Category Archives: Ready to Rent: Tips & Tricks
Finding Tenants: 12 Creative Rental Marketing Strategies
As any experienced landlord will tell you, vacant rentals are expensive. Assuming you have a mortgage to pay, it’s likely that any vacancy lasting more than a couple of months will essentially cost you a full year’s profit on your rental.
Given this reality, skilled property managers use a diverse range of marketing tactics in order to fill vacant rentals within 30 to 60 days. Here are some professional tips and tricks that you can use to find a qualified tenant within a comparable amount of time:
Use Great Signage
One of the easiest, most cost-effective ways to attract interest in your property is to create good “for rent” signage. “Good signage”:
- Looks professional: We’ve all seen the “for rent by owner” sign that features sloppy handwriting scrawled on a piece of scrap plywood, which is then propped haphazardly against the mailbox. While this certainly is eye-catching, it doesn’t leave the best impression of you or your rental. Typical “for rent” signs are available at hardware stores, but they don’t leave much room to include information. For best results, consider ordering an inexpensive, custom-made sign from a service such as BuildASign.com.
- Is visible from the street: Take a cue from professional realtors and make sure to locate a sign near the street. You can use a reader board for this purpose. If you really want to go for the gusto, attach some balloons to your sign.
- Contains key rental property details: Be sure to include key information such as how many bedrooms the house has, what the monthly rent is, and whether utilities are included. A phone number and email address round out the “must have” information. If you have the space, you can list other key features, such as recent upgrades and other attractive amenities.
Tap Your Network
Professional rental agents aren’t shy about putting the word out when they have a new rental property available, and you shouldn’t be either. Take advantage of your circle of acquaintances to generate some free, or low-cost, advertising.
- Email friends and family: While other means of contacting your nearest and dearest are okay, too, email’s key benefit is that it can be easily passed on. Be sure to include some photos of the rental house, along with a compelling description of its features. With any luck, your mail will forwarded on to one or more potential tenants.
- Send postcards to the neighbors: Have 100 postcards made and mail them to all the neighbors within a few-block radius of the home for rent. These people have a vested interest in putting a responsible tenant in your property, and beyond that, may jump at the chance to recommend that a friend move close by.
- Put up flyers at local businesses: This technique is an oldie but a goodie. Find community bulletin boards where you can post flyers. Grocery stores, coffee shops, and community centers are logical targets. If you live near a college or university, don’t forget the student center and/or admissions office.
Use the Internet
There are multiple ways to use the internet to advertise your available rental:
- Time your Craigslist ads: A recent Zillow study shows that houses listed on a Friday get many more viewing, and sell much faster than, houses listed on other days. No doubt, the same holds true for rental houses. Don’t be afraid to repost your ad several times—most professional rental agents do.
- Create a website for your rental: Applications such as WordPress make it easier than ever to create a website in an hour or two—so why not make a site dedicated to showing off your house. If you use targeted keywords (including the terms “rental house,” “house for rent,” and your area), you’ll likely get some traffic.
- Post a video tour on YouTube: Create a short video tour of your rental house and post it on YouTube, making sure to use targeted keywords in the image tags. You can make the video part of the website, and/or point to it from your Craigslist ad and social media accounts.
Open Your House
By far the most convincing way to sell potential tenants on the prospect of renting your house is to let them view it. While this can certainly be done by individual appointment, the more opportunities you give the casually curious to view the rental, the more interest you’ll create. Here are some creative ways to attract viewings:
- Leave the blinds open: If you’ve got the “for rent” sign up, and no cars are parked in the driveway, it’s likely pretty obvious that your rental house is vacant—so why not go ahead and pull the curtains back and let curious passersby have a look?
- Host a social event at the house: Whether this takes the form of a party or a garage sale, having people over increases only helps your chances of renting your house quickly.
- Time your open house right: If you do decide to have a traditional Sunday afternoon open house, time your event to start an hour earlier or end an hour later than local open houses are traditionally held. That way you’ll create a window in which you can have the open-house going crowd all to yourself.
