Rental property marketing can be tricky. Mistakes such as writing a dull listing or not promoting your rental on social media can lead to high vacancy rates, longer turnaround times, and decreased profitability.
Our team of property managers at Advantage Realty Services has written this article to help you avoid this issue. Keep reading to learn about the biggest rental property mistakes landlords make and how to overcome them.
The Most Common Rental Property Marketing Mistakes Landlords Make
Learning how to successfully
advertise a rental property takes a lot of trial and error. After all, there are a lot of moving pieces behind every successful marketing campaign. Luckily, you can learn a lot from your mistakes.
To help you save time, we’ve summarized the top 9 rental property marketing mistakes most landlords make and how you can avoid them altogether.
1. Not Building Your Online Presence
In today's digital age, the first place potential tenants look for rental properties is online. By posting your listing on some of the most popular real estate websites, you can attract more potential renters.
Moreover, it’s a good idea to also build an online presence, such as by creating social media profiles or even a website to announce your rental services. Growing your online presence can help you build a good reputation, which can go a long way in helping you attract and retain tenants for the long term.
2. Using Poor-Quality Property Photos
With the rising threat of rental scams, most renters tend to ignore listings without photos. However, adding poor-quality pictures to your listing will just not cut it.
Grainy images and photos with
poor lighting can make your property look unattractive, which can dissuade potential tenants from renting it.
So, take the time to take good photos of your rental. Investing in a professional photographer is advisable. However, you can take great pictures with your phone. Just make sure you have good lighting and try different angles for each picture to get great results.
3. Inadequate Property Descriptions
One of the biggest mistakes landlords make is writing a bad description for their listing. A lengthy text can make you lose potential renter’s attention quickly. On the other hand, a short and incomplete description can scare tenants away.
That’s why you should take the time to write a compelling and informative property description for your listing. Make sure to add key information such as unique features, location, price of rent, and nearby amenities. But keep it short and sweet.
4. Failure to Respond Promptly
Delaying responses to inquiries and questions is a huge mistake. Prospective tenants expect a timely response and may move on to other options if they don’t hear back from you quickly enough.
That’s why it’s crucial that you respond to inquiries in a timely manner. Whether you prefer to communicate via email, phone, or text, prompt responses will show tenants that you’re an attentive landlord. This can significantly increase the chances of finding tenants quickly.
5. Neglecting Tenant Reviews
Online reviews can significantly influence potential tenants’ decisions to rent a property. Ignoring these reviews can be detrimental to your rental business.
While you might not be able to eliminate bad reviews, you can try to prevent them by fostering a
good relationship with your tenants. Moreover, you can encourage satisfied tenants to leave positive reviews about their experience.
6. Overpricing Your Rental Property
Knowing how to
price your rental property
is crucial. Charging too little can leave you with a negative cash flow at the end of the month. Meanwhile, overpricing your rental can deter potential tenants, which can lead to longer vacancies.
So, before listing your home for rent, research the local market. Knowing the price of rent for similar rentals in your area can help you set a more competitive rental rate.
7. Skipping Staging and Maintenance
When renting your home, you want to ensure it’s looking its best. Neglecting the appearance of your property can turn away potential tenants. Investing in maintenance and even some renovations can increase the value of your property and make it stand out from the rest.
Additional things you can do to get your property ready to rent include deep cleaning the entire property, painting the walls, and
boosting your rental’s curb appeal.
8. Lack of Consistency
The key to a successful rental marketing campaign is consistency. Constantly pausing your marketing efforts can reduce their effectiveness and even cause confusion for potential renters. Creating a marketing plan and sticking to it can help you ensure consistency all across the board.
9. Doing It All Alone
Marketing your rental property requires a lot of time and effort. After creating your listing and ads, you must constantly monitor them. Plus, you also must maintain a constant online presence and answer inquiries promptly. Trying to do all of this by yourself can quickly
lead to burnout.
That’s why hiring Advantage Realty Services is highly advisable. These property managers cannot only help you successfully advertise your rental but can also screen tenants and perform any needed maintenance for you. This way, you’ll be able to fill your vacancies with little to no effort!
Bottom Line
Marketing your rental property is the best way to fill your vacancies quickly. However, mistakes such as overpricing your rental, writing an inadequate listing, or targeting the wrong audience can make your marketing efforts futile.
Now that you know how to avoid the most common advertising mistakes landlords make, you are better prepared to attract a wider pool of potential tenants.
Do you need help marketing your Tampa rental? Contact
Advantage Realty Services! Our team will help you create the perfect marketing campaign for your property.
