No interest in property - am i impatient?

[Erin Malone]

Hi - 

I put my condo th up for rent in mid Dec.  It seems to be in the middle of the range for listings in the Annapolis area at $1899.  It has all new appliances, 2 large MBR, a good location near shopping and 1 min to highway and new paint.  It even has a jacuzzi tub and fireplace in one of the bedrooms.  I first listed in only on Craigslist and got no interest.  I am hoping it was the holidays.  I listed it on Zillow and Cozy per recommendations just a few days ago.  It was the second most viewed out of 18 on Zillow with about 50 views but I have only had one person ask to see it when they come in town in two weeks.  

Is it the time of the year?  Am I being impatient?  Is it just that something at a higher price point takes longer to rent?  My mortgage is in the $1100 range so I could come down.  I got married last year and we needed someplace bigger.  I thought this would be an easy rental but I am starting to get nervous.

Any suggestions you can give me would be great.  I might just need to relax and hearing that I am over anxious is fine too.  

Thank you,

Erin

[Bill Pate]

No interest = price is too high.  Guaranteed.  You would be amazed how even a 10 dollar reduction in the monthly rent charged will make a 300% difference in interest.  How are you advertising the property?  I personally use zillow, hotpads, facebook, and craigslist.  All are free and generate tons of interest.  I always keep my rents in bottom 5%.  You don't make as much as you could, but I get less turn over and I have a larger pool of good applicants to choose from.  Learned that lesson on my first rental.  Tried to keep the price just below the highest rents charged and got almost zero interest.  Dropped the rent to the bottom 10% and I had 5 people waiting to see the place when I did a showing.  Don't bother advertising that you dropped the price.  It only tells people you were overcharging in the first place.  Make sure you put as much detail in the ad as possible include room dimensions, pet policy, address of property, and TONS of pictures.  The more descriptive the ad the better.  I always look for what comparable properties are renting for in the area and then I make my rent $10 a month cheaper than the cheapest one.  People love to have all the amenities you describe, but at the end of the day everyone thinks with their wallet.