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Is Your Rental Ad The Reason You Aren’t Getting Calls?

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Your Rental Ad Sells Your Rental For You

A good rental ad makes all the differenceI don’t think all landlords are lazy, but I’m constantly amazed by some of the rental ads I see online for rental properties. It’s like the writer took thirty seconds to put down a couple features of the property and thought they were done.

News flash, you’re not.

This is front and center for me right now as I have a vacancy at a property that is a two hour commute from me. I need to write an ad that attracts the type of tenants I want to rent to and that sells the property as I don’t want to make twenty or thirty trips up to meet people!

The good news is here is what my competition has in their ad (sorry if this belongs to you)

built in 2012, modern, includes washer, dryer, fridge, stove, dishwasher, microwave central vac. lots of parking, close to downtown, parks, hospital, highway 2a. lots of storage, basement area for extra room

It has five pictures and the main picture is an external shot of the townhouse complex with no indication of which unit it is and it actually looks very similar to the place I’m renting, but they didn’t put too much effort into selling it in my opinion.

It took me almost two hours to write my ad and although it’s not perfect, I’m pretty happy with it and I’m already getting a great response to it. Here’s how it reads.

Looking for a modern three bedrooms place to call home? This three bedroom two and a half bath property is going to make someone a beautiful home, so why not you!

The three good sized bedrooms upstairs are bright, have large closets and are perfect for a new family or someone who needs a little more space. With a full bath on the upper level and two linen closets, storage won’t be an issue, but even better is the ensuite off the master!

Yes, the master bedroom has it’s own full ensuite with tub and shower giving you the privacy and quiet place you need. Plus with the huge East facing windows in the room, you can wake up to the sun shining in every morning making it the favourite room of your house! What an incredible way to start your day.

The main floor is ideally set up with a welcoming living room as you come in the front door with plenty of room for entertaining or just a relaxing night at home after a busy day. Then as you walk through the main floor, first you’ll see the half bath on the main floor tucked away to the side, then further in is the wide open kitchen and dining area and the two french doors leading to the back deck that let summer in and provide you a quiet oasis to unwind on.

The secluded back space is shaded by several beautiful pine trees and helps make you feel like you are out in the country and away from the city. Plus, it provides a great place to BBQ and relax after a day’s work.

Finally, the lower basement level is ideal for storage. As an unfinished space it’s a large blank canvas for you to set up and organize as you wish and giving you roughly 700 square feet of storage. Of course you’ll want to leave a little room to take advantage of the washer and dryer that are included which means no more trips to the laundry mat and more home time for you.

Built in 2007, this modern townhouse is approximately 1,400 square feet and has everything you need. From the included washer and dryer to fridge, stove, built in microwave and even a dishwasher, all the conveniences to make this a home you love are here.

Being located along 55th street and beside 56th Ave, the location is ideal for a family. The High School is located just a few blocks West and the elementary and Catholic schools are located just a few blocks East of the property making walking to and from school quick an easy. Add in the several nearby park and fields and your kids will love the area.

The particulars. This is a non-smoking property and unfortunately we don’t allow pets. We are very particular and we do full credit and reference checks on tenants before a lease is ever signed. We are initially looking at a six month lease and at the end of the six month term will look at a yearly renewal.

Now for the numbers. Rent on this fantastic three bedroom two and a half bath home is $1,395 per month and we require a matching security deposit plus the first month’s rent before moving in. Utilities are extra and will need to be put in your name.

We are currently repainting the interior and expect this property to be available as early as the November 15th, but can also work with a December 1st occupancy.

We will be onsite again on Thursday November 13th from noon until 3, so if you are available to view it, you should email us right away, or you can call or text Bill at xxx-xxx-xxxx. Note this is a long distance call from Xxxxxxx, but if you text me I can return your call as soon as possible.

This highly desirable property in a great area will not last very long so if you are interested and would like to come for a viewing contact us ASAP.

So which property would you want to see? I have ten pictures (the max allowed) and my main image is the kitchen picture at the beginning of the article. Why the kitchen? Because the kitchen typically sells the property. The picture below is another image I used that gives an idea of the space.

Ads and images for your rental property help you rent faster

Painting A Picture

Part of my goal with my ad was to create a picture of a home that someone wanted to live in. I didn’t want to just tell them I had appliances and I was close to a few things. I wanted them to know what I was close to, how the property was laid out and to present an experience.

