Rental Property Marketing is one of the most important jobs of being a DIY landlord.  This fundamental step can project the future outcome of being a happy or sad landlord, as such landlords should never overlook this step.  A landlord needs to be picky with who they allow in their rental property, what kind of person are you allowing to stay in your  property and can you trust this person to take care of your rental property.  Most landlords would say that you get good and bad tenants.  It is for this reason that I decided today we need to look at the marketing alleys available to DIY landlords when it come to rental property marketing.

Allowing yourself to use as many marketing techniques as possible, will open the market to a greater pool of potential tenants, thus allowing you to choose the best possible tenant for your rental property.

1. Use Great Signage in rental property marketing

Looks Professional

Consider making the once off expense by having a professional Graphic Designer design you a “for rent” board.  This way you can have the designer leave space for the essential information you want to display and not just a generic or hand written plywood board.

Visibility

It is essential that people should be able to see the sign from the street, even while driving by.

Key Information

Make sure the potential tenants who phone are aware beforehand of the rental rate, amount of bedrooms, pet friendly or not, smokers friendly or not….  there is no point in having people phone you if they don’t even know the rate.

Chances are because they don’t know they won’t even phone.

Read More: Designing your rental property’s “For Rent” sign

2. Use your Social Network in rental property marketing

There is no shame in putting the word out there that you have a rental space available.  Use your family and friends as well as your entire social media network.  I found twitter amongst my friends alone has helped greatly.

Word of mouth still works the best, whether it is literally or digitally.

3. Use the Internet in rental property marketing

Use Graigslist or Gumtree for South Africans

These type of website has shown to increase your chances significantly.  I know of people who only make use of Gumtree to fill their rental properties with good sucess.  However these website are for people looking for any kind of tenant, if you are a picky landlord these websites (Gumtree) might not be the best choice.

Make a Website

Applications such as wordpress makes it super easy to have a dedicated website up and running in an hour or two.  This way when you do market your rental property through your social network, you can simply send your potential tenants to the site.

Use Youtube

Make a virtual tour of your property and post it to Youtube.  Allowing potential tenants to “view” the property before they call/email will eliminate so many maybe viewings.  This will save you time and serious amount of effort, especially if your rental property is a far distance away from you.

Selling/renting Sites

You can always make use of websites that are dedicated to selling/renting of property, such as Private Property.  Many potential tenants will visit these sites, it is in my opinion for a rental property marketing must.

4. Property Management Company can manage your rental property marketing

I can truly recommend making use of a property management company, like Mafadi,  if all of this seems like too much effort on your part. Marketing can often lead to a miss or hit situation.  If you tried and still you bear no fruits I would consider going with a property management company strongly.  These companies know what they do, this is their bread and butter.  By using them as your marketing alley they will find you an appropriate tenant as well as handle all the remaining nitty gritty stuff, like the Lease Agreement.  Property management Companies are also perfect for if you ever need to evict a tenant, companies like Mafadi will also be the ones ensuring you and your property stay within the legal bounds of the law.

Read More: Pros fro using a Rental Realtor

5. Other Marketing alleys to try in rental property marketing

Open your house

Some folks like leaving the curtains open – thus allowing curious potential renters to have a sneak peak.  This is a nice idea, however in South Africa this will not work simple because landlords also don’t want to attract the wrong kind of eyes.

Local Newspaper

Many landlords make use of their local newspaper to market their rental property.  I think this is still a nice idea, just to cover your bases.  However times have changed, and using a digital marketing alleys has shown to give far better returns for the time, effort and cost.  But if your local newspaper is cheap, then why not.

Referral Program

Some landlords offer a financial incentive for old tenants to refer new potential tenants to your property.  This way you are sure to keep the word of mouth going, not a bad idea in general.

These are the top 5 Ways to market your Rental Property, if this seems like too much work then please give Mafadi a call.  As I said before this typre of business is their bread and butter.  You will be surprise by how little they charge and how well they can do their job.

 

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Written by Lizl Brink, Lizl is copywriter and designer based in Johannesburg, she is also a frequent contributor to the Mafadi blog, and as an Urban investor and rejuvenation shares a passion for urban regeneration, go check out her personal portfolio here
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