroom. If you have in-unit laundry, or free laundry, it is important to a good renter.
Be specific. Exclude renters that you do not want right up front. If you do not want pets, list it. No felons and no section 8. No smokers, or smoke free is important to great renters. Maximum number of occupants. Remember, as you start to exclude renters, your pool of available renters is smaller. You may need to adjust your price to accommodate the lower pool of available applicants.
Know your competition. Great renters shop around. They look at several units before signing a lease. They know they can get accepted anywhere, so they are not afraid to looking at the top end units and shop for the best value. Look on Craig’s and other places to see who else is advertising, and what they are offering and at what price. Keep in mind the places you are seeing advertised are vacant as well. Talk to Other owners in the area to see what they are actually renting for. If you are having trouble, go back to your high school economics 101 lessons – lowering price increases demand – every time.
Be Professional. Make sure your sentences in the ad are complete. Use bullet points to list the most important features first. Have correct spelling. Be on-time. Do not try to hide bad features. The renter will see it. You are better off to acknowledge them, and tell them your plans.
Contact Information. Make sure a renter can contact you via email, phone, text, etc. Be available as much as you can to answer the phone. Be sure to respond to all inquiries, the one you do not call back right away could be worth a month’s worth of rent. Your contact information should be easy to find in the ad, and your ad should include an email link. Online ads will get responded to by email as often as phone.
Good advice. I became a landlord years ago (almost by accident) and wish I had thought of these things. I could have rented sooner and probably found tenants that were a better fit for my property if I had done these things. It would definitely have decreased my turnover.
Vacancy is the number one avoidable expense that a landlord has. Keep a great building, with great tenants, and it is much easier. I have tenants moving out on 3/2, new tenants moving in on 3/15. So, I will paint, carpet and clean and get them in. And, work my full-time job.