5 Marketing Ideas That Will Help to Fill Your Rental Vacancies

By Alicia Geigel on September 28, 2022

Outside of having problem tenants, a rental vacancy can undoubtedly become a property manager’s worst nightmare. Having filled rental units is essentially your bread and butter, and with no renters to occupy units, a seemingly small or otherwise temporary issue can turn into a consistent problem that can stagnate your business and eventually put you under.

Filling vacancies is not always easy, however. Between competing businesses and complexes in your area to seasonal renting trends and increasing living expenses, getting new tenants into your units can be a bit of a challenge. Thankfully, digital branding and marketing can do a lot of the legwork and help to leverage your business to the right audiences.

Are you a property manager that needs some pointers on how to get your vacancies occupied? These five tips will help you get started and put your rental business back on the right track!

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1. Talk With Your Current Tenants First: Before you start deep diving across the internet, talk with your current tenants first. There is a good possibility that your tenants might know someone who is either looking to move or looking to rent, in either case, this could benefit you and your business. Having a point of contact between your tenants and potential new ones is always great, as you can generally trust that their recommendations will be reliable. Ask your tenants if they have friends or family members that are looking to rent, gather their information, and either call them directly or send an email with your contact information, as well as the rates for rent and amenities that you charge per unit. You never know where word of mouth will get you!

2. Manage Your Social Media Presence: In today’s day and age, social media is one of the best ways to reach a target audience in a short period of time and build your business quickly. While you may already have your business well-established, building your social media presence can give you that extra bolster that you may need to bring in extra tenants and fill vacancies. Start with big platforms like Facebook and Twitter to highlight your business. Create pages and accounts that specify who you are, your mission statement, and pricing for units. This will give prospective tenants an idea of how you operate, and most importantly, whether they can rent from you.

3. Consider Listing on Rental Sites: Outside of social media, another great option to leverage your business and vacant units are rental sites, such as Zillow, Apartments.com, and Trulia. These real estate sites typically generate a significant amount of traffic from people who are in the market for homes, which can help to draw people to your listings. In addition to simply posting on these sites, you can also pay to have your posts boosted, too! Stephen Michael White of Rent Prep notes, “If you’re having trouble getting seen among many listings, adding a small marketing budget for these sites might be worth the cost. For many landlords, it is.”

4. Make Contact Information Readily Available: Nothing is worse than having a fancy, beautifully-built website and social media presence only to have no way for your prospective tenant to contact you. Though it may seem simple, having contact information readily available is key to getting connected to your future tenants. Put your contact information, such as name, phone number, email address, mailing address for your business, and social media accounts where viewers can easily see it. In addition, you can send automatic messages to people who are viewing your page, to initiate a conversation and make messaging even more smooth and seamless.

5. Boast About Amenities: Prospective tenants are constantly looking for rental units and considering a variety of factors when doing so, such as rent price, location, and perhaps most importantly, amenities. While rent is undoubtedly significant, tenants are more interested in the amenities included in their monthly payments, such as parking spots, air conditioning, a study lobby, a cafe, etc. Don’t neglect boasting about your amenities on social media. Alana Stramowski of Avail suggests, “It’s also probably best to keep your text short and sweet. Say just enough to catch people’s attention and provide them a way to get more information if they’re interested (e.g., by linking to a full listing).”

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Having one or multiple vacant units in your property business is certainly not easy to deal with, as you can lose money each month and your business down the road if you cannot keep up with payments. Marketing can help to leverage your business and property units and help to fill up your vacancies right away. From speaking with your current tenants to utilizing both social media and rental sites, marketing on the internet is a simple and effective way to get new tenants in without doing a lot of tedious work!

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