The Successful Landlord Blog

It’s the moment every landlord dreads!  No, not finding out that the a/c is busted.  Sure that one’s pretty huge, but if you know the right repairman, even that one can be far less painful than it has to be.  The OTHER dreadful thing – your tenant is broke/relocating/divorcing/marrying and has to move.  Sure, you’ve done everything that you can possibly do to make your house and the maintenance of it a dream come true.   They are so happy there that they never want to leave.  Another year passes and you glance at the calendar to see the renewal date has come and you promptly send out the renewal agreement.  Thinking nothing of it, you continue about your business without a worry.  They don’t ever want to leave –  right?

Days pass until one evening you see the caller id flicker with their name.  Your heart sinks to your knees.  When you answer, you find that your fear is confirmed.  Life has thrown a curve ball and they are unable to stay put.  Worse yet, the tenant is squeezing out with barely the required notice, leaving you no time to find that much needed new tenant and to handle those necessary inspections, repairs, yardwork and a top to bottom cleaning.

The first thought that may pass is to refill your glass with another Long Island, but organization and focus is the key to navigating this one with sanity.  Below, I’m going to outline a few tips that may help you with your mission.  So for now, put down the tequila, take a deep breath and get back down to business.

Getting the Word Out Quickly

If you haven’t already embraced the web as a vital ingredient to your marketing, it’s time to start. Print media shouldn’t be ignored entirely, but the majority of shoppers are using the web to expand their choices and make the best use of their time. So should landlords.

Craigslist – Known for many things, this melting pot of classified ads is full of home seekers.  You don’t need an account or your wallet to post your listing and you can anonymously filter your replies.

Rent -  This one is a must.  Another service by web giant eBay, Rent.com draws a huge crowd of dwelling seekers.  At one point, the service stopped allowing individual property owners to list with them, but they have now lifted the ban.  This does come with a high price tag of $15 per lead, but keep this one idea in mind – it doesn’t take a search engine and a magic eight ball to find them.  Their name says it all.

Rentlinx – I had almost forgotten how handy this site is.  With one practically painless effort, you can submit your property to multiple hot services at once.  Google Base, Hotpads, Homes, National Housing Locator Service, Show me the Rent, and Vast are all in line to help spread the word for you when you activate your listing at Rentlinx.  Best of all, it’s free.

Google Base – Put your vacancy in front of the enormous number of consumers who search for real estate information on Google

Backpage – Another community classifieds site with a growing reach, Backpage is much like Craigslist and offers free listings.

Hotpads – By far the most elegant and robust for home shoppers, Hotpads offers something for everyone, whether they are looking to rent, buy or just find a vacation spot.

Sublet – Not my favorite on the list but still worth the effort with a large following in the greater metro areas.  Sublet offers apartment rentals, rooms & houses for rent, despite it’s name.  Many of the leads are seeking short term leases.  For a monthly premium, you can search through and reach out to house hunters in your area.  I’ve heard a lot of success stories with this service, but thus far the results have been rather weak for me.

Oodle – “More listings, smarter classifieds” is what they proclaim.  More free classifieds, and if it’s free and on the interwebs, it must be good.

Friendster – Yep, Friendster.  They too have free classifieds, powered by OLX, with a nice seat within the Google search results.

Cringe, Copy, Paste

As tempting as it was to throw a going away party to all of my marketing efforts after the last exhaustive tenant search, it was with great joy that I found all of my old accounts still in place in my anxious hours of need.  My Backpack account allowed me to quickly relocate all of the sites that I marketed with in the past.  By keeping the locations of all of these along with the account registrations, tenant applications, contracts and property photos you will save your self a lot of time and frustration by smartly equipping your digital toolbox.  Once you have the ad content perfected and all of your account registrations behind you, just start copying and pasting until your heart is content.  Check in on your accounts from time to time to make sure that they’re all still in good standing, as site terms and services will change from time to time.

Keep Your Realtor in Your Pocket

It’s hard to do too much to promote your vacancy and a good relationship with a realtor can be a lifesaver.  Some are willing to help you get listed in the MLS, which is invaluable.  Have someone else run around meeting those flaky house hunters for you!  When you do have to go show the property yourself, make sure to always confirm the appointment before heading out.  Renters aren’t widely known for their ability to commit or planning far in advance, so remind them that your time is valuable.

Other sites to Try

Rentahome123
For Rent by Owner
Rentspeed
Propbot
Move