You may be asking yourself, "Why is my property not renting?" It eventually comes down to what are known as the 3 P's — Price, Presentation, and Promotion. Below are the explanations of each, which would lead to helping you answer the question.
Price
It's amazing what $25 or $50 a month makes in price. Below are some ideas related to setting the price of your rental property when advertising to prospective tenants.
Drop the Price
Dropping the property rental rate can make a drastic difference in attracting qualified tenants. You may have a home listed at a certain price for 10 to 15 days that isn't getting any interest. However, reduce it by $50 dollars and, within a day or two, it'll be rented. Don't be afraid to reduce your asking price after a week to ten days of no results. Just a slight price drop can make a difference. Every day that your home sits vacant, means tenants are looking elsewhere and in a tough economy where there are tons of rental vacancies or when the season is changing to winter, a slight price drop makes sense.
Make Your Price Specific
It's beneficial that the price of your property end with ninety dollars as its last two digits. The difference between $2990 and $3000 is much more than ten dollars in the eyes of a potential tenant. Moreover, your property goes under a certain price filter that potential tenants may be using when entering information on rental search sites. Being exact with your price has an effect in the end.
Your Competition's Unrealistic Price
The asking rental rate of your competition can often be higher than actual rental rates in the market. There is a reason why the property is still vacant and advertised. Therefore, don't be swayed by your competitors' unachievable and unrealistic price. It's clear that prospects aren't signing a lease. Competitors rental ads can be easily misunderstood to market rental rates. The true market rental rates are what a tenant signs on the lease and often you will not know that by just looking at ads.
Adjust Your Price for the Season
In December, you're going to get about 3 – 5% percent less than you are in June. Thus, be prepared to adjust your price for that time of year and season accordingly.
Include a Pet Fee in Your Price
Consider allowing pets in your rental property. This allows you to hold a higher rental price and receive an additional monthly pet fee. Twice as many qualified tenants will be interested in your property, as about half of the potential tenants out there have small pets. Statistically, tenants with pets tends to stay in your home longer.
Rental Price Isn't Connected to Mortgage
Your rental price is not tied to your mortgage. Some owners tend to believe that they must get a certain price for their property according to their mortgage. In reality, rather, it has to do with the rental market in the neighborhood.
Presentation
If you're getting a lot of responses from your ad, chances are it's not because of the price, but the presentation. After they take an in-person look at the home and you're not getting any further action from a prospect, you may need to consider how the home is being presented. There are so many ways to improve the presentation of your home, from the front yard, the front door, the kitchen, right up to how clean the bathrooms are.
On our website, we provide our owner's pre-move in checklist. You want to be able to present a clean, safe home to the tenant moving in. All in all, presentation is key.
Promotion
How you promote the property might have something to do with why it isn't renting. With all of our properties, Davies Property Management professionally photographs them, leading to more hits from prospects. The photographs are taken with professional equipment and are done by our marketing team.
After the pictures are taken, our team puts together a well-crafted ad and publicizes it on all the top rental listing websites, such as Rentboard, Padmapper, and Zumper, being the three biggest. Besides online ads, we also put a "Rent Me" sign out in the property's front yard, whenever possible.
After everything we do, Davies Property Management can ensure that your home will have a qualified tenant on average within 25 – 35 days once the property is rent-ready.
If you have any questions about real estate or investing, contact Davies Property Management.