Advertising a Vacant Apartment -- Think & Re-Think About It
The Power of the Internet
The Power of the Internet. The old clich is so true: "a picture is worth a thousand words"! When searching for an apartment, prospective tenants will undoubtedly always look at the advertisement with photos first. Searching for a new home online can be equated to searching an online dating website for your future spouse a detailed description is nice and all but eventually, you need to see a photo before moving on to the next step.
Get creative with your advertisements by writing what would draw your attention. Describe location close to beach, shopping, restaurants, grocery stores, freeway-accessible, public transportation, etc. Highlight what makes the building or apartment unique beautiful hardwood floors, large windows with lots of natural sunlight, Craftsman-style, quiet and upstairs, cool and shady, gated and private.
Focus your efforts on building solid, detailed advertisements that are appropriate for multiple sites. Selecting the best website(s) for your property depends on location, target demographic (students, senior citizens), and type of property (house, apartment, condo).
In addition, newspapers are obsolete. Don't bother spending $300+ per month for an ad in a local newspaper. In a time when we're all looking to cut back our spending, this would be the first thing to go. After all, where are you reading this article?
Drive-By. If you do choose to display a sign in front of your property, it is advisable to be as detailed as possible. Otherwise, you will be inundated with countless "looky-loo" inquiries what is the price, how many bedrooms, is there parking, do you allow pets, etc? Unless you have the bandwidth to field all of these calls, you will want to weed out those that aren't a good fit prior to them calling.
When someone does pick up the phone to call the number on your sign, they are likely driving by and want to see the apartment sooner rather than later. You will certainly want to be available by phone to answer the call. It would be even better if you were in close proximity to meet them at the property as soon as possible. If an hour or more passes before you return the phone call, you may have already lost them to the apartment next door.
Open houses are also a thing of the past. For a potential tenant that is spending his/her weekend apartment hunting, the first few stops will be those properties where appointments were scheduled. It is likely that your property will slip to the bottom of the list if it is an open house. They have no obligation to stop by and view your apartment and will assume that there will be another time to view it.
Curb appeal. More often than not, tenants prefer a building that looks nice and clean from the outside. They don't want to be embarrassed when friends and family come to visit. No peeling paint, no overgrown bushes or grass, no foil on the windows, balcony belongings kept to a minimum, satellite dishes not visible from the street, etc.
Pets are welcome. The fact of the matter is that people love their pets. By not allowing pets, you are turning away a large number of potential tenants. On the flip side, if you allow pets, you aren't exactly shutting out people that don't like cats or dogs. There are plenty of restrictions that you can place on incoming pets weight limit, breed restrictions, bark collar request, etc. Just as you wouldn't feel comfortable renting an apartment to someone you never met, we do recommend meeting the pet in advance. If the pet looks friendly, has a nice demeanor and you would feel comfortable having it as your neighbor, then it is usually a safe bet. You may also ask the owners to put the pet in the apartment for 10-15 minutes while you wait outside and see how the pet reacts. In our experience, we have never had extensive damage done to a property by a pet.
Mutually-Beneficial Relationships. This should go without saying but I will say it anyway: be friendly to every person that inquires about your vacancy. If this particular vacancy is not a suitable fit, you may have another unit at a different location or in the future that may be. It is crucial to deliver good customer service from day one.
Good tenants are hard to find so do what you can to keep them. One way to reduce turnover and retain your quality tenants is to offer them an incentive to stay. That may mean offering them a free month of rent if they sign another one year lease. While that may sound unappealing at first, it will be a lot less costly than painting and fixing up the apartment once it is vacant and running the risk of having it sitting vacant for one or more months. If you don't want to give an entire month up, another solution may be to reduce their monthly rent by $100.
Offer your tenants a reward for helping you to fill your vacancies. Make it known that if they refer a friend that ends up moving in, you will thank them with $100 cash, a Target gift card or something else that is of value to them. A little bit really does go a long way!
Advertising a Vacant Apartment -- Think & Re-Think About It
By: Larry Guesno Jr.
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