Your success or failure as a landlord starts with the ability to market your rental property to attract and retain tenants. No matter how great your property is — if nobody finds it or moves in, you probably won’t have a great investment on your hands.
Here are some seven marketing tips that can help set your listings apart, market your property, and attract great tenants to live in your rental.
1. Know What Features of Your Rental to Highlight
The first step in marketing your property is putting together a rental listing that highlights the best features of your property and tells tenants what they need to know. If your rental property is close to public transportation or walking distance of popular grocery stores, this is something worth highlighting in your rental description.
Most rental sites will also allow you to add detailed information about the rental, such as available amenities and if it’s dog friendly. In addition to a great title and description, you’ll want to mark off all the relevant characteristics of your rental, so it populates correctly for prospective tenants during their search.
2. Set the Right Rent Price
Your rent price is a huge factor in marketing your property to tenants. You need to set an effective rent price that makes sense for your local market, is in line with comparable units, and isn’t so high that tenants will quickly move on to another listing.
That’s why doing some market research is an important step in advertising your rental property and setting a competitive rent price. See what similar units in your area are renting for, what amenities they offer, and how they compare to yours.
Not sure on how to find rental comps for your rental? We outline how to find rental comps to determine a fair and competitive rent price.
3. Advertise Your Rental Listing Online
A great rental listing will get you nowhere if no one can find it. The next step is getting your listing in front of as many prospective tenants as possible.
Tenants search for rental units on the most popular rental listing sites, so it’s essential that your rental listing is on those sites, too. You can choose what sites you want to post your rental listing to, or you can use a platform like Avail that posts your listing across a dozen of the top rental listing sites on the market.
4. Time the Rental Market
A step that’s sometimes missed by landlords is correctly timing the rental market. During peak rental season (spring and summer months), more tenants are looking for and moving into new rental properties, so you’re going to get more tenant interest during this time.
Plus, peak rental season also usually means you can list your unit at a higher rent price than off-season. If your current lease ends during an off-season month, try extending your next lease so it ends during peak rental season to get the most tenant leads possible.
5. Market Your Rental Listing on Social Media
Besides the top rental listing sites, social media is another valuable way to share your rental listing with your community and prospective tenants. Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and even Twitter offer unique ways to showcase a property — try sharing a virtual tour of your property on YouTube, posting your well-crafted listing to Facebook Marketplace, or sharing beautiful photos of your property on Instagram.
6. Use Word-of-Mouth Marketing or ‘For Rent’ Signs
Marketing your rental offline is a valuable tool, too. Utilize your community, friends or family, and other contacts to get the word out that you have a unit you’re trying to rent. It’s a good idea to offer up some selling points when you tell people about your unit — like a fully upgraded kitchen or proximity to popular areas.
You can also take advantage of “For Rent” signs. They’re a great way for people walking or driving past to notice your property, take note of the neighborhood, and create some interest.
7. Offer a Great Tenant Experience
Finally, offering a great renting experience to your tenants is a lasting way to market your property — and even yourself as a landlord. Tenants can write positive reviews, recommend you to other tenants in their network, and even recommend a new tenant when they move out.
A few ways to provide a great renting experience are letting tenants pay their rent online, providing an easy-to-use maintenance request system and responding in a timely manner to all repairs, and in general, being communicative, available, and respectful to all tenants.
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