Marketing your rental is one of the most important aspects of being a real estate investor. The price you get determines your ability to refinance, monthly cash flow, and your ability to buy more rental properties.
Where to Begin To Market Your Rental?
Learning how to market your rental properties can be the difference between a successful and failed investment. These five tips make marketing your properties a breeze.
- Post your rental on every online listing marketplace for maximum exposure. You can do this manually, or use a third party service
- Take photos with blinds open on a sunny day. A well lit apartment looks larger, and is more appealing to prospective tenants
- Take lots of photos, and make sure you highlight open spaces, or unique features that make your rental standout.
- Let potential tenants schedule showings online or through text to increase likelihood of showings.
Pro Tip: Many markets have a prime leasing season in the summer when most students are looking for new housing.
Lights. Camera. Showings.
Once your property is listed, it’s time for showings. Before a showing turn on all of the lights, and open the windows so the home feels bright. It’s very important that you have an appealing front yard, as it’s the first thing a potential tenant will see. You don’t need to have an expensive or complicated yard, it just needs to be clean and well kept. A nicely trimmed yard is more appealing than an overgrown garden. In our properties we aim for nice grass and a couple plants that require minimal watering and maintenance.
When your potential tenant arrives, be sure to smile, and seem excited to show them the apartment. Make sure you talk up the best features of the apartment, and try and learn a bit about their needs so you can focus on how your apartment is a perfect place for them to live. In hot markets you can schedule multiple showings at the same time to create demand from other tenants.
credit: www.listwithclever.com
Understanding Tenant Needs & The Market
In my experience, 2 to 3 bedroom apartments that allow dogs rent the fastest. A fenced in backyard and off street parking is a must for some tenants, and having both will get your units rented much faster.
The best way to understand the appeal of your apartment is to show your unit yourself for the first couple showings. Hearing what potential tenants like and dislike about your unit will give you a good idea of whether its priced correctly, and how you can improve in the future.
Sometimes a tenant will offer to sign a lease on the contingency that you make some repair or addition to the property. While this might be a good way to get your apartment leased quickly, you end up renting to a higher maintenance tenant that is constantly asking for repairs or minor changes. Generally speaking, it’s better to wait for a good tenant than to rent to the first warm body that can pay rent.
Pro Tip: Tenants who are busy with work or travel usually put less wear on your properties.
Thanks for taking your time to learn more about Marketing Rentals and reading Part 3 of my Landlording installment. You can find the previous two investing articles in this series here:
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