QUESTION: WHAT ARE SOME OF THE REASONS A HOME IS TAKING TO LONG TO RENT?
Trying to find a tenant to fill a vacancy at your rental property can be a stressful experience. You may be attracting tenants who do not meet your qualifying standards, or you may not be getting any calls from prospective tenants. Here are some reasons why you can’t get your property rented.
Asking Rent Is Too High for the market
Everything comes down to price and value. If your rental is priced correctly, it will rent. If your rental is overpriced, the high price may be discouraging prospective tenants from coming to view the property or prospective tenants that do come to view the property, may fell that it’s not worth the rent you are asking and pass it up, but one or two may apply in hope your greed to get over market rent will overlook their flawed rental history.
Your Options:
Do Nothing: You could decide to keep the asking rent where it is in hopes that the “right” tenant will come along. Your math should include the big picture. If you are asking $1,000 for the unit, you will be losing $1,000 each month the unit sits vacant without a paying tenant. Despite the vacancy, you will still have to pay the property taxes, insurance, and the mortgage; if you have one then you need a tenant to be your mortgage partner as well.
Lower the Price: Your next option will be to lower the asking rent. If you lower the price by $100 and it gets you a tenant immediately, yes, it’s potentially $1,200 less per year, but you will loose $1,000 every month the apartment sits vacant, so you may break even or even make more money in the long run by lowering the price.
Add an Amenity: Finally, you could decide to do nothing to the asking rent, but fix up something in the home. For example, you could replace all the black appliances with newer stainless steel appliances. While this may be more expensive in the short run, it may make your apartment more desirable in the long run, making it easier for you to rent out the unit and fewer vacancies. You may even be able to charge higher rent.
Accept a pet: Check the other offerings, if there are only a few that are pet friendly; consider corning that market and make your home the best pet friendly place out there and get good rent while at it. Pet owners make good tenants if you make allowances for the pet such as easy clean flooring, a fenced yard, and a doggie door and get it rented to a pet owner.
Security Deposit Is Too High
Prospective tenants may have no problem with the monthly rent you are charging, but they may be turned off by a security deposit that is too high. California limits the amount you can charge a tenant, to total amount required deposit and rent not to exceed three times the monthly rent, but other states do not. Consider the amount of deposit you are requiring from tenants. Three months’ rent is probably excessive, especially if all the other landlords in the are only collecting one month’s rent as security.
Inefficient Marketing.
If you cannot get your property rented, you should take a look at your marketing strategy. You could have one of two problems:
Attracting the Wrong Type of Tenant: If the tenants who are inquiring about your property are not meeting your qualifying standards, then you need to reassess your marketing strategy. You need to make sure you are putting the proper information in your ads so you are not wasting the renter’s time and they are not wasting yours. In your ad, make sure to include the income requirements, how much you require as a security deposit, whether or not you allow pets and the length of the lease agreement that must be signed.
Not Receiving Any Interest in Your Property: If no one is calling to come see your property, you will also need to look at how it is being marketed. Are you advertising the vacancies on multiple websites, such as Trulia and Craigslist? Does your ad contain high quality color images? Does the title of the ad describe the property concisely, stating the location, the number of beds and baths, as well as a pleasing adjective, such as spacious, sunny, quaint, quiet, cozy or renovated?
Current Tenants.
Something else to consider is how you current tenants can influence the way a prospective tenant views your property. The two biggest culprits are noise and dirt.
Noise: If the prospective tenant is met with loud music, barking dogs or other tenants screaming when they come visit your property, it is very unlikely they are going to want to sign a lease to live there. People want to be able to enjoy their home in peace and quiet.
Dirt: In addition, if the prospective tenant questions the cleanliness of the other tenants, they are unlikely to want to rent your property. They will have concerns about bugs and vermin in the property.
Enforce the Rules: Make sure you enforce a quite hours policy with your current tenants. In addition, make sure to maintain the cleanliness of the exterior and all common areas of the property. Tenants are also responsible for maintaining their rental unit to meet certain health and safety codes, so if you have a concern about their cleanliness, you can need to send the tenant a notice to quit the behavior.
Undesirable Feature
You may be having difficulty getting your property rented because of an undesirable feature of the rental unit or of the property in general. This could include:
Issues That Could Require Price Drop:
Too Many Stairs: If the unit you are trying to rent is on a higher floor, such as a third floor walk-up, you may have a difficult time renting it because of the number of stairs tenants will have to go up and down.
Small Room Size: The size of the rooms in your property could be turning off some tenants as well. The rooms may be too small to fit their current furniture. For example, they may have a king size bed, but the bedroom in your property may only be able to accommodate a queen.
Not Enough Bathrooms: Another problem you could be experiencing is that the tenants are looking for more bathrooms than there are in your property. They may be looking for a three bedroom with two baths, but your property is a three bedroom with only one bathroom.
Location: You may be having trouble finding tenants because of the location of your property. Tenants in the area may value properties that are close to public transportation, but your property requires a car. Your property could be located on a busy street, which could put off some tenants or it could be isolated, in the middle of nowhere, which could also be unappealing.
Issues That Could Require Renovation:
No Washer and Dryer: Some tenants do not want to go to a laundry mat to wash their clothes. They will only look for a property that has on site laundry, either accessible in the common area or in the unit itself.
Not Updated: Another reason your property may not be renting is that it is outdated. Tenants may be looking for apartments that have newer kitchens, baths or hardwood floors.
Exterior Is Unappealing: The exterior of your property could be keeping tenants from even coming inside to see the property. Problems could include the property looking rundown from the outside or a tenant not feeling safe due to a lack or lighting
