Investing in Real Estate? Three Steps to Marketing for Multiple Rental

The outlook for real estate investing in 2017 is nice and bright thanks to a recovering economy and certain trends related to employment in the United States. Prospective investors can certainly benefit from these trends as they relate to rental opportunities.

One example of a housing market where property investors are poised to thrive through the end of this decade is Seattle, a metropolitan area that seeks to merge with the Canadian city of Vancouver in terms of technological business innovation. One of the ideas being hatched in Seattle is to serve as an incubator for Vancouver startups; one element of this idea would be to attract Canadian work teams to move to Seattle for as long as work or business visas will allow so that they can develop their ideas.

Major Seattle tech companies such as Amazon, Boeing and Microsoft would be interested in purchasing the final products, services and concepts developed by small startup firms, whose members would live in homes rented by the sponsoring companies. What this means for real estate investors is a great opportunity to cash in from renting their properties for the next few years. Seattle is not the only housing market where this tech trend is expected to develop; Dallas and even South Florida are also expected to take similar steps to attract tech business over the next few years.

With the above in mind, here are three steps that property investors who plan to rent multiple properties should follow when putting together a marketing plan:

1 - Real Estate Photography

All property listing systems have gone online, where competition is not only fierce but also very visual. When prospective renters choose the internet as their favorite platform to search for homes and apartments, they are more likely to be captivated by photographs than by the property descriptions.

Landlords should either invest in professional photography to showcase their properties or take time to learn how to take digital photos of a certain quality. Adding a short video tour is also recommended. The idea is to attract tenants who are more interested in aesthetics than location in neighborhoods where public transportation is not an issue.

2 - Smart Home Technologies

It does not matter if landlords prefer single professionals, retirees or young families as tenants in their properties: potential renters these days are bound to enjoy smart home technology and other features in their dwellings. The days of renting a space without internet connection or smart thermostats are over; landlords can no longer expect tenants to install their own smart home technology.

Property investors should set aside some capital so that they can install smart appliances that connect to the internet, home security systems that can be monitored from a mobile device, HVAC systems regulated by smart thermostats, fiber optic cabling, and other technology features that are in high demand these days.

In the end, landlords need to handle their marketing efforts with a competitive approach that includes quality digital images, videos, email marketing campaigns, and smart home features.

3 - Strategic Online Marketing

Attracting the right kind of tenant requires more than online listings. For example, a Seattle landlord who wants to attract human resources managers at Microsoft should use email marketing agencies to come up with the right contact strategy.

Corporate America may have ditched their BlackBerry devices and picked up iPhones and Android-powered smartphones instead, but they have not given up on email; in fact, they are glued to their mobile email apps. To get the attention of human resources managers in Seattle who may be looking to house new employees and members of tech startups, email marketing campaigns can be very effective. It is important to remember that major companies are bound to accept higher rental payments for apartments and homes located close to the workplace, and they may even pay for the entire lease term at the time the agreements are signed.