All Forum Posts by: Sean Pedeflous

Time is only one portion of understanding if you should lower price. You HAVE to take into account inquires, showings, and applications. If you aren't getting any inquires than you are WAY overpriced. If you are getting inquires but no showings that you are somewhat overpriced. So on and so forth. We look at our vacancies weekly to see how many of each we have and then we adjust the price weekly if necessary.

It's hard to say without knowing the market. You are already priced below some other rentals, so it could just be a slow market. Try to save the houses that are most similar to yours and watch them daily to see if they lower the rent, offer incentives, or get rented. 

1. Make sure it is clean and updated so it shows well.

2. Market it in more than one place. You can do this manually or through management software like TenantCloud and others. Put it on the most popular websites like Zillow, Zumper, apartments.com, facebook, etc. Cast a wide net and you are more likely to catch fish.

3. Consider move-in incentives. I prefer a hard dollar amount rather than a percentage. Make them pay the full deposit and first month's rent (proves they can afford it) then give them the reduction the second month.

4. Do you accept pets? Over 50% of all households have pets. If you don't allow them, you are missing out on half the available renters. Most pet owners are responsible, will pay more, and will stay longer.

5. Drop the rent. 

I know you are already $65 below the other houses, but maybe that's not enough. Do some math and compare vacancy to a price reduction. Example:

House rents for $1,500 a month and utilities cost $150 a month. One year of rent will earn you $18,000. But if you sit vacant for one month before finding a tenant, you've lost a month of rent and utilities and earn only $16,350.

On the other hand, if you drop the price $100 and find a renter quickly, you will earn almost $500 more in that first year.

Always remember: lower your price, but never lower your standards! It's cheaper to sit vacant than it is to let a bad renter in and deal with the problems they create.