When do you list your rental?

[Aaron Hunt]

For rentals that are occupied...what is the optimal time for listing and marketing your rental in advance of the upcoming vacancy?

I have noticed potential agents/tenants tend to avoid going to homes where there is a current tenant.

On the other hand, does the increased marketing exposure help get it rented without vacancy?

Problem is if you list too early, the listing goes stale and looks like it’s been sitting around for 30+ days when in reality there was a tenant in there.

What is the optimal sweet spot for listing a vacancy? A month before move out? A week? After tenant move-out? Or after all turnover repairs/fixes are completed?

[Steve Rozenberg]

It is a tough call, we used to allow our owners to lease the properties when they were occupied. The challenge is you have to coordinate with the tenant, make sure its clean and presentable. People that are looking to move into a rental to live are emotionally attached to the property. If there is dirt or dust and if the couches are dirty etc.. they do not like that and the home may sit longer. Not because anything is wrong but because they cant envision living there. Also if the home is on the market longer becasue of that people may start to think something is wrong with the home and it becomes "Stale".. 

So basically because of that we have decided to not list occupied homes :-) 

Hope this helps