There’s no denying it, ineffectively marketing your rental portfolio will inevitably hurt your bottom line. Unfortunately, the bills keep coming in even when the monthly rent is not. Here are some easy marketing tips to get your rental leased fast and keep you in the green.
1. Always Use Professional Photos
Taking a couple of snaps of the home with your iPhone might seem like the economical decision to get your rental on the market but consider these numbers… The average American home costs around $230k. That means for every day that home sits vacant about $50 is thrown away. Ok, but what does professional photography cost? Having a professional take photos of the home will run you around $150. Seems kind of steep until you consider that professional photos have been proven to rent homes more than two weeks faster. Pro photography could save $850 in mounting bills a year. Plus, you can re-use the photos every time you turn over tenants.
2. Add a Floor Plan
It’s true that millennials are renting over buying real estate. As this generation enters the housing market, rental shopping has become extremely competitive. Floor plans help the hopeful tenant tour the property virtually, visualizing the flow of the space and mentally placing furniture in rooms. Adding a floor plan to a photo order will help renters know within a couple of clicks if they are interested in the property or not. Trying to gain an edge on first come first serve policies––it’s common for renters to apply for a property before ever stepping foot in the home. Receiving applications without having to drive to the property saves a lot of time (and money). Floor plans cost about $100, well worth the money for pre-leasing the property.
3. Show Space’s Potential While Property is Still Renter Occupied
One of the most common uses for photo editing in real estate is virtual staging. Ideally, the rentals property’s marketing process starts while a tenant is still living in the space (and paying the bills). You can use technology to virtually stage the property without waiting for the tenant to vacate the property––reducing your vacancy rates.
4. Remove Eyesores with Photo Editing
A skilled photoshop professional can also remove eyesores from your rental to improve its marketability. What if you never had to use a photo with a beat-up car parked on the street again? Or what if you could breathe life back into a neglected yard digitally? The cost of this work starts at $10 but can vary based on the level of difficulty.
5. Advertise on Social Media
Ads are a great way to target your ideal renter for a fraction of the cost of flyers or yard signs. Placing your own ad can be frustrating and ineffective. For a more hands-off approach try placing a Facebook ad through CaptuRE, PlanOmatic’s advertising product. CaptuRE uses the data and photos from your PlanOmatic photography order to create a targeted advertisement in as few as 3 clicks. It doesn’t get much easier than that.
Reduce your vacancy rates by utilizing these simple and cost-effective marketing tools. Investing a little goes a long way in marketing rental properties.