It is the most wonderful time of the year, but being a Property Owner with a vacant unrentable might make your Holidays a little blue. It is time to get it leased!!!! The first thing I do with a rental I have had on the market for a while especially in the winter months is take the time to go walk through it thoroughly. I make a list of everything that I do not like about or might be a turn off such as, hearing traffic noise, on a busy street, bad parking, dogs next door. The things I just mentioned really can not be fixed or can they? Oh yeah baby they can, lets go through a couple. 1. Traffic noise When you hear traffic noise from a busy street it can be a turn off during a tour, I have put a small radio on a soft listening station placed in the room with the most noise. It is best to be honest with the prospect, letting them know the rental home is off a busy street and sometimes you can hear the traffic. 2. Dog barking next door Loud noise can be so annoying and a barking dog next door is one of the biggest turn offs to a prospective Tenant. Lets fix it, get the address of the house with the dog, you can go on line to your local appraisal district and look up the address to find out who the homeowner is. Mail the Homeowner a really nice letter explaining the situation with your contact information requsting that they contact you to discuss it. If you find out that it has a Tenant in it you can contact the property management company directly and ask them to take action. I have sent nice letters to neighboring homes for, trash, fences, dogs, broken windows,tall grass and it usually helps resolve the situation. 3. Needs a little painting and cleaning When you go through your list, fix the things you can fix such as cleaning, paint, take down old shower curtain rods, plug in air fresheners, dust out the insides of the cabinets, Windex the front door windows, turn all the blinds up toward the sky, make sure all the locks are easy to open. Do you have a "sparkle bucket" you really need one, I have a great list for you in my seminar coming up. 4. Stage it!!!! I love love love a fresh new shower curtain rod and curtain with large curtain rings (put it as high to the ceiling as you can and drape it to one side. Put water and a few sodas in the refrigerator. I like a colorful tray on the kitchen counter or island with some prepackaged cookies. Make sure you have toilet paper and spray in the bathroom and paper towels in the kitchen. You can put some cute tent cards in say the master bedroom closet that says "Your shoe fits here" along with a few nice hangers or in the laundry room that says "free bubbles here". I love colorful rugs in the entrance of the doors and a welcome mat on the outside of the the doors. I have so much to share with you about overlooked underestimated little things that you can do to make your home stand out from anything else on the market. 5. Go though all of your contacts that have inquired about a rental even if it was a year ago (their lease might be up where they leased and they are ready to move again) let them know your rental is available and ready to show. There is secret system property management companies use to track and market back to all of their traffic and I am going to share it with you in my next seminar. 6. If time permits and you have made leasing this rental a priority open it up every morning make sure everything is on point and you will have it leased in no time. The more time you spend on it the faster it will lease. The home below was unrentable, it was on a busy street, had ugly dark chocolate colored walls, foundation cracks in the sheet rock and needed a few maintenance repairs. By painting all the walls a neutral color, cleaning all the light fixtures and installing 2' blinds this house leased in 1 week. The comment below is from a couple I showed this home to from out of town.. Show your property a little love today XXOODiva |
AuthorDenise Fey ArchivesCategories |