My rental won't rent. What are my next steps?

[Melissa Faraias]

Hello BP community,

I am an out-of-state newbie investor with a rental that is currently on the market in Bluffton SC. I have posted the listing on all major sites like Zillow, FB marketplace, apartments.com, Craigslist, RentRedi and have had my contractor put flyers all over the place. I am getting inquiries on the rental but so far nobody has filled out the application. It's been on the market for 3 weeks now and I'm wondering how to get it moving. We have advertised an open house for the upcoming weekend but so far no inquiries. I dropped the rental rate last week and it is now below market rate but there are currently lots of active rentals on the market. Looking for some advice on what to do next? Should I had it over to a local realtor or property manager or drop the price further and continue for another week? I have three rentals in Houston, which rented quickly so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong here. Thank you for any advice that you can give me.

[Greg M.]

Quote from @Ke Nan Wang:

If you find a good prospect and you want to place them, I would even recommend 1st month free if they sign a lease today. I'm mean the chances are you aren't gonna rent it for that 1st month anyway so it's just sounds like a very good deal to the prospect. 

I've always felt this was risky with a new tenant. You don't know what type of tenant they're going to be and you're giving them the first month free.

Maybe offer their 12th month free with the caveat that the prior 11 months rent must have been paid on time and no lease violations.