If you own a rental property, not only do you need to be well versed in real estate terms, know your neighborhood, and understand finances, but you’ll need to know how to find good tenants that will treat your property with the care it deserves.
A great tenant is one who pays rent on time, cares for their rented premises, notifies you of maintenance issues on time and even renews their lease multiple times. However, attracting such a tenant isn’t as easy as just posting a rental ad. You need to have a strategy!
Now, finding tenants usually boils down to two things. The first step involves the marketing process. You must ensure that you market the property as thoroughly as possible in order to land a large prospective tenant pool.
The second step involves tenant screening. This will help you choose a tenant that perfectly meets your selection criteria.
In this article, we’ll walk you everything you need to know about finding great tenants for your rental property.
How to Market your Rental Property
The first step to finding great tenants starts with the marketing phase. The following are some of the most effective rental marketing methods to land prospects.
1. Make Use of Yard Signs
When it comes to marketing a vacant rental unit, yard signs are an inexpensive yet effective method of advertising a vacant unit.
For greater visibility, make sure to invest in nicer signs that are can be seen from the road. You may even want to invest in one that features a box. In the box, you can provide a prospect all the crucial information regarding the property through printouts.
2. Use Rental Listing Websites
Thanks to the internet, marketing a listing has become easier than ever. Rental listing sites like Trulia, Craigslist, and Zillow have tons of traffic from prospects which you can easily tap into. And best of all, posting on these rental listing sites is free of charge.
When posting your property online, consider filming a walkthrough video to help potential renters get a feel for the space.
Note, however, that the quality of your rental listings can make or break your efforts. You need to create a rental ad that features high-quality photos and a compelling description. The more attractive it looks, the more eyeballs will want to find out more and vice versa.
3. Tap into Your Contacts List
This can also be a great marketing strategy to fill your vacant rental unit. Finding tenants is more or less the same as networking.
Luckily today, social media has made certain things easier. You can instantly reach hundreds, if not thousands of people, at a go through the power of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other channels. All it takes is just one person to express interest or know someone who may be interested.
4. Make Use of Flyers and Community Bulletin Boards
Don’t forget about the local neighborhood in your marketing strategy as most prospects will be locals.
So, spend time posting flyers in highly trafficked areas. Such areas could be shops and community bulletin boards. And remember, just like rental ads, the flyers should be eye-popping to maximize on the leads.
When creating them, insist on using bright colors. Also, ensure the contact information is large and legible.
5. Host an Open House
This is one of the most important steps in any rental marketing campaign. The vast majority of tenants would never rent a property sight unseen. As such, create time to host an open house to maximize your chances of landing a great tenant.
But the proposition can get tricky if you already have an existing tenant. In such cases, the success of the open house majorly depends on how good your relationship is with your tenant and keeping them happy.
In any case, here are some things you can do to ensure the open house succeeds.
• Incentivize the tenant to ensure their home is clean
• Schedule the open house at a time that works for them
• Respect their privacy by approaching everything professionally and legally
6. Ask Your Current Tenant for Help
You can also leverage on your current tenant to land a new tenant. Although it’s a no-brainer, make sure to first double-check with your tenant whether they would wish to renew their lease for another term. If they do not wish to renew their lease, make sure to provide them with a move out letter, in order to maintain a good relationship.
If not, then ask for their help in finding a new tenant. If you already enjoy a good relationship with them, this should be smooth sailing. The potential target could be a friend, family member, or even a coworker.
7. Use Word of Mouth
Word of mouth is a powerful marketing strategy. In fact, nothing spends up a purchase decision more than word of mouth from a friend. The same is true in renting.
You should let everyone you meet know that you’re looking for a great tenant. These can be your friends, family, or people in your professional network. You should also not be afraid to talk about your property when you come across your business contacts in person.
How to Ensure to You Rent to the Right Tenant
After a successful marketing process, you’ll start getting inquiries from interested applicants. And it’s at this juncture that a tenant screening process becomes useful. It’ll help you differentiate a serious tenant from a joker.
The following are tenant screening tips to help you score the right tenant for your rental property.
• Require all prospects to complete a rental application form
• Run credit check to ensure that a prospect is financially responsible
• Verify their income level to ensure they can afford to pay rent without issues
• Call their referees to learn as much information about their rental background as possible
• Run a criminal background check on a prospect to ensure they are clean
Bottom Line
Finding reliable and dependable tenants is a must-have skill for any serious landlord. This will not only ensure your landlording journey is smooth, but will also ensure you reap as much from your rental investment as possible. Still find these tips daunting? If so, Limestone Country Properties can help! Get in touch today.
