Letting a rental property is pretty tough at present. A regular we hear at present is that there is so much competition. How will you stand out of the crowd?
Here are our strategies:
Get the marketing right. This means use professional photos (don’t use the ones from your agent or yourself– you’ll just look like all the others) and a feature ad on the major websites. Feature ads normally last 30 days and mean your property will be listed on the first search page boosting your exposure to potential tenants, and giving you an edge over the crowd.
Get the price right. Be aware of the range your rent falls into on the property portals. For example a rent of $495 will be in the bracket of $450 – $500 where $505 falls into $500 – $550 per week, and this can make a huge difference to your e
nquiry.
Mix it up. Offer 7 or 11 month leases to avoid falling into the same re-letting cycle as other properties in your neighbourhood.
Compete. All landlords want to get the highest possible rent, as do their Property Managers. Equally important is having a good tenant in place paying rent and quickly. Greed blinkers come on and we can be guilty of seeing only the rent we want and not the rent we are losing by having the property vacant. So what’s the best outcome? Get the best possible rental price, or reduce the vacancy of the property?
How do you deal with competition? Drop your rent now in anticipation of aggressive rent reviews at lease renewal or re-letting time. There’ll be less direct competition then. Let’s compare:
$550 per week for 6 months is $14,300 and $550 per week for 6 months but with a vacancy of 4 weeks is $12,100
Versus:
$500 per week for 6 months is $13,000 and $500 per week for 6 months but with a vacancy of only 1 week is $12,500
Leaving your property sit vacant is going to hurt you... People also ask us about the benefits of keeping your tenants happy by only charging them a sensible rent and not pushing their limits. This can be true and there’s no doubt a low turnover of tenants, provided they look after the property and pay their rent, will save you money.
Outsource. Find a good letting agent that will service you properly don’t look at the management fee but focus on what they can deliver. Remember a happy tenant who stays long term is good business.
Make a quick start. Get viewings by prospective tenants once your purchase is unconditional. Also, as soon as you know a tenant is leaving get prospective tenants through your property straight away.
Hopefully our strategies will help you out.