Rent Your House Fast: Revitalize Your Kitchen for Less Than $1000
Want to have your vacant rental property snapped up almost before you can post the “for rent” ad? In a world where rental houses and apartments typically feature outdated cabinets paired with beige laminate and linoleum, an updated, trendy kitchen can set you apart from the crowd and get you a signed lease agreement faster than you can say “mosaic tile backsplash.”
Below are three stunning kitchen remodels that cost less that $1000 to complete.
1. The $967 Kitchen Remodel from This Old House:
Before and After:
Homeowner Edwardo carefully sanded and painted existing cabinets a gorgeous shade of chocolate brown, then replaced the cabinet pulls. His major expenses included the glass tile backsplash, which cost $400, and new laminate counter tops with a stainless steel edge, which cost $300. The rest of the budget went into inexpensive paint and updated hardware and fixtures.
2. Cabinet refresh for $350 from DIY Life:
Before and After:
If an entire kitchen overhaul doesn’t fit within your handyman/handywoman skill set or budget, consider showing the cabinets in your rental house’s kitchen some love before putting your house on the market. If your particular set of cabinets doesn’t lend itself well to a sophisticated refinish, go for fun and funky instead. DIY Life recommends using a “furniture refinisher, such as Formby’s or Miniwax, to strip off most clear finishes” before attempting a new coat of paint.
3. The $30 Kitchen Remodel from Sunset Magazine, via Design Hole
Before and After:
Yes, you read that right. $30, y’all. As you might guess, this “remodel” involves paint, paint, and more paint. These homeowners took the “remodel-via-paint” concept to a new level, though, using Kelly Moore Rust-Oleum paint to give the 1970s appliances a facelift along with the cabinets. While you may not want to choose such bold colors for a rental, the overall technique is genius. And it cost $30. Thirty dollars! Did I mention it cost $30?
Have you updated a kitchen inexpensively? What did you do?
Good Ad, Bad Ad: Tips for Renting Your House on Craigslist
Just like your mother probably told you, (likely more than once), (unless you grew up under a rock, that is), you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Roll your eyes if you must, but when it comes to marketing your rental property in an increasingly competitive market, this advice rings especially true. With new “house for rent” ads popping up on Craigslist every five minutes, many produced by experienced professionals, getting the details of your ad right—then re-posting it often, but that’s a story for another day—is an easy way to make your rental stand out from the crowd.
In today’s installment of “Good Ad, Bad Ad,” we’ll review ads for three Chicago apartments in the $2000/per-month price range. All of these ads are currently running on Craigslist.
Rental Ad #1:
This ad gets a few things right—the tagline includes the bedroom and bathroom count, the location, and the nice perk of having “utilities included”—but for over $2,000, I’m going to need some pictures before I pick up the phone. And speaking of the phone, where’s the agent’s phone number? Buried in a paragraph near the end of the ad. Not only is that key piece of information hard to find, it’s difficult to pick out the key features of this apartment, such as what type of security deposit is required, whether pets are allowed, whether parking is available. I’d like to have that “potential deal breaker” information up front. Not that “spacious floor plans” and “24 hour doormen” aren’t nice, but that’s what they all say, you know?
Rental Ad #2:
This ad does better. Much better. The agent’s phone number is right at the top of the page, although it’s still not called out in an eye-catching manner. The key information about the apartment is called out first, in an easily scanned format. There’s also a decent quality photo of the building’s exterior in the top section of the ad. However, I have to wade through dense paragraphs of text to learn what amenities are offered, and interior photos of the apartment are tucked below the first screen of information. Overall, I like the ad, but it doesn’t quite make “must call” status.
Rental Ad #3:
And we have a winner. Rent Smart’s phone number is clearly called out against a the backdrop of Chicago’s gorgeous skyline. Both the “essentials” AND the “key amenities” are called out near the top of the ad, in an easy-to-read, bulleted format. Best of all, interior photos of the apartment start at the top of the ad as well, encouraging me to scroll through the entire ad to follow the trail of photographs. Well played, Rent Smart, well played.
