How to Market Your Vacant Rental Property – Top 5 Tips

Property owners near Chandler, AZ (or anywhere else for that matter) never want to deal with vacancies. After all, any time your investment property is empty, you lose money. But the truth is, vacant properties are a part of the rental property business. And dealing with them is your responsibility.

That said, you don’t have to let vacancies ruin your path to financial freedom.

You can do many things to fill your vacant rental property so you can start collecting rent again. One of the best ways to do just that is to focus on how you advertise your vacant property.

If you do it right, you’ll not only attract a lot of prospective tenants. But more than that, you’ll attract the kind of tenants you want to place in your property.

Today we’re going to share some advertising tips you or your Chandler property management company can do to fill your vacant rental.

1. Take High-Quality Photos

People want to know what your vacant property looks like before reaching out with interest. That’s where high-quality photos of your rental property come in handy.

Here’s how to take photos of your investment property:

• Shoot the Exterior: always make sure the first image in your vacancy ad is a shot of the exterior of the property. After all, studies show that people spend about 20 seconds looking at the first image in a listing. This will give you a chance to give prospective tenants a good first impression of your property.
• Turn off the Flash: turn off the flash to allow the natural light to shine on you property and make it look its best. Flash photography can overexpose your property with light and expose its flaws.
• Empty the Property: it’s best to photograph an empty rental property if possible. That way, people can envision their personal belongings in it. If your property has other people’s items in it, it may look unappealing. Plus, it might make the rooms in your property look smaller than they are.
• Be Selective: people spend 60% of their time viewing photos and only 20% on the property description. It’s crucial you select the best photos of your property to pique interest among tenants.

In the end, people are visual by nature and want to make sure the home they lease from you has the appeal they want.

2. Use a Website

Many property management companies near Chandler, AZ advertise their vacant listings online. Though they likely have many resources to promote vacant properties, having a dedicated website is one of the best.

A website that showcases vacant properties can provide prospective tenants with things like:

• Photo galleries of your property
• Information such as location, amenities, nearby schools, local hotspots, and rent rates
• Virtual 360-degree tours of your property or video content
• Contact information so interested tenants can reach out to your property manager

A property management company’s website will also help convince tenants they want to lease from you in other ways. For example, valuable blog content and a list of services provided can be appealing. Plus, the tenant portal, which makes paying rent easy, is something many tenants look for.

A properly designed website can attract tenants looking to lease from landlords like yourself.

3. Use the Power of Social Media

Many landlords and property management companies near Chandler are not using social media as they should.

But there is something to be said about the 69% of real estate agents that use Facebook “because it works.”

With Facebook, you can post highly targeted messages to renters within a certain radius. Plus, you can encourage your friends and family to share your property ads to expand your reach.

Also, you can use video platforms like YouTube to share video footage of your vacant property.

In fact, 86% of people admit watching video content to learn about a specific community that they want to live in. You can tap into this behavior and show people the home they’d like to live in too.

And don’t forget the highly visual social media network Instagram. Using this platform to share information about your vacant property is a great way to reach a bigger tenant pool. It will likely help you lease your property fast too.

4. Be Available for Inquiries

It’s not enough to only have your vacancy advertised on one dedicated website. You or your property manager must be available across multiple channels such as:

• Phone
• Email
• Social media
• Live chat
• Call center
• Text messaging

No matter where you advertise your vacant property, make sure to include a few different methods tenants can use to get in touch. The more available you or your property manager are, the more tenants you can screen to fill your vacancy. This equates to a lower vacancy rate and higher quality tenants.

5. Offer Incentives

Incentives are another unique advertising tip that can get you positive results. After all, people love free stuff.

Here are some different ways you can offer an incentive to fill your vacant rental property:

• Ad Copy: include incentives on the actual vacancy ads you disperse across the internet, newspaper, and magazines. Some popular incentives include one month of free rent, free cable/internet service for the year, or even free gifts such as gift cards or TVs.
• Offer Incentives to Friends and Family: word of mouth has always been one of the best ways to let others know about important things, including a vacant rental property. You can ask your friends and family to ask around about anyone looking for a place to lease. In exchange, offer them a small gift or cash for any tenant that is placed in your property with a signed lease agreement.
• Incentivize Current Tenants: if you own more than one rental property, you can always reach out to your current tenants and have them refer a prospective tenant for your vacant property. If all goes well, give them a reward such a month’s free rent, a gift, or a special renovation to the property.

It might seem counter-intuitive to offer incentives to tenants that agree to lease from you right away or those that help you place a tenant in your property. But trust us, it’ll be worth not having to go months without a steady cash flow.

Vacancies are a part of being a landlord. But if you focus on your advertising strategies, the time your rental property stays vacant will lessen.

At Brewer & Stratton Property Management, we understand that vacancies are a costly expense for property owners. That’s why we take it upon ourselves to ensure vacancies rates stay low and tenant satisfaction stays high, at all times.

With a 28-day vacancy turnaround time, you can trust you won’t lose money due to an empty rental property. On top of that, you can be sure that your rental property will be advertised with maximum online exposure. Plus, only the highest quality tenants will be considered.

So, let us help you succeed as a landlord, so you can move forward with the life you’ve always dreamed of living.