How should a landlord advertise for a new Tenant?
Question
I am a relatively new landlord and wondered what is considered to be the most effective way to advertise my rental condo.
Answer
The most effective way to advertise vacant rental units can depend on the type of property, the location of the property, the current market conditions, and sometimes several other factors. It can also depend on whether you mean the most cost effective or the most time effective. Since time is money when a unit is vacant, the cheapest advertising method is not the lowest cost advertising method if it results in a long-term empty unit that is producing no income when certain expenses, such as mortgage payments, property taxes, insurance premiums, and certain utility services which must be left on even during a vacancy, e.g., gas or electricity when below freezing temperatures are possible.
A FOR RENT sign on the rental property is usually the least costly advertising method no matter what the property type, property location, and market conditions. Under many circumstances a sign is also most often the most productive advertising, producing the least vacancy period.
If there is a HOA involved with your property, be aware that many HOAs restrict, even prohibit signs. However, be also aware that many states now have statutes that require HOAs to allow reasonable signage no matter what the HOA rules might say, “reasonable” being defined in the statutes. Accordingly, check both the HOA’s Bylaws and the state’s statutes so that you know both the rules of your HOA and the law of your state.
Another low-cost advertising method, your time being the primary cost, is posting notices of vacancies on various free bulletin boards in grocery stores, Walmart stores, and/or Laundromat bulletin boards in area where a vacant rental unit is located.
Modern technology provides other options. There are many Web sites specific to vacancy listing services on the Internet as well as more general purpose sites that provide for listings offering a wide variety of services and products. Some are free, while others are not. You need to do a Web search and find out which sites are free to landlords or have fees within your budget.
On the high end of the advertising cost spectrum are newspaper classified ads and specialized rental publications. Classified advertising in major metropolitan newspapers has become quite expensive unless only a very minimal amount of information is provided. Specialized rental publications are not available in all areas and where available they are most suited to larger apartment complexes because of cost. Where available, they are most efficient for large apartment complexes where there will always be some available units. This means that the same ad can run continuously at significantly lower cost per vacancy.
Finally, consider the use of your own Web site. I’m not talking about a Web site that will be found by the general public using a search engine, but a Web site on which the landlord provides detailed information, including photos, floor plans, and maps if desired. Prospective applicants are then pointed to this site by the landlord including its Web address on all forms of advertising including signs, flyers, postings on, and very short newspaper classified ads.
The amount of information landlords can provide on such a Web site is not really limited, since, once the site is created little further work is required except for changing the rent and/or deposit amounts and an occasional update fact such as “new carpet.” Each unit will have a detailed Web page that is permanently on the server, with links being available the home for only vacant units.
The benefits of such a Web site are considerable. First, the cost of hosting a Web is as low as a few dollars per month for the landlord able to do the work himself/herself or having an employee or spouse/child do it. Also, most hosting services include the tools to create the site and one or more email address so that the landlord needn’t receive vacancy inquiries mixed in with other email on personal or other business email addresses. Second, it reduces the time spent responding to questions regarding details from those unlikely to become applicants. Third, the annual cost can be far less than paying higher prices in order to include detailed information in one ad in a major metropolitan newspaper, as relatively little in addition to the Web address need be provided in the classified ad.