Rental properties are amongst the most popular modern methods for people wishing to generate some positive cash flow without having to work full-time. This, however, means that the rental market is a highly competitive one.
So, how do you manage and market your rental listings to succeed in a housing market filled with millions of other rental listings and still manage to get an efficient occupancy rate in order to generate more rental income? The following points will cover the most important considerations for any landlord looking to have a rental listing that attracts tenants in order to maintain a high occupancy rate and a positive cash flow.
#1 Know your demographics
Before you start marketing your rental listings, you will first need to know who you’re marketing your income properties to.
Naturally, the location of your rental property and its nature are the two major factors in deciding what type of tenants you should be expecting your rental listings to appeal to.
Related: 7 Ways to Keep Income Property Tenants Happy
What type of rental property do you own?
Is it a multi-family home? Then your target demographic is probably small to medium size families, depending on the size of your rental property and the number of bedrooms and bathrooms that it has.
Is it a luxury condo on a beach in Miami? Then maybe you should try to appeal to middle-aged business people who travel to Miami for work trips.
What is the location of your property?
If your investment property is close to a college or university, then you should target students and potentially even professors. You could even have certain arrangements with schools or universities to advertise your rental listings for you in their mediums, as providing good quality rental properties for these institutions can be beneficial for both sides.
Whatever your target demographic is, make sure to do some research on what appeals to your target tenants, what their necessities and requirements are, and how you can modify your rental listings to best meet their needs and maintain them as tenants.
#2 Create a rental listings ad that is more attractive than Brad Pitt in his golden years
Seriously, perhaps one of the best ways to market your rental listings is by making one hell of an attractive ad. To give you a brief understanding of the things that you need to do in order for your rental ad to be a success for your investment, these are the features that you need to focus on:
The description of your rental property
You will want to have an ad that allows the potential tenant to know what exactly to expect from renting you income property.
Your description MUST include the following:
- Number of bedrooms
- Number of bathrooms
- Approximate size of the place
- Monthly rent
- Location
- Utilities
- Pet policy
- Parking
- Date of availability
- Contact information
Those are some of the most important pieces of information that should be displayed in your rental ad description.
Photos
There are many great guides on the things that your ad photos should be displaying. And trust me when I tell you not to underestimate the effect that your rental ad photos can have on your occupancy rate.
We live in an age where people are always in a hurry and time is a valuable currency. That’s why people are more attracted to photos than they are to words. People will often look at the photos on your ad before they even read the description because it saves them time.
Even if you had the best description for your income property on your rental ad, if the photos do not appeal to the audience, your investment property will not even be taken into consideration.
And although showing the best features of your rental property can be a great thing for you, sometimes you are limited to a small number of photos. In that case, make sure you focus on the following areas when taking the pictures:
- The kitchen
- The bathroom(s)
- The bedroom(s)
- The living room
Also, make sure to clean the income property and remove any unattractive objects, like your personal belongings or any extra furniture, before taking the photos, as it will make the place look much more inviting and ready to be lived in.
#3 Where to advertise your rental listings
Back in the old days, the only way to advertise your rental properties was by posting ads in newspapers, magazines, bulletin boards, signs, and by word of mouth.
Although those advertising methods can still be used effectively to market your rental listings, most of them cost too much money, in addition to being too restricted for the specific area where your rental property is located.
Luckily, advancements in technology and especially the internet have made it very easy to find a medium to advertise your rental listings far more efficiently, on a much wider scale, and for free. Websites such as Craigslist, Trulia, and Zillow will allow you to advertise your rental listings on a network of websites designed to help landlords find potential tenants with the least amount of effort.
Additionally, services such as Airbnb can prove very useful when trying to find short-term tenants at a profitable rate. This is a great opportunity for renting out your investment property for short periods when the time window is preventing you from renting out for longer periods (or in between periods of long-term rents).
Related: How To Make Money In Real Estate Online
Conclusion
In order to have the most efficient rental listings, and to compete with all the other landlords out there who are trying to rent out their income properties within your location, you need to put extra effort and thought into your rental listings. There are many things that can make an average rental property seem like a superior opportunity that should not be missed by the tenants. If you focus on the points listed in this guide, you will find that your occupancy rate is rising, and your rental income that you can receive will be worth the effort that you put in it.
One last piece of advice to be provided here: keep your rent rate competitive with other income properties that are similar to yours. Do not aim too high as you will lose occupancy rate, and do not aim too low as you will lose rental income. Mashvisor can greatly help you decide on the best rental rate to use for your investment property while taking into consideration extensive data from other properties in your city and neighborhood and analyzing it for you to come up with the best investment strategy to achieve the perfect balance of occupancy rate and rental income to best suit your needs.