10 Ways to Market Your Rental Property

So, you want to market your rental property for lease. You have a top-notch property, and you know that you can rake in a healthy return if you find good tenants. There’s just one problem: where exactly do you find good tenants?

No longer are the days where all eyeballs are centered on a handful of channels or websites. The media, especially social media, is more fragmented than ever. Different people look at different kinds of content. There is no one-size-fits-all model when it comes to rental property marketing. So, it would be best if you considered all kinds of avenues for promotion.

Furthermore, because people have so many options, you have more competition to rise above. You’re going to have to tailor content to each platform. In addition, people’s attention spans are short, so you must make your elevator pitch as succinct and memorable as possible. Luckily, you don’t have to jump into this without knowledge or help. The property managers in North Virginia will teach you expert-backed tips that give you an edge in the saturated rental market.

10 Ways to Attract New Tenants

1. Use your community network: When you give your residents memorable experiences, both virtual and in-person, you foster tenant loyalty. This, in turn, encourages them to spread the word to their friends and maybe even their social media followers. If your tenants boast about their life in your property online, it can help attract new tenants. For example, if you host a movie night, tenants may post an online scrapbook, of sorts, of this night for their inner circle to see.
2. Develop a Positive Image: People want to live in serene surroundings. When tenants experience positive life milestones or new property upgrades, you could celebrate these developments with posts (and their permission). This fosters an image of your property as a warm, welcoming community, not just a disconnected cluster of strangers. It also can help increase tenant retention rates.
3. Show Off the Neighborhood: Prospective tenants greatly value the atmosphere of their property’s neighborhood. So, landlords should take advantage of social media to create unique content about their neighborhoods, properties, and overall community. This is one of the best tools in your arsenal when you market a rental property. Viewers can get a better feel for what it would be like to live on your property day to day, with all the amenities and attractions at their fingertips. If they can viscerally imagine themselves living on your property, they are one step closer to signing that rental agreement.
4. Be Authentic: Allow comments on your posts and don’t hide the bad ones, because prospective tenants want to see honesty and transparency. Instead, thoroughly listen to customer feedback. Validate their troubles and display a commitment to fixing them. Don’t get defensive, and don’t show your remorse with empty platitudes. Actions speak louder than words. So instead, show them what specifically you will do to rectify the situation and follow up. This will prove that you genuinely care about customer satisfaction.
5. Team Up with Influencers Who Have a Big Local Following: Young people today use influencers as their guide to what is popular in the world, as well as one of their primary sources of media, period. When you use an influencer’s platform, you may gain engagement on a level bigger than you could on your own. Many of the biggest influencers primarily use TikTok and Instagram, so you should look for them on these apps.
6. Stage a Property: You should stage your home in person, of course. However, it’s also a good idea to virtually advertise your rental property with a livestream or prerecorded property tour. This way, prospective renters can inspect it anytime and anywhere, at their convenience. When you stage your property, viewers should be able to see the property just as they would go through it in real life, starting from outside the unit into the various features inside. This is an opportune time to show off all the features your property has to offer.
7. Mention the Benefits: On that note, when you post anything about your property, in general, include mentions of amenities, move-in specials, and location details. This adds value to your unit.
8. Strong Headlines are Key: Start your listings off with a strong headline. Give readers something short, but eye-catching, that will immediately grab their attention and encourage them to keep reading. This short snippet should the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, and everything else that attracts new tenants. Forbes recommends a specific formula for marketing rental properties:

Forbes’s Rental Headline Formula:

• The price
• Number of beds/bathrooms
• Type of property and location
• Rental’s best feature.
• Do not use all caps or exclamation marks, because others may view this as unprofessional or scam-like.
• Example: 1234 Dunder Mifflin Ave, Scranton, PA, $1,800 per month, 1-Bed/1-Bath Apt, Free $200-value plasma screen TV. Call Michael Scott, (444) 444-4444, for more details.

This key information can be the basis of your social media posts and pitches.

9. Attractive Photographs: Photographs may be the most important aspect of advertising a rental property. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. No matter how much your listing could attract new tenants, they won’t know that unless you convey its charms properly. You can hire a professional photographer to accomplish this, or just use a good camera shot yourself. Either way, this will help you market your rental property on a new level and find good tenants.
10. Boost Your Social Media Presence: Most renters begin their rental search online, so your social media presence should be a fundamental part of your brand.

Top Social Media Sites for Tenant Outreach

1. Facebook Marketplace: Facebook Marketplace is a tried-and-true platform where users can advertise homes and apartments for rent. A pro of this site is that many real estate owners market their rental properties here, so people flock here for these types of listings. However, the negative is that the site has many scams, so people may look at your legitimate listing skeptically. This is where virtual tours and other proofs of legitimacy can help you.
2. Nextdoor: Nextdoor is an online local marketplace and social media chatroom. Users can sell and buy items, make posts, and comment on other people’s posts. This is a very local, neighborhood-oriented site, not as anonymous as larger-scale sites like Facebook. While you may reach a smaller audience than you might on Facebook, people may be more responsive to your posts than they would on a hyper-mainstream site.
3. Patch: Patch.com chronicles local services and businesses, local events, and especially local news. Think of it as a news board for your local community.
4. Instagram: Instagram is a very visual form of social media, a place to really let your apartment photos shine. With just a few image swipes and word bites, you may sell people on your property. At the same time, because Instagram posts allow for limited information, you should make sure each picture and word count to most effectively attract new tenants.
5. TikTok: TikTok is the platform of choice for Gen Z (and often the reason they’re glued to their phones so much). If you post on TikTok, you could gain unparalleled access to a wide, rental-hungry audience. Because of this, this app and Instagram should stay front and center when you market your rental property. TikToks should be short, punchy, and automatically attention-grabbing. Many posters add a personal touch by narrating the video with their own voice, as opposed to an AI-automated voice. Doing this, and even putting yourself on camera as you say it if you feel comfortable, can add to the credibility of your listing. 

Let the Pros Handle Property Promotion

For over 35 years, Professional Property Management of North Virginia has handled the whole rental process, from the moment tenants search for their new home to the time they move out. We even have a dedicated website where we can market rental properties for you, negotiate sales, coordinate the paperwork, and handle the move-in processes.

And once your tenant is settled in, we can manage your rent collection, property maintenance, and so much more. Our team’s whole purpose is to take away stress from property owners. There is no point in dredging through the details of property ownership when you have so many other important things to do, especially when actual specialists could handle it full-time. Contact us today to take the burden of property management off your plate.