Landlords Advertising Your Vacancy to New Tenants
Advertising Your Vacancy
The local rental market has a direct relationship to filling vacancies. How quickly and how successfully you find your next tenant depends on the size and constraints of the current rental market and on your policies and standards.
Supply and demand for rental properties may fluctuate in response to economic pressures and demographic changes. The size of the market, the composition of the market and the demands of the market govern to some extent your potential applicant pools. Within a generalized large applicant pool there are usually several different smaller sized pools of potential applicants with varying characteristics and housing needs. What pool you draw from can be related to the timing of the vacancy, how you market your vacancy, and your rental selection standards.
Before rushing to fill your next vacancy you should review the local rental market conditions and target market populations to see if you can determine the size and composition of the current rental pool. Can you identify market trends and consumer desires?
If you’re not getting any interest in your property, you need to first ask yourself whether or not potential renters even know you have a vacancy. Are you missing out on rental income because your advertising doesn’t reach your target market? Tenant selection is a moot point when there are no applicants to screen. You want to attract as many rental prospects as possible, qualify them to rental standards, and select the next tenant from that qualified pool.
Market ready properties with comparable rents and amenities will be more attractive to various applicant pools which should create additional prospect opportunities. If you have trouble converting prospects to applicants, or have trouble qualifying applicants, you may need to revisit your business model and adjust your rental policies. Your rental policies may be unnecessarily limiting the size of the pool you typically draw from.
However, before you adjust your standards, you should determine the cause and effect of such a decision. Adjusting your standards is not the same as deviating from your standards. Don’t risk a fair housing complaint by treating applicants differently.
Advertising
Vacancies don’t usually fill themselves. Help meet your occupancy goals by getting the word out.
Advertising, in its simplest form, is getting the word out to as many people in as many possible ways as you can think of. Advertise where your market is and where you think it could be. Don’t be limited in your thinking about where to find tenants. There are many different approaches to market and advertise rental properties. Be creative using a variety of media to reach out to potential tenants, but be sure to comply with applicable laws including fair housing laws.
Truth in Advertising
When advertising a rental property you should take care not to exaggerate property features. While it might seem like a good idea to create interest in the property by “puffing up” its amenities, particularly in a competitive market, the choice of words (oral or written) or even the manner in which the words are spoken can potentially increase landlord liabilities by claims of misrepresentation or false promises.
Of particular importance to landlords in their advertising is complying with federal Fair Housing law requirements.
Section 804(c)of the Fair Housing Act specifically makes it unlawful to make, print, or publish, (or cause to be made, printed, or published), any notice, statement, or advertisement, with respect to the sale or rental of a dwelling, that indicates any preference, limitation, or discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, or handicap. This prohibition against discriminatory advertising applies to single-family and owner-occupied housing that is otherwise exempt from the Fair Housing Act.
Advertising Methods
What works best often depends on the type of property, location, competition, local market conditions, and even the time of year. It may take a combination of advertising methods to produce an adequate pool of qualified applicants.
Identification of target markets is allowed, but marketing in such a way as to discriminate against protected classes is illegal under fair housing laws.
There is no one best approach to advertising your vacancy. While almost any type of advertising may eventually get the job done, if you can custom fit your advertising to your particular property, without violating discrimination laws, you can effectively reduce your vacancy time and costs.
However, in the real world it usually requires a combination of advertising methods to produce a pool of qualified applicants. The two most traditional advertising approaches are “For Rent” signs on the property and the classified ads of the local newspaper. For Rent signs are fairly inexpensive and can be very effective, particularly for those prospects that have already narrowed their choice of location to your property’s neighborhood. Newspaper advertising has a broad reach and is commonly the first method used by prospective tenants to search the available rental market.
Another common advertising method is word-of-mouth advertising from existing tenants, family, friends, or co-workers. Satisfied tenants like to refer prospects who share similar values and characteristics. Your family, co-workers, and friends form an informal information network that can serve as a trusted source of referrals. A nominal financial reward, of an amount not above any state law regarding size for payment of compensation to unlicensed individuals, can provide incentive.
Networking with fellow landlords, property managers, and real estate professionals could also serve as an informal source of prospective applicants. Being open to sharing information about your business and future vacancies could bring you additional business.
Direct mail, flyers, and brochures can be an effective marketing tool in some markets. Flyers and brochures can provide much more detail about your property, and its amenities than a classified ad. An advantage of flyers is that they can be posted on community bulletin boards such as those found in grocery stores, discount stores, variety stores, laundromats and other public access places.
Rental housing vacancies can be posted online in searchable vacancy listing databases on various web sites, landlord-tenant web sites, or advertised on a landlord’s own web site.
Sometimes overlooked is the ready-made advertising opportunity of a desirable property location. Certain neighborhoods carry the cachet of fine living. If you are lucky enough to have property location, location, location, you should certainly market to this advantage.
Don’t forget curb appeal. The exterior of your property gives a pretty good indication of the condition of the interior. As prospects drive by and picture themselves living there, they are also being conditioned to the standard that is expected to maintain the property. If your property is clean, well-kept, with appropriate landscaping, cash in on the value of that first impression.
Holding an Open House is another approach to reaching a potentially large market segment. The open house provides the opportunity to host multiple showings, a time saver in itself. An open house can be attractive to prospective tenants because of its non-threatening atmosphere and a chance to thoroughly inspect the property. Carry that favorable first impression from the curb into the interior with appropriately staged areas designed to showcase the best features that turn the house into a home.
As important as it is to attract and find tenants, it is equally important that they find you. A prospect, potential applicant, or your tenant needs to be able to reach you to ask questions, to provide information or to request a service. Filling a vacancy is a time sensitive process. If you are unavailable the prospect will move on to the next property on his list. Failure to respond timely to a tenant’s request for a service may delay a needed repair or create another type of liability.
Evaluation
You should evaluate your advertising effectiveness in order to determine what works and what doesn’t. Keep written documentation of your advertising efforts, including a print copy of each ad placed, the number of responses received from each type of advertising, the number of qualified applicants obtained from each source, and the cost, including time, of each type of advertising. You can then determine what advertising method(s) is most effective for your property under various market conditions.
Document Retention
All advertising copy and information regarding responses should be kept for the period of time that complies with applicable document retention policies regarding the subject matter. By documenting your advertising efforts you can help provide a defense against claims of discriminatory advertising policies.