Rental Property 101: Attracting Dream Tenants

The success of your real estate rental property business largely depends on the quality of the tenants you have.

Still, it’s not easy to attract those dream tenants – who are reliable, keep your property in good condition, pay their rent on time and in full.

When you have a long-term tenant, it’s especially important to be sure that you have tenants you can trust.

This article will explore some of the factors you should take into consideration when marketing to attract ideal tenants for your properties.

Marketing

One of my favorite things to do, advertising your property listings is a critical task in attracting tenant leads. You can promote the available property unit in multiple ways, including word-of-mouth, flyers, bandit signs new property, placing ads on popular sites like Zillow.com, and in local magazines and newspapers.

The advertisement you create must be a truthful and efficient property description, but should also talk of the positive features of the property. For instance, “pool and deck in the backyard” or “new lighting throughout.”

Details such as bathrooms and bedrooms the property has, the security deposit amount in the monthly rent of the rental property. You should list the physical address of the property if you’re okay with people driving by to view the property. On the other hand, if someone still occupying the property you may not want such an intrusion on their progress by listing the address.

Digital Age

In time where more people search and make their decisions on the Internet, it’s important for landlords to have a website where all of their properties can be found and explored.

This means that the listings you provide on your website should clue photos of the exterior and interior, front yard in backyard, and all angles of the property.

You should also include a written description of the property. With this approach, you can list your website and invite people to visit your website more information on available property listings in every other type of advertising you do.

In order for potential tenants to ask questions and inquire more about your property, be sure to list your phone number and hours of availability. You have to remember that when people are in search for a place to live, they may have limited time to do so and high level of need to make decisions quickly.

If you are not available to the speak with them, they will likely move to the next potential listing and you lose a potential tenant.

As another way of handling the tenant finding process. You can simply hire a good real estate agent or property management company to take care of this tenant finding process.

Typically, fees for having a real estate agent take care of this for you would be one half of one month’s rent. Additional costs may come from running credit reports of potential tenants.

Real estate agents may:

Advertise your properties
Conduct property showings
Interview candidates
Complete paperwork and lease information

Fair Housing Laws

You should always keep in mind that federal state and sometimes local laws regulating the business of a landlord. For instance, discrimination based on race is prohibited in the Civil Rights Act. The fair housing act prohibits discrimination based on race, national origin, family status, color, religion or disability.

The federal laws that govern the landlording process specifically applied to how you advertise, conduct interviews, and select tenants. You may be subject to penalties if you fail to follow the fair housing laws.

Tenant Selection

When you establish interior that helps you the tenant selection process, and increases the likelihood that you find great tenant and fair housing laws. A dream tenant is one who is:

able and willing to pay rent on time and in full
able and willing to follow the terms of the rental or lease agreement
a law-abiding citizen who will not conduct illegal activities in your rental property

You should create a form for tenants to fill out that includes the following applicant information:

Contact information – phone number and address
Social Security number
Length of time it at present address
Contact information for present and past landlords
Contact information for employer
Present employment income and other income sources
References – personal and credit

Interviewing Candidates

Conducting an interview is not always necessary. If you have complete information from your application form, you may be able to forego an interview. Still, an interview can be helpful in finding the best tenant for your property.

When you conduct an interview, you must keep in mind that you must abide by fair housing laws, which means you cannot ask questions that are outside of the normal standards for qualifying candidates.

This entire process should lead you to the best applicant who will be a tenant in your property.

And the easiest way to ensure you attract the very best tenants without risk of violating laws or the daily headaches of tenant management is to hire Utz Property Management to take care of the job for you.

You can start by scheduling your PROPERTY PROFITS STRATEGY SESSION.

In This FREE 1 Hour Session, an expert real estate investment coach from our team will work personally with you to…

Examine your current real estate investment portfolio/plans to see what’s working and what’s hurting. Discover where you’re making money and losing it.
Search for the diamonds in your backyard, the low-hanging profit opportunities that can be made with minor tweaks.
Diagnose the biggest roadblock to scaling your business fast and profitably.
Present the best path for tweaking your investment game-plan so you can build wealth faster, with more predictability and stability.

Schedule your PROPERTY PROFITS STRATEGY SESSION today.