Depending on the market in your particular area, you might find that when you start your Rent Roll, vacancy rates are a concern for you.
So what can you do about it?
Here are 3 tips to get your properties leased faster: Follow the 3 Ps – Presentation, Promotion, Price Make sure your landlord clients are presenting their investment property exceptionally well.
This might mean a fresh coat of paint, new floor coverings, or just doing simple things like remembering to open the curtains when you show prospective tenants through the property.
It’s up to you as the agent to advise your landlords on the best way to promote their property for lease.
This will usually include: getting a professional photo shoot, writing detailed, compelling marketing text (to really “sell” the property to tenants) and possibly upgrading the internet listing to a “featured property” on your favourite website.
Again, as a professional agent, you need to educate your landlord clients about the appropriate price to advertise the property.
This price should be based on local market results, and you need to be able to show evidence to your landlord client about how you arrived at your price recommendation.
Remember, at the right price, almost ANY property will rent. Value Tenants For a long time, tenants have been treated pretty poorly.
Property Managers would be slack about returning calls and emails, processing applications and generally assisting tenants, simply because there have been more tenants than properties, so we haven’t needed to value these tenants.
But if you’ve noticed the balance shifting and you have fewer tenants in the market, you need to look after them!
Let’s face it, you should be looking after them and providing decent service to them either way, but now more than ever is the time to start. It’s pretty simple: return their calls, reply to their emails, be flexible and negotiable.
This applies to prospective tenants as well as existing tenants – you don’t want to lose the ones you’ve already got!
Be Flexible Sometimes, to secure a good tenant, you and your landlord need to be open to negotiating a little.
This might mean an adjustment in rent (for a period of time, or for the entire tenancy), accepting pets, throwing in additional services (lawn mowing, for example) or offering a week or two of free rent at the beginning of a tenancy.
I’ve always believed that everything in Real Estate is a negotiation, so be open to new ideas and new suggestions from your landlords and tenants, so that you can keep everyone happy and keep your vacancy rate low.
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