Leasing season in Richmond, Virginia is fast approaching. Spring is the most valuable time to have a rental on the market if it happens to be vacant. As the weather begins to warm, people come out of their warm homes and begin to look for more opportunity. There are more renters looking for homes, and there are generally more homes on the market to choose from.
Having more renters ready to move means having more demand for rental property. Often, if marketed correctly, landlords can use the increased demand to lock in slightly higher rents and longer lease terms. If a landlord is not marketing their property correctly, this could be a huge missed opportunity.
Here are some tips to be sure you, as a landlord, are getting the most out of your marketing for a residential rental property:
Use a high volume of pictures: Take front and back property pictures as well as pictures throughout the property’s interior. Having only a few pictures of the property will leave prospective tenants to quickly move on to the next post, which has plenty of information to keep the tenant interested.
Take quality pictures: With today’s technology, you do not need to hire a professional photographer unless you are appealing to the executive rental market or you are competing with vacation rentals and will be using the same pictures over and over again. On a typically residential rental home, a smart phone will work fine. Take your time, turn on the lights, and get different angles.
Edit quality pictures: It sounds like a no-brainer, however, how often do you look on Zillow and see a rental on the market for 60+ days with horrible quality pictures? Take the time to edit the photos, use filters, adjust the brightness, and crop as needed. Landlords just need to get these prospective tenants in the home for a showing.
Walk Through Video: While on site taking pictures, invest a few minutes to shoot a video. Start out front of the home, talk about the neighborhood and proceed to walk through the house. Walk through slowly and explain the features and benefits. This will decrease the need to the half-interested to schedule a showing and leave landlords with interested candidates only. Videos can be professionally edited through free smart phone apps within minutes.
Marketing Description: Describe the property emotionally. Write about the features and benefits from a standpoint of emotion and creating memories. For example, “Large back deck.” doesn’t sound as attractive as, “Spacious back deck perfect for entertaining friends and family with a cookout!”
After cumulating many great photos that are edited as well as a walk through video and powerful marketing description, the information is ready to go public. Post to various popular rental sites, and stay away from the shady ones. The more places that a landlord can get the word out, the better!
Hire a GREAT Property Management Company: Yes, they are out there (I.E. Peak Property Management)! A quality property management company will do all of this and more. They will have access with the push of a button to get a vacant property on over 20 rental websites within minutes. All of these sites can be updated with a push of a button. Having this capability and saving one month of vacancy will pay for a property manager’s fee for the entire year!
What should a landlord do if they are doing all of this and still not finding leads? Assuming your investment is in a desirable location and presents itself well, the first step would be to recalculate your monthly rent amount. Is it in line with the market? Chances are, if you’re shooting to high on rent then no matter how good a property looks, prospective tenants will still pass by.
Best of luck marketing your property this leasing season!
