How to market your rental property: Tips for landlords
Do you own a property you rent out? Looking for new tenants? Read on for tips on how best to market your rental property.
Finding the ideal tenant for your property starts with the process of marketing your rental property first. Let’s be honest: without good advertising, you’re unlikely to find a good renter or any for that matter. Marketing allows you to set your property apart, making it an attractive and safe way for potential tenants to live in.
Although you might have a fantastic rental property that’s ready for tenants, perhaps you’re lacking some marketing ideas that may fill your vacancy immediately. If you’re looking for ways to set your property apart from the other listings, here are some tips and tricks you can use to increase the number of applicants and the chances of finding the best tenant.
Why rental property marketing is essential
Most landlords come into the estate market with no strategy. Instead, they tend to wait until a potential tenant notifies them they’re leaving, so they begin to manually find someone new by putting a ‘’For Rent’’ sign in front of the yard.
Unfortunately, this isn’t a reliable method nowadays because there are actual rental property marketing strategies that you can use, which can bring many benefits. If you want to avoid the fuss of handling technology, you can also hire a real estate agent to invest in your property.
According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), the main reason for landlords to hire an agent is because it helps them market their property to potential tenants and competitively price their home. Among many other things, these agents also help create online listings, take photos of the property, and develop a successful marketing strategy.
Apart from hiring a professional to market your rental property, you can also try to use digital marketing techniques, which can help you to:
- Increase reach
- Establish greater credibility
- Create a list of free or lower-cost services
- Allow applicants to communicate directly
Tips for marketing your rental property
Every landlord has a unique property that makes it stand out from the rest. Certain factors like location, style, price point, supply, property type, or demand are the main aspects that make or break your marketing strategy.
For example, determining rent prices that align with market trends and comparable properties in the area is essential for attracting potential tenants and maximizing your rental property’s profitability.
That said, there are some universal tips you can use to increase the number of potential buyers, while also keeping you updated with new marketing techniques:
Highlight the best features
It’s no secret that digital marketing has become the greatest factor in determining the success of your rental property. Luckily, there are many apps and tools you can use to showcase your unit and highlight the best features of your property.
Since most homebuyers are interested to look through listings online, you can use Rentberry to add your property and location, set the price point, and include professional photos to ensure they get a full virtual tour of the property.
Additionally, if you add videos to your listings, they’re likely to generate 403 percent more inquiries than other non-real estate listing websites. You can use this to showcase your property and its best features, while also giving your potential everything they need to know.
If you put your property online, you can also add detailed information, such as what amenities you offer, if you allow pets, certain policies, etc. In other words, don’t forget to put all the relevant characteristics of your property, so it reaches the right audience.
Set an effective rent price
Let’s be honest, the rent price is one of the most essential factors that a homebuyer is interested in. That said, you must set the right price that is reasonable for you and the tenant. Consider as well where the apartment is located, indeed, the price for rentals in Charlotte, NC will be different than the ones in Miami, Florida. You should also consider the local market and see what other units in your area are renting for and what amenities they’re offering.
At the same time, doing a detailed rental market analysis can help you decide on the price for your property. A Zillow report shows that the price of rental rate in the U.S. is 0.6 percent, slightly lower than in the past few years.
That means you can set a competitive rent price, but you also have to do some market research before advertising your property. If the price is too high compared to other similar units in your area, the tenants won’t spend too much time looking into it, so you’ll lose potential buyers.
Correctly time the rental market
As a landlord, you should know when to time the rental market appropriately, so your property is on the listings during the peak rental season. Typically, the rental market is at its peak in July and at its lowest at the end of the year in December.
As a landlord, you can use this to your advantage by marketing your property at a reasonable price, plus there’s more time for moving due to holidays. Similarly, the peak hot months of the rental market provide easier transitions for people, especially when it’s nice weather.
Not to mention, peak rental season allows you to list your property at a higher price because it’s a time when many people are interested to move during spring and summer. Another tip you can use is if your current lease ends during December, try to extend it for some months so it ends during the rental peak.
Market your rental property on social media
Apart from putting your rental property on rental listing websites, the next best step you can do is to share it on social media. Facebook is one of the most popular social media platforms to market your property, with over 90% of agents and landlords who use it to showcase their listings. Similarly, Instagram comes second with 52%, and LinkedIn takes third place with 48%.
These social media platforms offer unique ways to promote a property because you can use them to share virtual tours, share photos and videos, and add descriptions to inform potential buyers of the characteristics and amenities your rental has to offer.
Additionally, the nature of these platforms is ideal for generating strong engagement and leading to more visibility from homebuyers. If used correctly, these tools can target specific demographics and increase the chances of reaching people who are interested in the listing.
