How to Get Good Tenants

This is a recap of a good post titled “10 Ways to Attract Good Tenants” written by Tina Merritt

• Dress professionally
• Allow pets
• Be organized and have procedures in place
• Show that you care for the property and the tenants will care too
• Offer a discount for a multi-year lease and/or for payroll/bank draft setup
• Let them know that you will be accessing the property every other month for a maintenance checkup
• Send them birthday cards
• Include a washer and dryer

Read the entire post from http://www.trumpuniversity.com/blog/post/2009/12/10-ways-to-attract-good-tenants.cfm

5 Secrets to Successful Rental Advertising

All online rental ads are not created equal. In fact, many factors determine whether a rental ad will be successful at attracting renter leads. With so much information and so many choices on the internet, rental marketers need to make sure their ads catch – and hold – the attention of potential renters.

This week, we’re highlighting one of our members’ ads that received over 40 phone and email leads in one month… 40! For those who like to keep track of the numbers, that’s less than a buck a lead (Single-family rental ad = $29.99). Let’s breakdown the strong points of this ad that helped to make it a success:

• Photos – As we’ve mentioned before on this blog, photos of your rental are extremely important! When renters are searching online for their next place to live, appealing property photos are a must. If an ad has sparse (or no) photos, its chances of attracting leads are slim to none. In addition, this ad had more than the 5-photo minimum needed to receive the advertised rental photo-video at no extra charge, which meant even more online exposure.
• Competitive Rental Rates – In a competitive market, the price often matters more to potential tenants than anything else. A great way to find comparable prices in your area is to view other rental ads listed on classified sites and rental marketplaces like Craigslist or RentedSpaces. Our featured rental ad has a very competitive price for comparable rentals in the Salt Lake City area.
• Low Deposit or Incentives – Another great way to help your rental stand out from the crowd is to offer a low deposit or move-in incentive. Especially true during times of recession and employment uncertainty, large deposits are hard to put together and may deter renters from choosing your property. This successful rental ad only required a deposit of about 1/2 the cost of the monthly rent and offered one week of free rent as an incentive.
• Widespread Distribution - Recent studies show that 90% of online renters search multiple sources online before making a decision about where to rent. This fact alone makes it essential to have your rentals advertised on as many places online as possible. With RentShout’s online syndication, this rental ad was able to achieve widespread online visibility and capture the attention of renters searching on multiple websites.
• Easy to Contact - Isn’t it frustrating when you find just what you’re looking for online, but then have no idea how to contact the seller, make the purchase, or close the deal? The same is true for renters searching for apartments and rentals! If they stumble across your online ad, the contact information should be absolutely obvious. In this week’s success example, there is a contact form right at the top of the ad, a flashing email button, and a phone number.

To sum up, renters searching online have a lot to choose from. By including plenty of attractive photos, offering competitive rates and incentives, and distributing the ad across the internet, this rental marketer was able to attract over 40 leads in just one month.

Tax Benefits for Landlords

The most outstanding among its benefits of being a Landlord and the one which makes the profession attractive to many is the fact that landlords get tremendous tax benefits:

• Landlords get a portion of the cost of their rental property back through depreciation, which is spread out or amortized over a number of years. 
• The expenses landlords incur when making necessary repairs or needed improvement to their rental property are deductible in full during the year in which they occurred.  Such expenses may include costs of repainting (indoors and/or outdoors), replacing flooring, fixing a leaking roof, unclogging sewer lines, replacing damaged doors or broken windows and so on. 
• Landlords pay interest on mortgage loans for the rental property, on loans taken for paying the costs of improvements to the rental property, and on open balances of credit cards that are used for maintaining the rental property.  The expenses of these interests (regardless of their rates) are all deductible from the landlords’ total income.  So, his or her income taxes are paid at lower rates.  Since expenses for interests are often extremely high, deductions for interest are also among the highest deduction landlords can claim.  
• Landlords are permitted to deduct their expenses for automotive traveling on any business related to their rental property.  These expenses refer to those sustained during driving to and from the location — gas as well as the vehicle’s upkeep and repair.  Under certain circumstances; car rentals, airfare and expenses on public transportation (buses, trains, trolleys, subways, ferries, etc.) may be considered legitimate business deductions for tax purposes.

