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Monthly rent payments are the primary source of income for a rental property, so if you can't find prospective tenants, then you may be in trouble. There are several potential reasons behind this, and determining the cause is the first step in resolving your predicament.
Key Takeaways
- Check for your tenant's financial responsibility through credit scores, rental history, and other crucial criteria, but don't be overly strict.
- To find great tenants, ensure you have a great rental to offer. You can improve your property through upgrades and cosmetic improvements.
- Create an effective marketing plan to find high-quality tenants by doing research and consulting professionals. Know what you might need, such as professional photos or search engine optimization techniques.
- Do your property management duties efficiently. Happy residents will tell potential renters about your rental, making it easier to find tenants.
- Don't take shortcuts when you're finding renters. Make sure to conduct thorough research and invest the necessary effort to reach your target market effectively. Don't limit your marketing plan to easy methods.
1. Strict Tenant Screening
Yes, meticulous tenant screening is an important factor in finding qualified tenants, but there is such a thing as strict screening. Using stringent requirements might result in not finding any qualified applicants at all. Stick to basics like credit check, criminal history, calls to previous landlords, eviction history, employment verification, and debt-to-income ratio. Be mindful of necessary rules like Fair Housing laws to avoid legal issues.
2. Your Rental Listing is Not Optimized
Prospective tenants often look through rental listing websites and social media to find vacant rental properties, and for the right tenants to find your listing, you need to optimize it by using relevant keywords. Some rental listing websites already optimize listings for you by allowing you to fill out the post details, but platforms like Facebook Marketplace offer limited assistance.
3. Poor Marketing Strategies
Ineffective marketing practices are prevalent among many landlords. This is a waste of time and money, and you might end up finding bad tenants. To attract more qualified applicants, tailor your marketing strategies to your target audience. A few adjustments can make all the difference in finding prospective renters.
4. Tedious Rental Process
Finding tenants is only the first step of the rental application process, but if they discover that it requires a lot of work just to qualify, they might back out early. You can't find new tenants if you greet them with a terrible experience. It's not to say that you should be lenient, but only include steps that ensure whether they are reliable tenants or not.
5. Your Current Tenants Aren't Happy
Your rent collection methods, how you handle missed rent payments, how much you charge for a security deposit, how fast you handle maintenance requests, and the general quality of your property management will determine whether you attract potential tenants or not. Use property management tools, implement automated rent collection, and tend to your tenants' needs to keep them happy.
6. The Property Lacks Appeal
If you want to find great tenants, make sure that you have something great to offer in return. That means a rental with no property damage, good curb appeal, and necessary amenities. Try to make a few real estate upgrades that will also make your other tenants happy. If your property is a good place to live, you'll encourage long-term tenants to stay.
7. High Rent Price
It's much harder to find tenants when they think that your price doesn't match the rental property. Setting a competitive price is crucial for attracting quality tenants to your rental property. You'll find that they are more likely to pay rent on time and respect the lease agreement if your prices are fair. Research your local rental market or hire a property manager to do it for you to find the right rent price.
8. Poor Photo Quality on Listings
If you want good tenants to attend open houses or view your listings, you need to encourage them by using high-quality photos of your property. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and photos should convey that your rental is a great place to live. You can hire a real estate photographer to take professional pictures for you.
9. Taking Shortcuts
Even with social media and online platforms, you still have to put in effort with other methods to reduce your vacancy rate. Hosting open houses, placing flyers on local bulletin boards with a lot of foot traffic, and putting up rent signs can help you find tenants, too.
10. Legal Non-Compliance
Whether you're aware of it or not, you might be breaking a few laws. The Fair Housing Act, for instance, does not allow you to reject perfectly good tenants based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, or family status. Research your state and local laws to ensure you are legally compliant. If the laws are too complex, you can consult a legal professional or hire a property manager to do it for you.
The Reasons Above Don't Apply To You?
The mentioned potential issues are among the most common reasons behind the difficulties of finding a tenant, but it is not limited to those. Some causes, like low rental demand or a poor rental property location, are unresolvable. If you want to be absolutely sure that it's an aspect that can be helped, hiring a real estate professional is the best course of action.
ES Property Management Can Help You
Our main goal is to make our clients' rental business thrive, and that means we diagnose potential shortcomings so that we may improve them. Let us market your property listings by leveraging the tools and expertise we possess.
We can provide you with a dedicated leasing specialist, a professional rental market analysis, high-quality photos of your property, and online advertising across more than 25 websites. That's only the marketing aspect of our full-service property management service, and ES Property Management can do a lot more for you.
Contact us now, and we can discuss how to maximize the profitability of your rental business.
