Tips to Quickly Fill Your Vacant Property

Property owners have a lot to worry about, like making sure their rental properties are occupied at all times. When you have a vacancy, every day it sits unoccupied costs you money.

As such, it’s important for rental property owners to keep tenant turnover to a minimum and fill each vacancy as quickly as possible. So, how exactly do you do that?

Here some expert tips on how to quickly fill your vacant rental property.

1. Drive quality traffic to your website.

A website serves as an advertising platform for your business. In the digital age, tenants are increasingly using online tools to search for rental properties. One study found that up to 72% of prospective tenants use the web to search for new apartments.

Therefore, it’s important to have a professional-looking website. Ideally, it should be customized to suit your business requirements.

If you’re a landlord of a single real estate investment, it may not make sense to have a website. In that case, you may want to consider working with a professional property manager. Alternatively, use the tips below to fill your vacancy.

2. Use free online listings.

This involves using listing websites to run vacant rental ads. The free online classifieds and listings, in turn, help bring in more tenant eyeballs to your rental.

Some of the most popular online listings include Zillow and Craigslist. You can also check out Trulia, Apartments.com, Rent.com and Realtor.com. These sites have hundreds of thousands of visitors every month.

When placing the ad for your rental make sure you include high-quality images and detailed descriptions, such as number of bedrooms and bathrooms, as well as rent price and utility costs.

3. Use word of mouth.

Basically, word of mouth involves encouraging your current tenants to give you referrals. This works best when you have a good landlord-tenant relationship.

Aside from your tenants, you can also get referrals from family, friends and co-workers. You may also offer a cash incentive to those who refer tenants who’ve successfully signed a lease agreement with you.

4. Put up signs.

While this method might seem a bit old-fashioned, “For Rent” signs are still valuable tools for filling rental properties. That’s because they are extremely targeted. Make sure you add important details about your properties, such as the rent price.

Remember to note “By Appointment Only” when putting up signs. This will help weed out unscheduled visits.

5. Use instant tenant screening tools.

Not only does instant tenant screening save you time, but it also helps you review a rental applicant’s details on the spot. A screening tool can help you evaluate a tenant’s criminal background, creditworthiness and eviction history, among others.

To use screening tools, you only need a tenant’s social security number, date of birth and name. Take note that different screening solutions have different workings, so make sure you do your homework and compare different tools.

6. Place an ad or two in the local daily.

As surprising as it sounds, newspaper advertisements still work in the digital age. When advertising your rental property via dailies, make sure to word your description carefully. Your description should include beautiful photos of the unit.

Also, include details such as the number of bathrooms and bedrooms, your contact information, your location, pet policy, size of the property, and the rent and deposit amounts.

These are only 6 of the many tips you can use to quickly fill your vacant rental property, which ensures that you maintain your rental income. In case you would like assistance with filling your vacant rental property, feel free to get in touch and let us know how we can help! Vacancies mean no generated rental income, so be sure to reach out right away!