Much like the importance of finding the perfect location as a home buyer, when it comes to being a landlord, you need to find good renters.
Finding the right people or person to rent your properties can improve the quality of your business and more importantly your life. When you have dependable, responsible and considerate renters, you spend less time on maintenance issues and worrying about whether or not you will get your rent on time or in full. Though it can sometimes be a tedious, exhausting, and time-consuming process, in the long run finding the right person for your rental property is vital.
Gone are the days when all you could do as a landlord was put a sign in your yard and wait for the right person to reach out to you about your property rental. Today, with advances in technology, there are countless ways you can catch the attention of your ideal tenants.
That’s why we’ve created a list of ideas on how you can utilize technology to locate your dream tenants.
Social Media
Facebook: Right now, posts that attract the most attention are videos. This gives you the opportunity to take a creative approach by making an online tour of your rental property. This platform also gives you the most bang for your buck when it comes to reaching your target audience. You can spend very little and set extremely specific criteria on who you would like your ads to reach. Looking for renters in a certain age bracket, location, or income level? You can select those options when choosing who will see your ads.
YouTube: As previously mentioned, online tours are a great way for potential tenants to check out your property. This can save you time by reducing the number of in-person showings you give because many people will figure out from the online tour if there are certain features of the property they don’t like or that aren’t a good fit for them.
Pinterest: This platform is primarily used by millennial women so if the female audience may be interested in your rental property, start “pinning” pictures of your property. This doesn’t take a lot of time or maintenance, but it is recommended you put effort into the quality of your pictures. Bad pictures can give a negative appearance of your property which is counter intuitive to your goal of finding great renters.
Online Applications/Background Checks
Cozy: Background checks and formal applications are a must when searching for someone who will respect your property and be responsible about paying their rent and other fees. Sites like Cozy make this an easy process for landlords by allowing you to post your application online through their partner sites. They also have background checks and credit reports as well as a rent collection service to help make life simpler for landlords.
Online Listings
There are many ways you can spread the word that your property has become available, such as newspapers, word of mouth from your current tenants as well as friends and family and of course yard signs. However, there are excellent tenants just waiting to read about your property on numerous online sites. Here some places you can post your property on the World Wide Web:
Using technology to catch the attention of dream tenants isn’t the only thing it can do for you as a landlord. You can also use technology for your accounting and bookkeeping, online calendars to help with project management, keeping up with your current tenants, adding remote security cameras so you can see live footage of your property from a mobile device and maybe even adding some high-tech gadgets such as a Nest thermostat or a smart burglar system to your property to attract higher-paying tenants.
While there are tried and true methods to securing great renters, there are many ways technology will set you apart and help you find your dream tenants.
Written by: Brooke Thomas