Door hangers on local Apartment Complex for home sale marketing??

Question

I have a couple homes I want to sell and would like to market to the renters that might be looking to buy a home. (First time home buyers, etc.) Is there anything wrong with putting door hangers on the local apartment complexes with an ad for a house for sale showing mortgage rates etc.? I also have rentals and would never advertise like this to steal away a renter, but this is a different situation with buying a home.

Anyone do anything similar for marketing or is this just a bad move?

What about college dorms? Targeting the students that will be moving out of the dorms?

Thank you

Steve Babiak · Answer

I left flyers on car windshields at an apartment complex, since there was only one common outside entrance for multiple units. That did bring somebody to the house; my flyer had "rent to own" in it, and that's what they were hoping for. Since I left it on the cars, and not the doors, nobody from the management bothered me.

Michael K. · Answer

Just saw this, so please pardon me for replying to an old post. Keep in mind that non-government-owned apartments are private property. We had a Realtor in my office who tried door hangings. She was caught by apartment staff and the police were called. The apartment manager wanted to cite for her CRIMINAL TRESPASS. In the end, she was legally informed by the responding officers that she was trespassing, further informed that she was banned from the property as per the owners themselves, and was told to either leave or be cited and arrested. She quickly left. While this was going on, the custodian was tasked with removing ALL of her placed hangings. He tore each one in half before returning them to her. Mean, but not illegal. Parking lots are also private property and any large community WILL keep an eye on the lots for fliers. And unless you don't leave any contact information (what's the point, then?), they'll know who to go after for trespass. Getting renters is tough enough without people poaching them to buy a house! My recommendation is to send mailings. It's illegal for anybody to interfere with the US Mail. If it's a questionable complex, send them inside plain envelopes. Just be sure to learn how their addressing system works. Up here, some apartment complexes have numbers on the units and buildings that appear to work one way, yet the mailing addresses work an entirely different way. You might find it worth your while to wander the complex dressed like a typical tenant. Get a look at the mailboxes to see how the mail is actually addressed. This is especially important inside of a large complex with their own streets. We've got one a few miles from here where the internal streets all have their own names. However, the mailing addresses are all based off of the main (public) street just outside of the complex. Every other year some rookie agent gets 200+ of their mailers returned as undeliverable because they didn't bother to check the mailing conventions. I don't recommend the about-to-graduate college set. Most will have little more than mountains of student loan debt and resumes to pass around. Professional grad students (medical, law, etc.) COULD work within a year or two of graduation, loans or not. Success here requires more than a bit of planning. Good luck with your search! Mike

Dale Osborn · Answer

When I was an apartment owner, I did not appreciate those flyers appearing on the property. Most of the tenants would take them off of their door/winshield and drop it on the ground. I would then call the number on the flyer and have them send someone over to pick them all up or I would file a complaint of littering on my property. They came and picked the stuff up and most honor the NO SOLICITOR sign on the property! It takes a little training, but then you do not have this problem!

Bill Patterson · Answer

A local builder of starter homes that could be purchased for monthly payments about the same as a rental payment targeted renters. He put ads in the local paper with the rental ads and has had great success. You may also be able to post on on-line rental boards. Mike is correct that the management would frown on you trying to steal their tenants!

Joshua Dorkin · Answer

I'd say that Steve's method is probably a better bet, unless the apartment building is garden style where you've got access to all the doors. If you need to access through a secure door and start throwing door decks up, you're response won't likely be what you're looking for. I'd vote for putting flyers on car windshields instead.

Steve Dussault · Answer

I haven't tried that, but think it would be a decent strategy - especially if you have several homes for sale in the area. However, the apartment complexes are private property and may have rules against solicitation. The worst that could happen, though, would be for them to tell you to stop. Better to beg for forgiveness than ask permission!