By: Eric Reyes
Many people have decided to invest their money in the real estate market. You get to receive monthly rent and enjoy owning a property that you didn’t have to pay a dime for. However, this only holds true when your house has a tenant in it. If your place is currently vacant, here are nine hacks for renting it faster.
Ask Just Below Market Rent
If you’re having trouble getting your rental rented out, you may want to consider lowering the asking rent price. While you may not want to get below premium rent for it, think about the long-term. If you drop the price by $100 per month and it gets rented, you’ll be making money. However, if you continue to leave the price high, it may be months without rent until you find another tenant. Sometimes it’s totally worth lowering the rent price to get the unit rented out quickly.
Answer Inquiries Quickly
People live in a 24/7 universe where everything is available. With online submission and inquiry services, they can communicate with you around the clock. This also means that they can communicate with competitor landlords around the clock as well. Do yourself a favor and respond quickly to the inquiry. If a tenant receives a quick call back from their inquiry, it’s more likely they’ll stop searching.
Have Your Documents Ready To Go
Sifting through paperwork and making up leases after you’ve obtained a tenant can draw out the process even further. You should take time now to prepare the necessary documents that you will need. This is everything from an application with permission to run their credit report to have the lease agreement ready for signatures. When these documents are ready, any potential tenant can sign them upon seeing the unit.
Charge For Background And Credit Checks
A great hack that many landlords skip over is charging for background and credit checks. You may be thinking that charging an eligible tenant a fee for these checks will deter people from talking with you. However, that’s not likely the case. Rather, only those who are serious about the unit that you’re offering will submit to paying for the background and credit checks that you do. This will easily weed out the serious from the not-so-serious inquirers.
Permit Pets
One thing that you truly need to consider is your pet policy. A lot of people have pets and many who don’t just like knowing that they can get one even if they’re living in your unit. So, do yourself a favor and allow pets. You may want to limit the number of pets, but keep it reasonable. Those in Ipswich with pets are more likely to consider your unit if it’s pet-friendly.
Offer A Move-In Special
Give tenants an incentive to fill out an application for your unit. This could be a free month of rent, a return of their application fee, or even a lower rent price if they lock in their contract for a lengthy period of time. You can offer whatever move-in special that you can financially handle and will intrigue potential renters.
Be Descriptive In Your Listing
If you’re using online listing services, you should be descriptive when filling out the listing. Don’t just put in the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, the rent price, and your contact information. That won’t get you too far. Rather, take the time to fill in all the description areas. You want potential renters to have as much information as possible on the listing.
Use Multiple Listing Services
One of the biggest mistakes that you should avoid is only listing your home in one space. You should take advantage of the free and low-priced listing services for rental units in your area. The more websites that you add your listing to, the more responses you’ll likely get about your unit.
Meet Up With Investors In Your Area
If you’re still having trouble getting tenants through your doors, consider meeting up with local investors. There are usually local real estate investing clubs that meet up every couple of months to discuss real estate in their respective area. Consider joining one of these clubs and talking with other investors about their methods. If you can’t find a local group, then join an online community like BiggerPockets that will grant you access to experienced real estate investors that can help to hone your marketing strategies
About the Author:
Eric Reyes is a passionate thought leader having been featured in 50 distinguished online and offline platforms. His passion and knowledge in Finance and Business made him a sought-after contributor providing valuable insights to his readers. You can find him reading a book and discussing current events in his spare time.