A vacant unit is bad for business.
When you have a vacancy, you’re not collecting rent. And the longer you spend trying to fill a vacancy, the more money you cost your business.
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Creating good property listings and advertising them effectively are two of the most important things you can do to reduce tenant turnover and get your units filled quickly.
Today, the internet plays a prominent role in most aspects of our lives, and the real estate rental business is no exception. Listing rental properties online has become the most popular way that landlords advertise their properties.
With that being said, here’s a quickstart guide to digital rental advertising:
Creating Your Listing
Listings are what you’ll use to advertise your property. A listing is a short article consisting of a headline, photos, and descriptions of your property to get renters interested.
The real estate market is competitive. On average, you’ll be up against 100 other properties. For this reason, it’s important to make your listing as appealing as possible. The better your listing, the more interest you’ll get from high-quality tenants. A great listing will give you a better chance to fill your unit with an exceptional tenant quickly.
There are three major components of a property listing:
First up are headlines. Because a headline is the first thing about your property that people will see, you need to make sure you grab their attention and make a good first impression. A good headline will include the following:
- Price
- Number of beds and baths
- Type of building
- Neighborhood
- Best feature
Because these are usually determining factors for renters, including all of these points in your headline will enable you to catch the right tenant’s eye.
Next up are photos. According to the National Association of Realtors, more than 85% of renters use photos as the deciding factor when choosing which properties to view. Therefore, you should make sure that your pictures are top-notch. Here are some suggestions:
- Use high quality equipment and files
- Use natural lighting
- Highlight important rooms first
- Provide floor plans
The goal with your photos should be to make your property look good while maintaining authenticity.
Finally, the body of your listing is comprised of descriptions. This is where renters can gather more information about your property after being pulled in by the headline and looking through the photos. The following information should be included in your descriptions:
- Specifications (floor plan, list of rooms, size of rooms, property’s condition, bills built into rent, etc.)
- Amenities (Laundry room, pool, gym, etc.)
- Lease Terms (yearly, month-to-month, etc.)
- Pet Policy
- Location
- Contact information
By reading descriptions, renters will be able to dive deeper and learn about the specifics of your property.
Putting The Listing Online
Once you’ve created your listing, it’s time to post it online. Listing sites have become the number one way that tenants look for properties to rent.
Most listing sites are free, and many offer listing syndication services to all the sites in their network. After you’ve made a great listing, you objective should be to advertise it to as many renters as possible.
Apartments.com attracts 35 million renters per month, making them the #1 rental site in the country. Despite their name, they list every kind of rental property, not just apartments. They offer syndication to all the sites in their network beyond Apartments.com, such as ForRent.com and ApartmentFinder.com.
Zillow Rental Manager is a user-friendly site made specifically for landlords. You get one free listing, but subsequent listings require payment. With that said, Zillow offers syndication to Zillow.com, HotPads.com, Trulia.com, and over 20 other sites.
Craigslist, despite not existing solely for rental properties, is a high-traffic site for renters. Posting listings is free, though it doesn’t offer further syndication.
Zumper is another easy-to-use service that lets you post listings for free. Offering syndication to multiple sites like Zumper.com, Walkscore, and Facebook Marketplace, this is another listing site you can use to reach a wide number of people.
There are a lot of sites you can use to advertise your listing. Property management software can provide you with listing syndication software, which will export your listing to multiple sites from one place. This allows you to reach a larger pool of renters in a short amount of time, saving you from having to manually create listings on every site.
Conclusion
Effective rental advertising allows you to fill your units quickly with high-quality tenants. By following the tips in this short guide to digital rental advertising, you can create great listings, advertise them online, and fill your vacancies.
