How long does it take to get your property rented? Not long at all! Our Property Management experts believe that if rental listing remains active for more than 5 days, it’s concerning. Let’s review why your property is active for unacceptably long time.
🔥 Your listing is overpriced. You may have a well-maintained property, but it’s not priced right. For example, rent is too high for the area. It’s common for homeowners (rarely LANDLORDs) to believe that their property is worth more than it really is. Another background of overpriced listing is functional obsolescence, which means the decline in a property’s value due to functional depreciation. One simple example is four-bedroom property with only one bathroom. Four bedrooms house can be occupied by family of 5-8 people. Now imagine, how inconvenient it might be for all of them to share just one bathroom. Before you list your property for rent, ask your Property Manager or Leasing Manager to run a detailed market analysis. Study report they present well. It’s ok to go little bit higher in price to start, but only for few days. If you see no results after first four days, drop the price.
🔥Poorly maintained property. In this case, we also deal with lack of balance between price and quality. Often, related to wear and tear though. Old carpet, dirty walls, rusty appliances don’t attract renters who are willing to pay high rents. People are looking for as high as possible living conditions. In my article “Managing security deposits: Normal wear and tear or property damage” we outlined a life expectancy for the most common elements. For example, plush carpet needs to be replaced every 5 years if it has been heavily used, house needs to be painted every 3-5 years, and blinds to be replaced every 3 years. Nothing lasts forever and Landlords, who are real estate investors (I emphasize! Landlords are not just homeowners!) need to understand it. In the meantime, there are still listings with ugly green carpet from 1990th. 😊 And sadly, in some cases, we see simply inhabitable properties (mold, rats, or no air conditioning). I say “we see” because if we are not able to make it right, we stop any business relationships with Landlords who are unreasonable when it comes to the property maintenance. Remember, real estate investment works just like seed and harvest. In order to get a cash out, you need to bring some cash in.
🔥There is an issue with showings. Believe or not, but often this issue is on those who we trust the most, the Property Managers. Most common issue is lack of availability from those who are responsible for showings. Prospects find rental listings on Zillow or Realtor.com and submit a showing request, which often goes to property management office, and sometimes stays there forever. And majority of inquires never get addressed. Why? The reason behind is that often property managers expect real estate agents to bring the prospects. And real estate agents seeking for higher commission earnings expect to assist mainly buyers and sellers. Such misalignment causes delay and prevents renters from locating their rental homes more effectively. Another issue we see is listing syndication errors. If listing in posted incorrectly in MLS, Zillow or Realtor.com may never publish it. My advice is to test your Property Manager first. Yes, go to their website and pick any rental. Then locate this listing on Zillow and request a showing as if you were a renter. It will give you an idea how prospects for your rental home will be treated.
I am absolutely in love with property management and can talk about it endlessly. There are also others real estate professional and helpful resources like books, articles, or portals. Please use expert’s assistance when you deal with something new to you. Work with experienced and licensed individuals to avoid expensive mistakes!