I believe I mostly achieved that, but when compared to the competition, it wasn’t hard. So the question for you is, which one would you want to go look at?

It was almost a year ago I received an email from a very nice lady down in Texas that was having problems filling their vacant rental property. She’d sent a copy of the ad and I made several suggestions to help her re-write the ad to make it more appealing.

In less than a week she sent the new ad and I wanted to go rent the place it was so well done! Their phone didn’t ring off the hook, but it definitely picked up (the area was pretty tough at the time for rentals), which goes to show the difference a good ad makes.

Now please don’t take this as an offer to send your ad in for help writing your ad!! My time is too limited and I’ve apparently set a bad precedent by being so available to everyone for questions and answers.

The important lesson from this article for you will be too hopefully learn a lesson about what you can do to help market your property to get more showings, get better tenants and get your vacancies filled faster.

Yes it requires going that extra mile, but the return is well worth it! And don’t forget to let me know which one you’d rather rent?

Why Discounting Your Rents Is For Amateurs

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And Why Professional Landlords Get Premiums!

make your rental stand outFirst month free. Free TV with purchase. Don’t Pay until…..

You see these types of discounts in ads everywhere these days. You also see these types of businesses that promote like this come and go and there’s a reason. They trade in commodities.

Commodities are items that have little value and are typically traded or bought for the lowest cost. Trading in commodities is not good business for the simple reason that you are tied into the lowest price. The lowest price doesn’t give you margin for error or more importantly for profits.

As a landlord, if you start offering discounts on rents to attract tenants, you’re turning your property into a commodity rather than a valuable asset. Yes, you have to be competitive, you can’t price yourself out of the market, but as a long term strategy, you want to be a leader rather than following the pack off the cliff.

Discounts are the easy way out and once you start offering them, they become expected. If you’re a retail store, maybe that’s to be expected, but to really succeed you don’t want to be the next Walmart or Target, set your sights higher and become a premium brand.

If you’re following some of my systems and tips, you know it’s important to be a professional and to treat your landlording like a business. If you become an educated landlord, one of the areas you need to look at is the condition of your properties and how they appear to prospective tenants.

We learned a long long time ago that if you spend a little extra initially to get the property better than your competitors it pays you back in increased rent, longer staying tenants and tenants that take better care of your properties. And here’s why..

The Argument For Increased Rent

If you do any tours of competing properties, even if this just involves reviewing other ads and photos of properties in your area, they all tend to be the same. Picture of the kitchen, picture of a bedroom, picture of a living room and some bad writing offering a price and maybe a few details.

Occasionally though, a few stand out. Usually they’re priced higher, the pictures look more professional, and the advertising copy looks polished. You want to be the landlord who is renting out that property for several reasons.

By looking more professional and by charging higher rent, you’re automatically going to push many of the less desirable tenants away. If they have a poor track record of paying rent, they understand a professional landlord will be screening them more thoroughly and they won’t even qualify. If the rent is higher, they understand they won’t be able to afford it and they will be cash strapped. And if the advertising copy comes off as professional it will also help to discourage them from even inquiring.

You move from quantity to quality and what you are looking for is quality tenants.

If you ever rented (I rented for years until my wife and I could afford our first house), you probably looked at a lot of properties before you found the right one. We personally couldn’t believe the condition of some of the properties that landlords thought were rentable. I still hear this from tenants when I question them how their search for a rental is going.

Once you did find the right one though, you had to have it. And it didn’t matter if it was an extra $100 a month, it stood out in your mind over the previous properties and it became even more valuable in your view point. This is the type of property you want and the mindset you want to instill in tenants that view your property.

Now, to get to this level, you may have to spend a few extra thousand dollars initially for extra renovations or updates, but this not only helps increase the overall value of your property, but that extra $75 per month, or perhaps $200 per month of extra income in a great property, sure helps increase your cash flow.

The Bonus’s of Better Properties

The extra cash flow isn’t the only bonus. If you have a better property, tenants tend to stay longer because it is such a great place to live. They actually become much more hesitant to leave as they don’t want to give up a  great property.

This translates into less tenant turnover and longer periods between vacancies. Which simply means more money going into your bank account for longer periods of time and that helps ensure you continue to be a successful landlord.

