1st Rental Property Closes Escrow on 9/26 -- When Can I Begin Marketing?

[Kristann Montague]

Hi everyone. I'm a newbie investor and have some questions. This week I just purchased my first rental property (a SFH). Closing date is scheduled for 9/26/12. I'm unsure as to when I can begin marketing this property to prospective tenants. I'd like to start at least a couple of weeks prior to closing date by putting up Postlets on Craigslist and Zillow, and announcing a couple of open houses for prospective tenants on 9/29 and 9/30 (I plan to do showings primarily through open houses). I know I couldn't put up a For Rent sign up until the house is mine, unless the sellers consent to doing that earlier (I haven't asked yet and not sure whether I should even bother).

Since I won't officially own the house until 9/26 (assuming all goes well), I know I can't start showing the house until then. However, is there anything to prevent me from marketing in advance, as long as I am clear as to the availability for showing/move in? Obviously I want to rent out this property as soon as possible, but don't want to violate any laws/protocol by doing this. I also think I have a good handle on what the fair market rent is for this property, but by advertising early I think I could better gauge the interest level at the rate I'll be asking (and if there is little interest, maybe that means I need to lower the rent).

Speaking of which, I do have another question. How accurate is Zillow for establishing fair market rents? Zillow says this property should rent at $1225/month while my realtor estimated $1125 - $1150/mo. I was planning to market it at $1195 and if there's not a lot of interest, to lower it to $1150.