MARKETING YOUR HOME TO RENTERS
You’ve decided to rent your home, your parent’s home, a vacation cottage or whatever is in your portfolio. You get to the property, walk over the garbage at the curb, past the mailbox that has fallen, through the amber waves of knee-high grass (oops, carefully ducking the branch that’s head-high) on the way to the front door to check out the house, to get papers out or that painting of great Aunt Gertrude that no one wants. Satisfied that nothing personal is in, you make the careful trek back to your car, get out the hand-written sign with four numbers that are barely legible and stick it on the sideways gate. You smile and think “that’s what tenants are for, right? To clean and take care of the property they’re renting?”
Ha ha. No. That’s your responsibility, sunshine.
Getting a property ready to show possible renters or leases is the landlord’s responsibility. Ensuring the home is attractive and safe and easily accessible is not only smart, but ensures more calls.
1. Keep garbage off the streets, lawn and driveway. Put it in the garbage cans (or city-provided) shows you care about cleanliness.
2. Keep the mailbox upright and in a sturdy container and post. How else will your tenants receive that check for ten million dollars that they ‘may have already won’?
3. Keep trees neatly trimmed, bushes cut back. Show your home and make it easily visible and not hidden behind a wall of flora and fauna. If your home needs a new coat of paint, head to the hardware store.
4. Keep the grass cut. Need I say more? Nothing more unattractive to a potential renter than knee-high grass that has turned brown. If the landlord can’t even keep the lawn neat, how will they be in getting things fixed, if they go wrong?
5. Make a legible, professional looking ‘for rent’ sign. If no one can read it or it looks sloppy, who is going to even come look at the home?
For more tips and ideas, come over to www.rentwithkaren.com, call or email! We’ve got solutions for you.