As a property owner, you aren’t just the person who comes around once a month to collect the rent. You also need to be a supervisor, a salesperson, a maintenance person and, in this competitive market, a skilled advertiser.
However, you might not find advertising as easy as your competition. Well, don’t you worry for a second because our tips on how to market vacant rental properties effectively will roll in more quality prospects than you have ever seen before. Here’s what you need to do:
1. Capture High-Quality Pictures of Your Property
Photos are perhaps the most important ingredients in an ad. After all, most tenants are attracted to the visual attractiveness of rental properties and if they see low-quality photos, they’re probably going to start looking elsewhere. The following are only a couple of tips on how to capture effective photos of your property:
- Don’t use a camera phone. Instead, use a digital camera or a very high-resolution phone camera.
- Don’t use a flash because the resultant picture seems like a fake
- Make the most of natural lighting and take pictures during daylight hours
- Experiment by taking pictures from different angles
- Avoid misleading your prospects by meddling with the pictures, such as with wide-angle lenses that make rooms seem larger than they really are
- Make sure all the rooms are clutter-free and staged appropriately for your website.
2. Pick the Perfect Time to Advertise
Advertising your property too early (i.e., give or take 6 weeks from when the property is going to be vacant) will mean that a lot of your potential renters will lose interest or find a better deal elsewhere.
Advertising it too late (i.e., at least a month after the property became vacant) may be expensive for you because your potential renters will take their merry time to make a decision.
The perfect time to advertise rental properties is typically about 4 or 5 weeks before it will be vacant. In doing so, you will easily attract potential renters who are neither too nonchalant nor too eager to move in.
3. Consider Multiple Marketing Channels
Before the internet had gone mainstream, property owners didn’t see nearly as many platforms available to advertise their properties as today. Nowadays, you can find several platforms that already have a huge database of people who may be interested in shifting to a better property. A few examples include:
- Online: Zillow & Craigslist are probably the first places people check when they are searching for a new home to live in. If you decide to list your property on these platforms, make sure you create a very detailed ad that also has plenty of high-quality photos.
- Get referrals: Ask your current tenants or friends for referrals. Satisfied current residents are often happy to refer their friends to a good landlord if they have had a positive experience.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, after following these tips, you will be able to successfully market your vacant properties and attract high quality tenants.
If you’re not looking forward to going through these steps to advertise your rental property, you can always delegate these tasks to your property manager or hire the right professionals for the task at hand. The only thing you will be responsible for is to offer your potential tenants more affordability, personalization, and authenticity instead of worrying about your safety.
If you haven’t hired a property manager already, click here to learn more about our services and how an experienced property manager can share some of your burdens.