SS216: How to Find Tenants

SS216: How to Find Tenants

Renting apartments requires a mix of marketing, screening, and strategy. In this episode, Charles discusses how they successfully find tenants and rent apartments.

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Talking Points:

  • Finding tenants requires a mix of marketing, screening, and strategy. Here are some things I have done to find reliable tenants.
    • 1. Ensure your property is 100% ready before you market and show the property. I have never rented an apartment to a potential tenant who saw a partially ready unit.
    • 2. Spend time verifying the rent is the correct amount. Find nearby comparables and possibly mystery shop them to verify the asking rental amount is accurate.
    • 3. Launch a marketing campaign. If you have rented the property before, you most likely know where they found you. Keep track of this information and make a marketing campaign that you can easily activate every time you have a vacancy. This campaign will include a full write-up of the unit with tenants’ requirements and pictures. This will take a little time initially to set up, but once it is done, you just need to make small tweaks to it (change pricing and maybe some updated photos) and turn it live in minutes. This is a perfect task for a virtual assistant. Additionally, you can use the listing template with all your other units at the property and possibly at your other properties as well, with just a couple of changes. Always include your tenant requirements in the listing. You don’t want to waste time talking to someone asking what credit scores you will accept.
      • There are many different websites where you can advertise your rental. For years, I rented my own properties simply by posting them on Craigslist. I then started adding Zillow, and in my market, I would get 25 or more inquiries in a couple of days for an apartment I was renting. What I have found is that rental websites can be market-dependent. We have an apartment complex outside of Atlanta and in this market, we stopped posting on Apartments.com since we rarely found tenants through this platform. In Tampa, we found that Zillow was where most of our renters found us, followed by Realtor.com. Like all marketing, it is mainly trial, error, and tracking.
      • The goal is always more inquiries. When you have dozens of people reaching out to rent, you can now choose your ideal tenant without making any sacrifices.
      • When I rented apartments myself, I would choose a couple of times where I would set up multiple showings, maybe only separated by 15 minutes. You will have no-shows, people early and late, and it always worked out for me. Usually, on the first showing day or the second showing day, I would rent the unit.
  • Also, don’t forget to check out episode SS203, in which I discuss effective tips for tenant screening.

Transcript:

Charles:
What’s the secret of finding reliable tenants without the headaches? Today I’m breaking it all down. After renting out hundreds of units and testing many apartment marketing strategies, I’ve learned exactly what works and what doesn’t when it comes to attracting great tenants. Here’s the truth from marketing and rental property wrong can cost you thousands, but don’t worry, I’m here to help you avoid that mistake. Welcome the strategy Saturday, I’m Charles Carillo, and today we’re diving into the exact steps you need to take to find high quality tenants for your rental properties. From prepping your property to pricing it right and even launching a marketing campaign that gets results. We’re covering it all gloss. I’ll share my favorite tips for maximizing inquiries and choosing the ideal tenant. So let’s get started. Finding tenants requires a mix of marketing, screening and strategy. And here’s some things that I have done to find reliable tenants over the years.

Charles:
Number one, ensure your property is 100% ready before you market and show the property. And this is like a big amateur mistake that I have made multiple times, but I’ve never rented an apartment to a potential tenant who saw a partially ready unit. Wait until it’s done. Number two, spend time verifying the rent is the correct amount. Find nearby comparables like actual accurate comparables and possibly mystery. Shop them to verify the asking rental amount is accurate. You can do a lot of it just from the street. If you see a property and it’s got a different curb appeal than yours maybe your rental amount’s off a little bit. You might not have to go into the property, right? You can utilize some of the pictures that they have versus what you have. And then drive the neighborhood because this is exactly what a potential tenant’s gonna do to your property, is what they’re doing to that person’s property.

Charles:
Launch a marketing campaign is number three, and if you’ve rented the property before, you most likely know where they found you. Keep track of this information and make a marketing campaign that you can easily activate every time you have a vacancy. This campaign will include a full writeup of the unit with tenants requirements and pictures. This will take a little time initially to set up, but once it’s done, you’ll need to make just small tweaks to it every time. Maybe change pricing and some updated photos to turn it live in just minutes. And this is a perfect task for a virtual system. Additionally, you can use the listing template with all your other units at the property and possibly at your other properties as well with just a couple small change. Always include your tenant requirements and listing because you don’t wanna waste time talking to someone that’s asking what the minimum credit score is that you’ll accept.

Charles:
Now there are many different websites where you can advertise your rental. For years, I rented my own property simply by posting them on Craigslist and also putting a sign in the yard. But I found that I got better tenants when they came through an online source. I then started adding Zillow and in my market I would get about 25 or more inquiries in a couple of days for one apartment listing that I was renting. Now what I have found is that rental websites can be very market dependent. We have an apartment complex outside of Atlanta and this market we stopped posting and paying for apartments.com. Since we really found tenants through this platform in Tampa, we found that Zillow was where most of our renters found us. Followed by realtor.com. Like all marketing, it is mainly trial error and tracking. Now what we’ll use what we’ve been using lately is we’ve been using websites that post to many different platforms at once.

Charles:
This makes activating the campaign easy, but it also makes it very easy for deactivating it. Now, if you have a larger property that always has vacancies, you can kind of just let it run, right? By adding partners up if they’re different or if you have one that’s kind of a similar unit, you can pretty much just let that thing run and then take those leads and just know this is my monthly marketing budget. But if you know, or if you’ve used any of the websites like this, please put ’em into the comments ’cause we’re always seeing what other people are using. ’cause There’s so many of these websites out there that do something similar. Now, the goal is always more inquiries. When you have dozens of people reaching out to rent, you can now choose your ideal tenant without making any sacrifices. Okay?

Charles:
When I rented apartments myself, I would choose a couple of times where I would set up multiple showings, maybe only separated by 15 minutes. Now, the point of this is that you might say, okay, I’m showing it Thursday, four to 6:00 PM and set people up four o’clock, four 15. Don’t tell ’em you’re gonna be there four to six, but just tell ’em 4, 4 15, 4 30, 4 45, 5, whatever it is. Because you’re gonna have some no-shows. You’re gonna have people early, you’re gonna have people late. And it always worked out for me because if someone just calls in and you fill ’em up, just give ’em a time between it and they’ll show up or they might not. That way if you have six people that showed up, even though you had eight showing scheduled, you still show the property six times. The chances of you renting it are now much better.

Charles:
And also the other thing too with this is that you don’t have to account for everybody within it. You don’t have to just drive out there and have to hope that someone shows up even after you check with them. Because no matter how many times you confirm, some people just won’t show up. And I usually found it on the firsthand showing day or on the second showing day, I would rent the unit to one of those potential tenants. So also don’t forget the checkout episode SS 2 0 3. That’s SS 2 0 3 in which I discussed effective tips for tenant screening once you get them into your property and they wanna rent. So I hope you enjoyed, please remember to rate, review, subscribe to become central show topics@globalinvestorspodcast.com. If you’re interested in actively investing in real estate, please check out our courses and mentoring programs@syndicationsuperstars.com. That is syndication superstars.com. Look forward to two more episodes next week. See you then

Links Mentioned In The Episode:

  • SS203: Insider Tips for Effective Tenant Screening

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