Strategies to attract tenants to townhomes/ apartments

[William Allen Ball]

We are building 32 townhomes (8- 4plex).  We have an agent on site and host open houses every Saturday.  We have done a lot of advertising and marketing on social and Google ads .  We know our rent rate is at the top end of the range for the area, but not over the top.  We are still in construction on parts of the complex but have 12 units ready and 4 of them are rented.  Our problem is that we are struggling to bring people in to even look at them.  My question is about incentives/ enticements or just biting the bullet and lowering the rent.  We already have washer and dryer included with each unit, granite throughout, stainless appliances.

We have considered things like free wifi or first months rent 1/2 off, but not sure if that is enough to drive interest. We are at the point of considering to lower the rent rate by $100, but this makes our DCR (which is already lower than the bank wants) that much lower..

I am looking for advice on what others have done to drive traffic and convert lookers to tenants.

Thank you in advance !

[Erik W.]

The top three criteria renters look for:
1) Price

2) Location

3) Amenities

You need to shop your competition, which it sounds like you've done at least partially since you seem to know what the rent range is. So the next question is what are other complexes in your area (location) doing? You can't change the location, you think you're on the money with the price, so all you can do now is complete with amenities.

Do they offer free wifi? If yes, then you must also. 

Do they have a pool? If you don't... probably renters will fill up the pool units first. Can't fix that one unless you want to offer free gym memberships.

Do they offer free 1st months rent or $99 security deposit? If yes, then you must also.

Dig in and find out why everyone else is getting rented and you aren't. If during your digging you find out everyone else is having the same vacancy problems you are, then likely it's time to bite the bullet and drop your rents significantly.