Tips on Marketing Your Rental Property
When it comes to finding the right tenants for your vacant units, things can get a bit tricky.
One simple mistake in your marketing strategy and you’ll end up with the wrong kind of tenant, a vacant house, or even a discrimination lawsuit.
You don’t want any of that, do you?
Therefore, every step you take towards finding your ideal tenant must be made with a lot of consideration. You have to plan and execute your marketing strategies with a lot of tact.
That way, you’ll be able to attract the right tenants for your property quickly.
So, you are probably thinking about what you should do to run a successful marketing campaign for your vacant rentals.
For effective rental property marketing, the experts at Upkeep Media highlight a few points you should consider. They’ve implemented these strategies for hundreds of professional property management companies. Here they are:
A Few Tips on Marketing Your Rental Property
In order to attract more ideal renters, you have to think like them.
Ask yourself these questions:
- What would my kind of tenant look for in a rental advertisement?
- Which things would impress or scare them away?
- What do they want in a good rental property?
If you get the correct answer to each of the questions above, formulating efficient marketing strategies will be a walk in the park for you.
Here are a few tips you can use to market your rental property:
- Make the rent amount attractive.
In any vacancy listing, the first thing every prospective tenant looks at is the rent price.
They’ll want to know if it’s affordable and whether it’s within the neighborhood average. Also, looking at the unit’s features and amenities, they’ll know if the price is reasonable or not.
Therefore, your rental price must be perfect. That’s why you have to do your research. Check market price trends and average listing prices on rental websites for your type of unit.
In addition, come up with a neighborhood average. Once you have all that information, you’ll be able to come up with a good rent amount.
Lastly, you can sweeten the deal by asking for a lower rent than the average neighborhood price. That way you’ll be able to attract more potential tenants.
But you need to be careful about this. Why so?
Because lower rents could mean lower returns for you. Therefore, come up with a price that’s not only affordable to tenants but also profitable to you.
2. Use professional photos on your adverts.
The best way to bring out your property’s stunning features and appearance is by using professional photos.
Consider hiring a professional photographer. They’ll know how to take beautiful photos of your property while bringing out its best-selling features.
Moreover, they can present any flaws in the property in a rather subtle way. That way, your prospective tenants don’t get discouraged by minor flaws on the property.
3. Be very specific about your target group.
Failing to be specific about your target group may not lighten your workload. Why? Well, you’ll attract all kinds of tenants. Which means that you’ll have to sift through a lot of applications in order to find your ideal tenant/s.
However, refining your focus and being specific helps you to make the whole process easier for you. Therefore, you have to make sure you understand your neighborhood, what people love about it, and why you feel it would be a great place for your prospective tenant.
Including that in your advertisement is one sure way of getting the right kind of tenants. Make sure you are also very specific on the type of tenant you are looking for.
For example, are you okay with them having pets, smoking, having late night parties, being jobless (students), and so on? Make sure you state it on the advert what type of tenants you are looking for.
That way, your ads will help you to filter out tenants who don’t meet your preferences. But, even as you do so, make sure you do not break any Fair Housing Laws. Be familiar with this law to avoid discrimination lawsuits.
4. Revamp recently unoccupied properties.
If you’ve just had a turnover, sprucing up the unit would be a great way to attract tenants. Obviously, no one would be comfortable paying to move into a unit with failing appliances, peeling paint, broken tiles, damaged windows, and so on.
Therefore, after a turnover, you have to make sure that you revamp your rental unit. That way it will have a fresher feel and a more attractive appearance.
Note that, high-quality tenants will always go for high-quality rental units.
5. Use all marketing channels at your disposal.
Don’t just settle for your local notice boards as your ads won’t get enough traction. Instead, use all the marketing platforms available.
Whether it’s social media, print media posters, word-of-mouth, referrals from your current happy tenants, or rental listing websites, make sure you utilize them all.
In doing this, you not only widen your reach, but you also increase your chances of finding the best tenants.
6. Track your results.
The easiest way to check which marketing channel is more efficient is by tracking your results.
Each time you get a call, ask the caller how they learned about your vacant property. Was it through a Facebook advert or a listing on Craigslist?
That way you’ll know where to focus most of your marketing efforts.
Remember, your goal is to find the best tenants out of a lot of prospects. And the only way to do so is to make sure you reach as many of them as possible.
7. Make sure your adverts have all the necessary bits of information.
The last thing you want is to reach so many people without providing them with relevant information. It would be a waste of time, don’t you think? Therefore, make sure you tailor your adverts to cover everything that prospective tenants may want to know.
That means you will need to include the rent amount, pictures, a brief description of the property, amenities, the neighborhood, and a description of the type of tenant you are looking for.
In summary, these are just a few great tips you can use to come up with highly-efficient marketing strategies. Remember to take FHA laws into consideration.
And here is a Guide to Fair Housing for LGBTQ,
Also, avoid exaggerating, lying or misrepresenting your property. Otherwise, you may end up with longer vacancies than you’d have hoped for.