5 Steps to Reduce Vacancy at Your Rental Properties

What is there between when a property becomes unit becomes vacant and when it gets leased? Money left on the table and not in your pocket. Today we are going to talk about 5 steps I learnt from interviewing various PM firms on how to reduce the vacancy rate.

1. Set Accurate and Competitive Market-based Rents [Market Research]

To start with, you can leverage free website like Zillow and Craiglist to research the local rental price around the neighbourhood of your rental property. Even better, some PM companies have free rental analysis available analyzes rental rates down to the neighbourhood or property level taking into consideration of the school and neighbourhood rating, property type, historical and competitive rental price. Accurately setting your rental price can help you shorten the vacant to lease time and maximize your revenue. To start right, set an accurate and competitive market-based rent.

2. Take Great Photos [Prepare Portfolio]

Have you ever hear the Airbnb story? Then you know what I am talking about. Great photos sell. Get your rental property ready by taking great photos and potentially shoot a virtual, 3D tour. If you are doing it on your own, make sure to take clear photos of each room. Ensure that the rooms are well-lit and that you use the auto-focus setting on your camera. Higher-resolution photos will display well on any platform: mobile, laptop or tablet. If you operate a multifamily property or an apartment complex with appealing common areas, landscaping or other attractive features, take photos of them as additional selling points.

Alternatively, you could also hire a professional photographer who can take care of this part easily. Find one you like then as you expand your portfolio, you have your go-to photographer ready to work. As for a 3D tour, there are many companies specialised in them, which is ideal if you operate several multifamily buildings with lots of units or have a large portfolio of single-family rentals.

3. Leverage a Multi-Site Marketing Platform(MSP) [Marketing]

With accurate rent price set and professional photos taken, now you are ready to attract prospectives. If you only have one property, you can start with craigslist. To make things more efficient, many leverage MSP and their automation that locates the best places to advertise your vacant units, meaning that more than 40 different syndicates and websites display your property at the same time. It would take an owner incredible amounts of time, money and effort to complete this task. It maximizes the number of prospects who view the unit, thus minimizing vacancy time and lost rental income.

4. Enable Self-Showings with Smart Home Automation [Virtual Showing & Leasing]

We all have the experience of scheduling a meeting with another person through multiple back and forth communication to set a time. How to prevent this from happening to your property and increase your showing rate? Here come smart home automation and contactless showing. Especially during this global pandemic and post-pandemic environment, contactless showing or virtual showing through code box and smart locks can enable perspectives to view the property at their convenience and with no pressure or people pipping over their shoulders. They could get a specific code to view the property during a certain specific time slot. However, this does not mean that there won’t be any human involvement. When a prospective has questions, they can contact the leasing department with SMS or APP to get an immediate response to their questions. Based on the experience of Mynd Property Management, virtual showing could greatly increase the number of prospectives, reducing the vacant to lease time.

5. Identify High-Quality Tenants with Technology [Screening]

“No tenant is better than having a bad tenant”. It is good to get your property leased quickly. However, quality control still matters a lot and should not be treated lightly. Especially if you have an investor’s mindset and are playing the long game.

A tech-centric property management company digitalizes everything. They will make it easy to fill out an application and pay the deposit online. They uses a state-of-the-art lead management system and leverage third party background check to ensure that high-quality tenants lease your property.

To sum up, from the time you get a vacant notice form your existing tenant (normally 30-day before they move out), you should get your gear running, set accurate rent, take clear photos, leverage MSP to acquire leads, enable virtual showing and conduct background screening. In this way, you can minimize your vacant to lease time and maximize your investment returns.