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The 5 Best Ways to Advertise your Rental Home.

Simply filling the unit is not enough; savvy landlords view the marketing effort as the first step in screening tenants.

Getting you rental filled is of primary concern when you are turning over rental units. Landlords understand that a vacant unit is translated to profit loss. This is why having a sound marketing strategy is so very important. Simply filling the unit is not enough; savvy landlords view the marketing effort as the first step in screening tenants. An efficient and proper marketing campaign is the best method for landlords to reduce the risk in choosing the best person to rent the unit.  They want to be sure that the person they contract with can pay rent on time and fulfill the obligations of the lease. Having to choose a marginal tenant because of lack of options can prove to be costly. The cost evictions, turnover and repairs can be devastating.

• The easiest and best way to market you rental home is the time tested “For Rent” sign. Simple as it may be, this method capitalizes on the idea that renters will drive around desired communities in search of future housing.

To enhance visibility, it is recommended that more than one sign be placed on the property. Many landlords place a small box on one of the signs to place flyers with rental details. This will allow for the landlord to disqualify prospects by revealing price, policy and expectations. Qualifying prospects will save much time by cutting unnecessary phone calls and showings.

Signs must be reveal contact information clearly and in large print. Many landlords lose rental opportunities by making the writing too small or unreadable. To make the signs stand out more, tie two or three balloons. Adding simple balloons to the "For Rent" sign in front of your rental can increase the effectiveness of the sign by 150%. Add helium for increased effect.

• The second most effective marketing effort is to distribute the rental details flyer to all the free community bulleting boards in the vicinity. These boards are located at grocery stores, churches, community centers and government offices.

Prepare and place announcements or flyers about the availability of your rental property on bulletin boards in local shops, businesses, churches and community centers. This method is especially effective if you are marketing to Hispanics and other immigrants.

• The third most effective way to market your rental is by offering other tenants, friends and associated a referral commission if they refer a new tenant. Customary referral rewards range from $50-$200. This allows landlords the ability to shorten vacancy time.
• The fourth most effective way to market your rental is “classified ads on newspapers”. They can be more expensive if you go to the larger newspapers in most cities. However, if you go to smaller publications that distribute the in rental’s neighborhood, municipality or city district, the price will be much more reasonable. Ads in big newspapers are generally very short because word usage is limited. Smaller publications allow more details in the ad.

The problem with classifieds in general is that they are limited in that they cannot put many details in the ad. Having many details in the ad is very important because they allow the landlord to prescreen prospects. Having unqualified prospects robs the landlord of valuable time. It can never be overstated that the time spent on unnecessary showings and phone calls can be better spent on real prospects.

Classified ads also run into the problem that they expire when the next newspaper is published. People seldom go to previous issues to look at classifieds.

·        The fifth most effective way to market your rental is “online ads”. Online ads can be effective when people relocate from outside the area of the rental. People considering a move generally go to the internet for housing information.

Online ads allow for the landlord to post much more information to better pre-qualify prospects.  This information is available to prospects anytime prospects connect to the internet.

The internet has many rental sites that vary in price. A good starting point is to start with an inexpensive ad (www.usrentallisting.com) in order to test the ad without risking too much. If it proves to generate rentals, then the testing ends.

Generally these websites are promoted through pay for click and organic search strategies along with print ads.

If a landlord manages many properties they may consider getting their own site with individual pages devoted ( www.homepartners.com) to every aspect of every rental. These sites are used as property management tool in addition to the obvious marketing uses.

It is never too late for landlords to develop a sound marketing strategy for their rental. Landlords cannot afford to limit their number of qualified prospects to their rental.

Manuel Enrique Lopez- “QuiQue” mlopez@l2l2l.com