Where to Find Tenants: 5 Tools for Landlords

As a landlord, you want to not only attract great tenants, but also keep your best tenants in your unit and do what you can to keep them from leaving. But tenant turnover is natural.  When you need to fill a vacancy, landlords should start looking for tenants 60-90 days before your existing lease expires. This gives you adequate time to find tenants before your current tenants move out. You also don’t want just any tenants, you want quality tenants who will take care of your property and pay rent on time. This article will help you generate not only more tenant leads, but also leads from higher quality tenants. 

Here are five tools that will help you find quality tenants:

Online Rental Listings to Promote Your Property

Four out of five renters use online resources to search for their next home, according to the Zillow Consumer Housing Trends Report in 2016. Listing your property online is your best bet for gaining a large audience of interested tenants. You’ll generate even more leads if you list your property on multiple top sites, including Zillow, Trulia and HotPads.

Creating an online rental listing is easy. There are three main parts of a listing:

1. Title: Secures interest if you include important details like the rent price and number of bedrooms, and mention an appealing amenity.
2. Description: Tells tenants more specifics, including the availability date and what’s nearby.
3. Photos: Gives potential tenants a sense of what their next home could look like.

When a tenant responds to your listing, it’s important to reply in a timely manner. According to Zillow’s Consumer Housing Trends Report in 2016, 71% of tenants expect a response within 24 hours. After 24 hours, 22% of tenants will move on if the landlord has not replied. To keep tenants interested, remember to respond within 24 hours.

At Avail, we make it easy for landlords to create one listing that is simultaneously posted across multiple top sites. Landlords typically receive 15-20 tenant leads in the first two weeks.

Smartphone or Camera to Take Quality Listing Photos 

As you’re building your listing, it’s crucial to include photos of your rental property. Listings with photos that are shared on social media receive 94% more views than posts without photos, according to Hubspot.

To take photos, all you need is your iPhone or smartphone. If you have a digital SLR camera, that’s great, but you don’t necessarily need one. Most smartphones have features like optimal image stabilization and high speed image sensors that help you take quality photos.

It’s best to include at least 12 photos in your listing to optimize the number of interested tenants. As you can see in the graph below, there’s a direct correlation between the number of photos and the number of tenant leads.

We Recommend: 

• Taking photos of each room
• Including as much natural light as possible
• Showing off your property’s best features
• Making sure the photos are upright when you upload them

If you include at least 12 high-quality photos, then you’ll likely have several tenants interested in your rental property.

Rental Market Research to Set Your Rent Price 

As you create your listing, it’s important to list your property at a competitive price. The right rent price will reflect the value of the property, its location and features, and attract tenants because it’s affordable.

To make sure you’re setting the right price, check out comparable rental listings on sites like Zillow and Rentometer. Find a property that roughly matches yours in terms of location, number of bedrooms, and amenities.

For a more sophisticated rental market analysis, we offer a Rent Analysis Report. The report is tailored to your location and provides:

• A rent price estimate for your property with a confidence score
• Rent benchmarks in your area
• County vacancy data
• County rent trends
• Rental saturation benchmarks
• Comparable rentals in your area

Next, you’re ready for tenants to start applying. We recommend using online tools to screen tenants to speed up the process and make it more effective.

Online Application to Gather Information 

Gather the right information with an online rental application:

• Residence history
• Employment history
• Income
• Work and landlord references with contact information

By requesting the application online, you’ll receive the information faster, as tenants can fill out their application anytime, anywhere from the comfort of their home. Furthermore, it shows you’re interested in making the rental process easier for your tenants. This is an appealing quality in a landlord and will make tenants all the more eager to rent from you.

Online Tenant Screening to Find Quality Tenants 

When you request an online rental application, you should also invite tenants to authorize a credit, background, and eviction report. That way, you can learn if a tenant has a history of skipping payments, has a relevant criminal history, or has been evicted.

You can request credit, background, and eviction reports all online. Even better, you’ll invite your tenant to authorize the report at the same time you send the application, helping you and your tenants save time.

Next Steps

Start finding quality tenants today by using online rental listings, your smartphone to take quality photos, rental market research to set a competitive rent price, online rental applications, and online tenant credit and background reports. Quality tenants pay rent on time and take care of your property, which means you’ll have a more successful rental business and peace of mind.