Trouble finding tenants in St. Louis

[Mike NA]

Hello. I have a few multi-family properties in the city of St. Louis. I've been buying them for a few years now, and I have to say it has been tough. Our downtown has been coming back for a while now, and you can still find deals there. There is a problem, though.

I've had a very tough time finding tenants. Whenever we've had vacancies, it has taken a few months to get them filled. I've been advertising in the paper, on the lawn, on craigslist, on socialserve.com, and still it has been very very tough.

I have a 2 bedroom unit that has been totally rehabbed and has gone empty for almost 3 months since. I've had 2 applicants, but they have had histories of evictions, so that was a no go. We're getting 2-3 showings a week, but no luck. I have a management company watching my properties and they can't figure it out either.

Does anyone have any suggestions? We've dropped our prices from $525/month to $450 a month, which makes it an amazing deal, even in St. Louis.

I'm just pulling my hair out here. Does anyone have any suggestions?