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Are your vacant rentals getting lost in the crowded single-family rental market? As this post suggests, we are seeing more and more rental properties listed online. With this increased competition, many property managers are having a hard time attracting leads and leasing up their vacant homes. What to do?
Consider the Customer’s Behavior
The rental search has become very digital, as outlined in Zillow Rentals’ 2022 Consumer Housing Trends Report. Renters are using mobile sites more often to conduct their search, they are submitting applications and leases electronically, and interestingly the number of renters that conducted zero in-person tours has steadily increased to 23% over the last four years.
What does this mean? When you publish your vacant rental home online, it needs to stand out. How? That’s where the good news comes in: It’s simple!
Photography Quality for Vacant Rentals is Surprisingly Bad
We did a deep dive into the Indianapolis market, which is consistently ranked around #10 by the number of SFR properties available. We looked at a sample of 500 properties and graded the photography quality. Here is what we found:
- 70% of rental homes managed by Mid-Market Property Management companies used “Poor” photography
- Compare this to homes managed by Institutional SFR companies – only 20% used “Poor” quality photography
If you are a property management company marketing rental homes for retail landlords or mid-size investors, you can get an immediate leg up on 70% of your competition by simply adding professional photography to your standard marketing and leasing process.
A Summary For Your Investor
So if your investor is hesitant to embrace professional photography, here is a quick summary:
- More renters are conducting their search online, they are going on fewer in-person tours, and they rely on whatever visual content is available online to make their leasing decision.
Most Mid-Market Property Management companies are not using professional photography on their vacant rental homes, while most Institutional SFR companies are using professional photography.