To Furnish or Not to Furnish, That is the Question

There comes a time in every landlord’s professional life when he or she must decide how to present their rental property to potential tenants. Apartment marketing, apartment advertising and apartment vacancy issues are all matters landlords must deal with on a regular basis.

But that is not all. As part of their apartment marketing strategies and business planning, landlords must also determine whether to rent out their apartments and/or homes as fully furnished, partially furnished or as empty and unfurnished unites. Each one of these options has its own set of pros and cons which landlords should weigh very carefully against each other, against the current rental market, against the functionality and purpose of the property itself and, lastly, against the targeted tenants.

Fully Furnished Rental Units

Understandably, furnished units charge higher rent and they have little to no competition. However, landlords must invest much more in maintenance and realized that the pool of tenants is fairly limited.

• Vacation rental marketing or vacation homes and vacation apartments are probably the most compelling reasons for landlords to fully furnish their units. If the property is intended for short term leasing (usually six months or less) to vacationing tenants, by all means, the units should be fully furnished and preferably decorated attractively. After all, people on vacation will not be carrying furniture along with them and they will want to be comfortable in a pleasant environment.

• Homes and/or apartments which are intended for business people (travelling salespersons and touring lecturers, artists, athletes, etc.) should be furnished elegantly and provide all the personal and business amenities available at hotels such as room service, high speed Internet access, office space and services, gym and spa, and so on.

These units are usually rented out for anywhere between several days to a couple of months and they are most often located in business districts and near airports.

• Historic and vintage apartment units and homes should most likely be furnished to match the unique exterior. Since such furniture would usually include costly antiques, the targeted tenants should be adults who could appreciate such fineries.

• Homes and/or apartments which valiant landlords are willing to rent to students near college campuses should be furnished with sturdy furniture that will, on the one hand, survive lots of abuse while, on the other hand, be cheap enough to replace when its needed. Décor much like college dorm rooms is appropriate for such units.

Partially Furnished Units

• Newlyweds and young people who have had the time to accumulate some furniture but not enough for an entire household would most likely appreciate partially furnished apartments which usually include kitchen appliances such as a stove, refrigerator dishwasher and maybe a piece or two in the living room and/or bedroom.

• Many singles of all ages and both genders have amassed a few pieces of furniture but would, in all probability, welcome whatever else landlords can offer. It is advisable for landlords to provide attractive furniture but as generic as possible so that it does not clash with that which is brought in by the tenants.

Empty, Unfurnished Units

When opting to rent their units as unfurnished, landlords must realize that the pool of tenants is virtually limitless but so is the competition.

• The great majority of tenants strive to make their rental units as homey as they possibly can and they, therefore, want to personalize them. This means that they would want to rent empty, unfurnished apartments and/or homes and bring in their own furniture and miscellaneous decorations.

Track Renter Leads Online and Offline

Tracking renter leads is one of the most important things you’ll do in your rental marketing efforts. Why? Two (very important) reasons:

1. Discover where the fish are. Have you ever heard the sales quote, “Fish where the fish are”? It means that in order to get a successful return on your marketing and advertising efforts, you need to be delivering your message to people that will respond positively (people that respond negatively, or don’t respond at all, are not “fish”). If you’re not tracking the response to your advertising (where leads are coming from, how many from each source, etc.), then how will you know where your advertising is effective and where it isn’t? The answer: you won’t. This is why it is so important to have a system in place for effectively tracking renter leads.
2. Be prepared when you contact leads. Which scenario do you think is more effective? The answer should be obvious:
   a) A potential renter sends you an email saying they are interested in the property they saw advertised, not mentioning address, unit, or location. They have no idea that you are also advertising 20 other properties at the same time. You call them back, but get their voicemail. You leave a message asking which property they are interested in and request a call back. The lead receives the message, but doesn’t remember the address or where they saw the ad. They either call you back and you play phone-tag for who knows how many days, or they don’t call back at all.
   – OR –
   b) Every rental advertisement you place has a unique email address assigned to it. When a potential renter sends you an email inquiry about a property you’re advertising, you’ll know exactly which one they’re interested in. You can call or email the lead back prepared, ready to close the lease in no time.

So, are you tracking your renter leads effectively? Are you fishing where the fish are? Are you calling leads back prepared? We hope so.