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Celebrating 5 Years of 0% Downtime - Rental Properties

July 1, 2008 |

It is amazing that even with all of the issues the economy has had, including a slump in real estate property values and sales, our two townhouses are still rented: and have been rented for every single day since they where initially available for rental.

How has it happened?  I could attribute it to sheer luck.  However, I must say that it is also a good measure of due diligence: advertising it, and advertising it in the right places.

We used a realtor for the first tenant of our first rental property.  Soon we learned that she preferred two methods: word of mouth, and local paper advertisements.  We surely added them to our repertoire.

Advertisement methods that we have tried:

  • Word of Mouth - Give a friend a flyer to post in a local bulletin board (at work).  Has worked well.  It has been a pleasure to do business with friends of friends.  (Although it could be risky, it also brings people with shared values).
  • Local Paper adds - They work - especially if you post them on weekends.  Good thing is you can list property details and it filters a lot of the calls that are just to ask for price and how many bedrooms and bathrooms the property has.
  • Yard Sign - We have one of the townhomes on a Main Street.  For that one we just put a sign on the yard.  People call — and it is free!  So far that has been the most effective method, but I guess it is most effective if the sign is on a main road. 
  • Internet Websites - They have provided leads.  But they have been less effective than we expected.  Good  thing is that you can put pictures and describe it better than on a newspaper classified.  Fairly cheap as well.
  • Postcards Sent to Similar Rental Units - This kind of junkmail has not worked as well.  It has provided a few leads, but not too many.  None of them have signed a lease.  Benefit / Cost is low.

Any other method you care to share?  We want to keep the business with 0% downtime for longer.


Comments

1 Comment so far

  1. Laura on July 8, 2008 4:51 am

    I have visited your blog ( http://www.moneyandinvesting.net ) and found a lot of interesting and useful information for me. I’m searching for advertising. Can I buy links on your pages? How much does it cost? Waiting for your soon reply. Thanks.

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