It’s hard to make money from a rental property if you don’t have someone living in it paying rent.
There’s two parts to getting a good tenant in your property:
1) Finding Tenants, and
2) Screening Tenants
Related: 14 Ways to Get Better Tenants in Your Rental Homes in Detroit MI
Today, I’m happy to share some ways you can take care of the former.
Let’s get started.
1. Sign in the Yard
Don’t make this thing more complex than it really is. This “old school” tactic still works in 2013!
Matter of fact, I was recently able to bring in 12 leads in one week by just having a “For Rent” sign in the yard, and nothing else.
Now if your rental property sits in certain parts of Detroit, you might be nervous about putting a “For Rent” sign in the yard, and I understand that. The last thing you want to do in some neighborhoods is make it obvious that it’s vacant.
Just keep in mind that there are some things you can do to protect your house if it’s vacant.
Related: How to Protect Your Detroit Vacant Homes
On top of that, believe it or not, most people in that neighborhood know the house is vacant anyways.
2. Know What to Put on the Sign
To minimize the amount of phone calls I get, I like to put certain information on the sign.
For example, I like to put the amount of the security deposit, the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, as well as how much they need to move-in on the sign.
It’s so annoying to be in the midst of working on other stuff to have to stop to answer these questions repeatedly throughout the day.
Now granted, everybody isn’t going to read all that info on the sign and call anyways, but at least some of them will.
3. Use Craigslist
Most of the tenants I’ve found over the years actually found me through my regular old Craigslist ads.
Yes, there’s other sites on the Internet for finding tenants, but just about everybody knows about Craigslist.
In my opinion, the keys to seeing success on Craigslist are to:
- Have all the advantages of your property mentioned in the ad, and to
- Keep posting it your ad. If you only post it once, it’s going to get bumped down in the listings by newer posts. That’s why I suggest that you try to re-post your rental ads every two days or so.
4. Use Google Voice
While we’re talking about what to put on the signs, let me tell you what I wouldn’t put on the sign; my personal cellphone number.
It’s just something about putting my cellphone number on a sign that any and everybody can see that makes me uncomfortable about it.
What I do instead, is get a Google Voice number, and put that number on the sign.
I go into the settings for that account, and have those calls forwarded to my cellphone.
5. Use GoSection8.com
If you accept Section 8, you might want to consider posting your property on GoSection8.com.
It’s a website where people with Section 8 vouchers often go to find available rentals that take Section 8.
Related: The Pros and Cons of Providing Low Income Housing in Detroit MI
6. Hire a Property Management Company
A lot property management companies already have marketing systems in place to attract tenants.
Even if you don’t want to use their property management services, you can pay them to find a tenant for you.
The going rate for this service is usually equal to one month’s rent for your property.
Example
So let’s say I’m a property manager, and you hire me to find a tenant for your house, which you’re charging $900 a month in rent for.
When and if I find a tenant for you, you’d pay me $900.
7. Offer Bonuses to Existing Tenants
You can even put out incentives to your other tenants to help you find a tenant.
Examples of things you can offer them are items like gift cards, or offering to take few hundred dollars off of their rent for a month.
The opportunities here are only limited by your imagination.
I have some work to take care of, so I’ll pick up where I left off in part two.
How do you find most of your tenants? Leave a comment.
