Using apartment websites to bring higher rent??

Question

Obviously, craigslist, signs and newspaper ads can bring in your average renter.

Have any of you found rental sites such as Rent.com or Apartment.com any use in bringing in a higher rent?  I have regularly checked rental ads, and they always seem to list apartments at considerably higher rent than the above methods.

But do they work?

Joel Owens · Answer

NO

I typically find putting a sign at the front of the road to rent units works best.People drive around and call off the signs. Also people that live close by but do not like the current landlord might want to move to your unit.

The question becomes are they moving because they are a dead beat tenant or are they moving because the landlord never fixes anything?? Usually it's about 50/50 and you have to screen them out.

I have found also that hiring someone for a few hours to stand with a sign at a busy intersection works well also.Another thing that works well is offering a referral fee to your existing tenants for someone that moves in.

I would make a condition that the tenant being referred has to pay at least the first 2 payments on time for the existing tenant to get paid a referral fee.

This usually deters your current tenant referring a bum who won't pay as they will never receive the fee.I ask when I get  a call if the potential tenant has done a drive by or not.I found many once they drove by they didn't like the area or the buildings for whatever reason.

So apartment  and those other websites have better luck with bigger unit properties 50 or more than the smaller ones.This has just been my experience.

Samantha Lunzer · Answer

While most of my calls come from signs, I think that it's still important to have a presence on those sites. I have noticed a high number of people calling from there, but the ones that do I usually can generate a lot of revenue off of. Maybe it's because the people who are using online methods are doing more research because they are willing to spend a hefty penny... if they can spend it in the right place.

Michael Lauther · Answer

Ned Carey, now that is harsh. I would most defiantly bring at least a folding chair, standing is hard on the feet. Perhaps I will find a decent property manager by then.

Ned Carey · Answer

I can see you now Michael, standing on a corner with a tears coming down your face. Sniff sniff "Will someone pleeeease rent my apartment"

Michael Lauther · Answer

My best rental source has been sighs but currently I am targeting section 8 and active duty servicemen (and women) on a nearby air force base. both Have generated calls of qualified tenants however the signs and tenant referrals have filled my current vacancies. The section 8 website and the air force base website has continued to provide candidates and I have a waiting list for future rentals as they come on line.

Steve Babiak · Answer

Ken Latchers - if the property is in Phila metropolitan area, there is a service called Locators that you can use.  They run ads in the print media (check the local newspaper for their phone number).  Free for landlords unless you want a "premium placement".

Locators sells lists of available rentals to tenants, so the tenants pay them the fees.  Premium placement gets you near the top of the list rather than lower placement.  I offer to reimburse any tenants I get through them the fee that was paid by that tenant, but I make it conditional on the tenant fulfilling the lease and the reimbursement is in the last month (not up front).  The one tenant I got through them was a few years back (and before I offered to reimburse, so I didn't pay anything to get them), and they turned out to be good tenants.  Other prospects from Locators seemed to be of good caliber (even though they did not fill out applications, from meeting and talking with them you can get a feel for how they might be).  I suspect the lowlife tenants aren't going to pay for the list in the first place.

I haven't used HAPCO's paid by landlord service yet, but you might want to investigate them if you are paying other services.

As I've stated repeatedly here on BP, my best tenant prospects were found from the "For Rent" signs in front of the house; since I have rentals in a cluster, I put a sign on the occupied ones too.  I've gotten a few calls where the caller saw the sign on the occupied unit and not the vacant unit, even though the vacant unit was just one block over.

Jason Mak · Answer

i own several +50 apartment buildings and it just depends...every market works differently.  I'm currently using forrent.com and rent.com.  I like rent.com because you pay them a leasing fee only when you sign a lease.  It's a little over $400 but I feel that it is worth it.

I'm not so hot on forrent.com, you pay a monthly fee and then you need to pay an additional premium price if you want your listings up on top with all the corporate players.

Otherwise, I have someone posting on craigslist on a daily basis.   I've also spent good money building quality websites for each property and paid SEO specialists to bring traffic there.

Would love to hear other marketing strategies that people have been successful with.

Ann Bellamy · Answer

I've tried rent.com and still got almost all my responses from craigslist.  So that and a sign out front are all I use to generate plenty of calls

Joel Owens · Answer

I don't know why they twirl those signs.You can't read the darn things!!

What I am talking about is you pick lunch or dinner times and have  a person go out at  a busy intersection where the traffic light takes a long time between letting each lane go.During the peak times you can pick up calls that way and rent out units.If you were in a really rural area you might employ a different strategy versus and urban or suburban rental.

Joel Owens · Answer

The buildings on those sites for the most part are bigger complexes.That means manager on site,maintenance on site,possibly gated entrance,pool,tennis court,laundry facility,meet and greet space,and workout facility,etc.

The age and amenities dictate the rent price of a building as well as if you unit just shares common walls or is stacked with people above and below you and behind you and beside you.

Also some of the older buildings include utilities.So when looking at rent comps you have to drill down and make sure you are comparing apples to apples.When someone shows various rent comps I can explain why one is one price over another.

Also comes to even finish for the area.Example 1,200 sq ft 2 bed 1 bath in an area that is 30 years old with cedar siding rents for 800 a month.Conversely the same 1,200 sq ft town house 1/4 mile away has brick finish with molding,garage,and granite and crown molding interior and rents for 1,250 a month in the same area.

One tenant base is typically a retiree with a pension and the other tenant is a worker with 2 jobs looking for space for their family without all the bells and whistles for a cheaper price.

Using apartment websites to bring higher rent??

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