In this series of articles on how to fill rental house vacancies fast for more money we have talked about merging modern hi tech marketing with tried and true direct response advertising and some things we discovered in psychological and marketing research about why people make buying decisions.
And while this will get people in the door faster and for more money, the best technique to reduce vacancies is not to have any.
Of course that is not possible. People will move and life happens. But it is possible to reduce the number of vacancies and at the same time you can develop additional revenue sources and prospects from the current tenants.
The additional revenue sources are limited only by your imagination. Obviously you can rent furniture and household items. We recommend shopping for the tenants' needs at the Sheriff's Youth Ranch store where everything goes on sale at some time or another and was cheap to start.
If you do not have one in your area, try Salvation Army, Goodwill, etc.
Ask the "employees" walking around the store when what you want will go on sale. In the Sherriff's Youth Ranch, many of these "employees" are convicts working off community service time and have no desire to see store profits maximized and will help you. Imagine teaming up with convicts to rent houses fast for more money and it's all legal.
Charge for washer and dryer, television, beds, dishes. Anything you can buy cheap you can rent for less than the professional rental companies. You and the tenants both win.
Put your tenants on your renters email list and let them know what you have in available housing because they may have friends that would be interested if your tenants knew about the vacancy. They will also probably not recommend friends that are not suitable.
One tenant told me her cousin was looking for a place but she had just been evicted because she lived "La Vida Loca." A good endorsement or a bad one are equally valuable coming from someone who really knows.
In one of the bonuses we offer with the purchase of our new eBook "911 for Landlords: Help is on the Way," we offer a list of two dozen ways to increase revenues or decrease expenses of rental properties.
Be sensitive to the tenants needs and take the attitude you are all together trying to solve mutual problems. Do not think of a world of us against them. Think of working together and expect favorable outcomes.
You want to treat the existing tenants as assets just as you do a call
from a tenant who is not qualified for the house you are marketing now. Both current tenants and prospects not qualified for the current vacancy can help develop future business.
Extending your tenants stay creates fewer vacancies to fill and it is amazing how they can come up with leads from time to time. We are not suggesting that you do renovations or needless work to keep them happy, rather realize in the age where the Internet offers everything for free you simply need be more tuned into what the tenants are thinking and need.
You also need to be finding the cheapest way to full fill needs and desires and honest ways to say no that will satisfy the tenant's ego if not his wish for a new microwave. Legal, societal and media movements make the playing field more tenant friendly and require smarter landlord answers.
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