As a landlord or property manager, you’re always looking for ways to attract new applicants for your vacancies.
But if you aren’t the only rental business in town, prospective renters have several options. You don’t want to lose tenants to your competition, but you can’t always know why a renter chose another property over yours.
Making your rentals stand out from the competition doesn’t always mean adding fancy new amenities, although these are certainly eye-catching.
You can also attract applicants by caring for your image, reputation, and customer experience. Genuine, friendly interactions and a carefully crafted online presence can go a long way toward convincing prospects to choose your properties.
Here are four ways to make your rentals stand out from your competition.
1. Outstanding Communication
Despite the wide variety of digital messaging types, outstanding communication is still hard to find. Great communicators are brief and direct, but also kind and empathetic. To stand apart from your competition, you should be an effective communicator.
Strong communication also means using the right tools. If you use rental property management software, take advantage of the chat feature on your platform. This feature allows you to centralize all tenant communication on one application. It also prevents messages from getting lost in multiple inboxes.
Finally, outstanding communication should be prompt. The faster you respond to leads, the more likely they are to say yes to your properties. Even waiting a day or two gives prospective renters enough time to find your competitor’s properties.
2. An Active Social Media Presence
Alongside good communication, an active presence on social media will also help you stand out from your competitors.
Not all rental businesses have social media pages, and even some who do might not be utilizing them effectively. By posting regular content and interacting with prospects on the platform, you can set yourself apart as a business highly engaged with the community.
If you’re new to social media, start with Facebook Marketplace. This platform allows you to post your listings along with detailed descriptions and photos and is a great extension of your other marketing strategies.
Another worthwhile platform for landlords is Instagram, which excels at image-based content. You can use Instagram to show off your properties, but it’s also suitable for featuring people and events. For example, you could post about a community charity event or a resident event you hosted.
Social posts are highly engaging and allow prospects to get to know the character of your resident community.
3. Smart Home Technology
Smart home technology is a popular trend in modern real estate that grabs the attention of prospective renters.
Technology can be adapted for all sorts of uses and purposes in your rental units. For instance, smart locks allow tenants to secure their units remotely and monitor suspicious activity like porch pirates. Smart lighting allows tenants to turn off lights from a mobile device if they’ve forgotten, while smart thermostats are automated to save on utility bills.
Many smart home devices are also highly sustainable and benefit the environment by conserving energy. Installing this technology in your rentals will quickly attract tenants who value technologically innovative and integrative homes.
4. Property Management Software
Finally, you should use tenant management software to stand out from your competition. Property management software is quickly becoming more of an expected baseline, so interested renters will notice if it’s missing.
Among its many features, property management software enables you to collect rent online, a far more convenient option than cash or check payments. Tenants won’t have to make extra trips to the bank and can submit payments from anywhere they happen to be.
What’s more, tenants can also set up automated payments. They’ll never have to worry about a late fee again.
The best way to ensure your rental business is on par with your competitors’ is to fully embrace property management software and the many integrations offered by your platform.
Standing Out in Real Estate
It’s no surprise that attractive rentals usually have shiny new appliances, included amenities, and new technology. However, you don’t have to make a significant financial investment to attract more applicants. By catering your communication, social media marketing, new technology, and property management tools to your ideal renters, you can secure great renters for your properties.