These tenants that are also willing to pay extra to live in this great property, also tend to take better care of it. If they truly take pride in where they live, they want to make sure it looks great and they keep it that way. You’ll end up with fewer repairs after tenants vacate, less work for when the turnover eventually takes place and if there are any issues with the property like leaky taps, these types of tenants will let you know immediately, rather than finding out after repairs become more expensive.

Unfortunately I can’t guarantee every tenant will be a success using this strategy, but in combination with other strategies, it sets you up for success.

How To Avoid Discounting Your Rents

So let’s recap some of the strategies that can help make this work for you.

Buy rental properties in rental heavy neighborhoods. This gives you a much larger tenant base to choose from. You start with quantity and narrow it down to quality.

Renovate your properties to help them stand out from competitors. This makes your properties memorable and helps you receive premium rents.

Write better ads with better pictures. Stand out from the crowd and get people appreciating your property and it’s value rather than looking for a commodity.

Don’t discount your rents to attract tenants. Tenants that are attracted to discounted rental units will also leave quickly if they can get a better deal. Don’t be a commodity, create an environment where tenants want to come home to.

So, did you find this helpful? If you did, could you do me a favor and share this with at least two other landlords you know? The more landlords we have out there that are better educated and running true landlord businesses the better the environment for tenants, which makes a landlords job easier. It turns into a win win situation, so spread the word!

Landlord Video Tip – Saving Time With Future Ads

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Rental Ad Time Saver

Inevitably you end up with a vacancy and suddenly you have to fill that vacant property again. Now you’ve got to try and find all those old pictures, remember what you wrote about in your last ad and then compile it all together again so you can start filling up your space.

Does this sound familiar? If you have multiple properties the problem compounds as you try to keep them all straight. Fortunately I have a solution for you, actually a couple solutions.

In the following video, I’ll go through how to save your time later by taking some action and being pro-active now. then after you’ve watched the video, I have an additional tip to help you out below.

As always, I love to hear any feedback you have and I also appreciate it if you can like and share the video and the post with other landlords you know. So here’s today’s video,

Was that helpful? Is it something you can implement today to help your landlord business in the future?

I talked about the creation of folders on computer as well and this is one of the best tips I can recommend to you. We have folders for each of our properties, folders for our rental forms and folders for almost every stage and type of form we use.

A quick review shows folders for each company, for rental forms, for purchase forms, for our shared accommodation properties and even for faxes/notices.  All logically broken out so we can find them quickly. Well logically to us at least.

Anyway, as per the video, when we write up our ads, we store copies of them in the appropriate folder and also the images we use for our ads. We don’t just limit it to a couple images, but keep adding as tenants and the look of the property changes so we have a range of pictures we can use.

So again I ask, have you already done something like this, or is it something you can start? My plan for the next few months is to try and add one new either video tip or post for you per week. Looking forward to any feedback you may have!

Want To Fill Your Properties Faster?

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Then What’s Your Price Point?

fill your properties faster - advertising for tenants the smart wayWant to fill your properties faster when they’re vacant? Then take a page from Walmart.

Have you ever shopped at Walmart? I think I know the answer, but humour me.

Everywhere you look, items are priced at $19.97, $39.99, $89.97 or even $99.99. They are never priced at $20, $40, $90 or $100 and there is a reason for it.

It’s the same reason you should never advertise your unit for $1,000, $800 or $1,500. Psychologically people think of $995, $797 and $1,499 as lower numbers. Rational thought jumps out of the window and people feel it is less, even if the difference is just a few pennies or even five dollars.

This can be extremely powerful when you are trying to rent out a property, so humour me again and never rent your property out for an even dollar amount!

Bonus Tip

Here’s a quick bonus tip to help ensure your properties get found more often. If you advertise on any of the online rental sites (and I highly recommend you start if you aren’t already doing this) make sure you understand their search functions on the site.

Often the systems allow renters to search by price and you always want to be just under any cut off points. If they break the increments down by $50 it might be tougher to stand out, but if they break them into larger increments, you can make sure your rental fits in the right spot!

If the cut off points are $750, $1,000, $1,250 and increase by $250 from there, you want to fit just under those cut off points. Think $749, $999 and even $1,249. Don’t be afraid to experiment and even try $747, 997 and $1,247. Experiments have shown the number 7 included in a price actually sells better than 9!