As a Tampa landlord, it’s important to generate leads for your rental property. An anxious moment for most Tampa landlords is when their property becomes vacant. A vacant property means the loss of rental income. Many owners, therefore, go out of their way to try and find new occupants for their properties as soon as a tenant moves out. Unfortunately, due to lack of time, resources or adequate skills, most of these landlord’s efforts do not pay off. This leads to the units remaining vacant for long periods of time or they end up attracting low-quality problematic residents.
Ironically a landlord can avoid such undesirable outcomes by knowing how to generate tenant leads for his or her rental property.
If you are at a loss of how to attract quality renters for your Tampa property, here are pointers on how to keep prospective renters flowing into your units.
When a property becomes vacant, high chances are many people will notice it, and even wish to make it their home if it is habitable and aesthetically appealing. For this reason, take the time to revamp the look of your units before making any public announcement. Make sure all the locks, doors, shutters, and fixtures are in perfect working condition, the curb is charming, the walls are colorful, and the yard is sparkling clean. Units that meet such description hardly struggle to attract leads.
Many rental properties fail to attract renters for the simple reason that they are overpriced. While it is understandable for you as the owner to wish to charge a high price for your units, doing so can often work against you. Besides keeping off otherwise quality tenants, higher than market prices will seem like a rip off to applicants. Avoid falling into such a trap by first determining the going market price for your kind of units. You can accomplish this by comparing the rental rate of similar Tampa properties. Alternatively, you could ask your realtor to give you an estimate of a fair rental price.
Your goal as the owner is not to attract every Tom, Dick, and Harry, but rather quality Tampa renters. So, you need to focus your property marketing and advertising efforts to areas where your target market is located. Determine what type of tenants you wish to have and concentrate your resources to that end. For instance, if your residential units are mainly three-bedroom homes, you should use strategies that will attract older couples and families that have teenagers. Otherwise, you might end up wasting too much time and money, attracting the wrong audience
Once you have an aesthetically appealing, fairly-priced unit, and you have identified who your target audience are, you need to inform your target what is on offer. Take proactive steps to create a strong desire in them to want to occupy your property. For instance, you should capture breath-taking, high-resolution pictures or videos of the property’s impressive features, fixtures, amenities and atmosphere. Furthermore, you use the images to create a virtual tour with a detailed description of what your audience will enjoy if they reside in your property. Such efforts make your property stand out in a crowded Tampa real estate market.
The internet offers countless useful platforms which you can use. Nonetheless, you must make sure you use the right platforms which will help you achieve your desired objective. Some of these options include designing a website detailing the vacant units, advertising on leading property listing platforms like Trulia, Zillow , and HotPads , as well as marketing on popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.
When advertising online, always include as many visual aids as possible and aim for creativity. For instance, you could use eye-catching images on Facebook and trendy hashtags on Twitter. The good thing with most of these online resources is that they are generally free despite being highly efficient.
Each time residents make an inquiry about your property, make a list of who they are, what type and size of property they are looking for, what rent price they are willing to spend, as well as their contact information. By collecting such information, you will always have a ready list of whom to target the next time you have a vacant property. You then only need to contact the prospects whose rental home requirements match those of the homes you wish to fill.
As the saying goes, people love free stuff. Use that to your advantage to entice quality renters to move into your properties. For instance, you could give out rent discounts, a free TV set, or any other reasonable incentive to attract residents.
A fast and efficient way to generate leads for your rental units is to engage Rental Property Management companies. Many Tampa residents prefer to use management companies to locate homes. Which means, therefore, that the management firms always have a database of quality renters. In fact, reputable Tampa property management companies can get you a lineup of high-quality tenants even before your units become vacant.
Even though we are in the digital era, print media remains a strong marketing platform. After all, many people still search for rental units in the newspaper classified ads. Since most classified ads cost money, it is prudent to go for publications that enjoy a wider circulation, and then target your ad to appear on weekends, most preferably on Sunday. Other equally viable offline advertising media that you can use include flyers, bulletin boards, For Rent signs, and word of mouth.
Lastly, be a good host to your renters. As long as you are a great Tampa landlord, you will not have to worry about high rental vacancy turnovers. Besides, even when your existing tenants move out, they will always be willing to recommend you to other likable tenants.
If you are interested in Tampa property management click here and get in touch with us! We would be happy to answer any questions you may have regarding generating leads for your rental property!
