Effective Marketing Techniques For Your Rental Property

    Marketing your rental property to the right people is key when you have a vacancy.  Simply put, a vacant unit equates directly to lost profit.  Targeted marketing for your rental unit is something most landlords don't think about when advertising their property.  Consider the advertising process your first chance to properly screen the potential tenant.  Your advertising is useless if it doesn't find its way to the people that you want to rent your vacant property.  

    Failing to market your rental property correctly can lead to a cascading effect ending, ultimately, in failure of the business and loss of the property.  If your marketing is bringing in the wrong kind of tenants then you will only find the best of the worst.  Simply choosing the best of the pool is not a good thing if the pool is not the one you want to be in.  For example, if you do not accept Section 8 tenants then marketing your property with flyers that happens to be near a Public Housing Office or Public Housing in general is not a good idea.  You may get some potential tenants who are not on public assistance but the majority of contact you will get will be from those who are in the program.  

    Simply put, what is the most effective way of marketing and what should you think of when marketing your property?  I will list these in the order of what I believe to be most effective to least effective in terms of bang for the buck.

“For Rent” Sign on Property:

• This is the easiest route to go.  It is very effective in marketing because you reach multiple streams of potential tenants.  This form of advertising covers both geographic and referral methods.  Other tenants/neighbors will see the “for Rent” sign and may tell a friend.  Those driving around a specific neighborhood looking for rentals will see the sign and call.  It's a win/win situation in this way.  Consider that most people will be looking for a new place during the weekend.  The addition of a couple of helium balloons to the sign on a Friday or Saturday morning will increase its effectiveness considerably.  As with all good things, there are some cons to this.  If you have neighbors who do not like you or that the unit is a rental they may remove the sign.  Combat this by keeping good relationships with the neighbors.  Another con is that you draw attention to the property and the fact that it may be vacant.  Would be squatters and/or thieves can be on the lookout for this.

Referrals:

• This is another easy route to go.  If you are a good landlord, others will want to recommend you to their friends.  Ask your existing tenants and the neighbors around your property if they know anyone looking for a place to live.  Give some basic information on the rental property like monthly rent and your pets policy.  This will aid in the referral of good potential tenants.  Offer an incentive if you rent to the person they referred.  Depending on the rents you collect this could be anywhere from $50 to $200.  Here you get to reach your target audience by considering that like minded people are friends.  If a neighbor from around the corner who lives like a slob recommends someone, chances are his recommendation won't be the cleanest person around.  Some of the pros to this method are the fact that the new tenant should get along well with at least some of the neighbors if he/she was recommended by a well liked neighbor.  It is also a cheap method considering the cost of the vacant unit.  One of the cons to this method is that you may offend a neighbor/tenant if you do not choose the person they recommend.  Remember, don't give out any details of the credit reports, etc if a someone questions why you didn't choose the person they recommended.  Just a simple sorry, there was a more qualified applicant is all that is really needed.

Neighborhood Flyers:

• Neighborhood Flyers are a great way to attract potential tenants.  This is one of the better ways to target your rental property to specific groups.  If you are looking for a more mature person as a tenant, putting up flyers in some of the Community Groups that cater to seniors will help you out.   Looking for someone just starting out with their family?  Community centers that have programs for expectant mothers can help out.  If you are part of the Section 8 program posting your flyers around some existing public housing or at bus stops near the public housing office should get you in touch with the potential tenants you are looking for.  One thing to remember with flyers is to make them as professional looking as possible.  If you aren't good with a computer or graphics, it may be best to take a trip to a Kinko's with some photographs and have them help you with the design.  Always remember to put photographs as a picture is worth a thousand words.  Yeah I know, what a cliche, but it's true.  This method can be as inexpensive or expensive as you want depending on how many fliers you post.  Some places you may want to post are churches, grocery stores, housing offices, Community offices, Bus/Train stops, public buildings, etc.  

Newspaper Advertisements:

• For these I look for local papers.  In Northeast Philadelphia I'm lucky enough to have 2 papers that cover the target area so for me this is more of a geographic targeting for my rental advertisements.  If you only have a single paper that covers the entire city you will have less specific targeting available to you unless the newspaper splits the advertisements into geographic areas.  This method can be the most expensive but also generate a lot of calls.  You are limited in the amount of information you can place in a newspaper ad so be sure to use your abbreviations well.  I've compiled a list of abbreviations for Real Estate Ads here.  Unless you are willing to spend a great amount of money you also will not get a picture listed.  With this be prepared as you will need to do a lot phone work before setting appointments.  Some of the pros of this method are the large readership and wide circulation of your advertisement.  

Craiglist:

• While I have not had a good amount of success with Craigslist for advertising my rental property, I have spoken with others who swear by it.  I may just be too fickle in my screening.  I've had a few good bites but nothing come to fruition.  For that reason it is at the bottom of my list.  However because of the price (FREE) it is one that should always be used.  You are allowed to post photographs and use full descriptions.  You get great exposure for some target audiences but remember, if you are targeting seniors or underprivileged you may not get the response you are looking for.  Only those who are computer savvy or have access to computers will see your rental advertisement.

Honorable mention: Business Website:

• I'm giving an honorable mention to having your own website.  You can control much more with this than anything else.  You can refer to it in all your rental advertisements.  With your real estate website make sure you you are giving new information.  Too many times I will see rental websites that have the exact same information as you have in your flyer/Craigslist ad.  If people are going to your website they have most likely seen you flyer or the outside of the property.  Here you want to give them more.  Entice them into realizing your property is the place they want to live.  Websites can be very inexpensive.  GoDaddy offer domain name registration for around $9.oo (US) and you can get web hosting packages from one of the many resellers for less than $5.00 per month.

    As with all things, remember to pre-screen and screen your potential tenants very well.  Proper screening can help with stopping no shows or wasted appointments with people who do not qualify.

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