Have you been having difficulty renting your property out?
No Responses on your Rental Ad?
This is for you!
The world of advertising is changing fast and you are getting left behind! Only a few short years ago, landlords were able to put a rental ad in the newspaper, and would be receiving calls off the hook! You could get higher rental charges and had an abundance of prospective tenants to choose from. This is not the case anymore! It is a renter’s market and you need to get with it!  You are up against property management companies and savvy landlords, who have fancy gadgets and sophisticated systems for attracting renters. I will take you through the process that I use to ensure my rentals are filled!
The Future is Coming Fast!
If you are not already aware of this, the top most trafficked websites currently are Google, Facebook, and YouTube! Therefore if you want to get a tenant to rent your property, start thinking about where your target audience is!
From a demographics study at Havard in 2003, they found that 80 percent of renters are  25 years of age and below! I can only imagine that this stat has greatly increased due to our current economic situation. This means that your targeted audience is on the internet!! Forget the newspaper ads! They cost too much, and the only people who are looking at classified ads in the newspaper are prehistoric cavemen. Neanderthals do not make for good tenants. Trust me! Go to the Interweb!
The Social Network
Social networks are on rise, and this is where and the kids are hanging out! Use your existing network of friends to market your property!
Everyone needs a place to live, so most people won’t be offended (I hope) if you put your rental advertisement of Facebook; just be cool about it! Don’t spam your friends!
There is nothing more repulsive, than continuously getting unsolicited messages from a group you didn’t even join! This is lame!
The next social network that you may want to try is Twitter, though I’m not speaking for experience of this one. I’m not sure of its effectiveness!
Please let me know, if it has worked for you!
After hitting the social networking sites, let’s move on over to Google!
Google It
Put yourself in the renter’s shoes! What would you do?
Let’s say that you are moving to a new city.
You will do two things when trying to find a place to live:
- Talk to their friends on Facebook
- Search for rentals on Google
So what do you do about this to target your renters?
Go to Google and type in something along the lines of, “Room for Rent, or House for Rent” and then the city that your rental property is in!
Now we all know that there are few people that will go to the next Google page, so naturally you have to have your rental ad on the sites of the 1st Google page.
Hit the top 5 rental services and post your ad on their website. It may cost you around $50 for all the ads, but it will pay off, in that you will be getting loads of responses, enabling you to chose the tenant that will care for your property that best. Â The top sites that come up for me, were Craigslist, Kijiji and EasyRoommate.
Don’t Fight the System, Use the System! Let everyone else compete over SEO on Google! Don’t waste your time!
You should be hanging out in tree forts in Brazil!
Your Ad is the Key!
It is extremely important that your rental ad is tailored and attractive to prospective tenants. You want to paint a clear picture for the type of people you are looking for! Your ad should give the renter a good idea of what the rental is all about, before they even contact you. This is best done with high resolution photos.
If you don’t have photos of your rental, you are hopeless!
We have already started to see real estate agents use video in their ads! Think about linking a Youtube video to your rental ad to give yourself a competitive edge.
Remember! Don’t include details in your ad that tenants could care less about. Its all about the renter!
Write for the renters needs!
The 5 W’s
What I use for my rental ad are the classic 5 W’s:
Who, What, Where, When,Why?
Who will I be renting from? Who will I be living with?
What are you renting out? Is it a room, a suite, a house?
When does the rental start? Where is the house?!
Why would I want to live in your house?
Create Once! Use again and again!
Take the time to develop a system of advertising!
Next time you have a vacancy, you can pull out your system that you’ve previously developed, and use it again and again!
No more headaches! Way more tree housing in Brazil!
Thank You for Reading DoorMouse!
This is a good start to developing a more effective way to reach your audience and develop a stellar rental ad!
The world is changing fast and you best be adapting to it!
I encourage any comments, please leave them below! If you liked this post please check out my Blog at http://www.doormouse.ca
I hope this has been helpful in improving your Rental Property Advertising! And I wish you all the best of Success!
Best Regards,
Brendan Benson
Source by Brendan Benson
Add a Comment