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How to fill a vacancy QUICKER in current environment?

Today I want to share some of my hard learned lessons – and closely kept secrets – which I have no doubt will help landlords fill their vacant property, a lot quicker. I decided to share these tips, because I am a landlord myself, so I understand fully the pressure of an empty property in the current climate. If my tips come handy, I would love to hear from you!
So here it goes… The days that properties were renting out themselves after one open, are most likely gone. I am in a unique position to have inside information in the property management industry but also to be a landlord myself with – as of yesterday – a vacancy of my own. If you are a landlord with a vacancy, or perhaps if you want to know what you could do as a landlord to rent your property quickly, THEN PLEASE READ ON TO THE FOLLOWING TIPS. In the end of the article you will understand why I am suggesting these steps. 
 

STEP 1. The first thing to do when informed that your tenant is leaving, is to ask your PM to advertise immediately…. by “ask” I mean pick up the phone and ask the questions “WHEN WILL THE AD BE UP AND CAN YOU SEND ME A LINK PLEASE? What do you think about my current rent and what is the current market doing“.

 

STEP 2. While on the phone, take the opportunity to ask your PM if there anything else YOU could organise to have fixed, to make the property more appealing. By YOU I mean YOU – not the property manager (see last paragraph why it may be better if YOU took matters into your own hands in current environment). Start early by lining up tradies so that the day after the tenant moves out, the work starts. A good lick of paint, a couple of blinds, and a new carpet, don’t take long, are not that expensive and often make a huge difference. If you start early, you can literally have them done in 2-3 days, in time for the first open. Hint: If you live locally, ask for the keys, put your overalls on, and spend the day at your property. Fix anything, you are able to. This could be changing globes, mowing the lawn, removing those dreaded cobwebs… Anything you fix, will save you money, will get your mind out of thinking about the Coronavirus, and you will feel great. I know of 2 landlords that did just that last weekend. They didn’t worry about whether the tenant was going to fix the things. They only wanted their property to look great for the first open! In fact… 2 landlords, the PM and the tenant, all cleaned together and the property looked great for the first open!

 

STEP 3. Back to the ad…. If you don’t hear back from the PM about the ad being up, ring up again… When you do get the links, make sure that the ad is as good as it can humanly be. Photos in particular are the MOST important part of the ad. If you don’t think the photos are great, ask for new ones. Also look at the ad copy itself for spelling mistakes… the copy is important but not as important as the photos! Another mistake I see over and over, is ads where the property has been set to the wrong type. A house advertised with the property type of apartment, will be probably missed by the majority of the tenants searching for houses as statistics are showing that tenants have made up their mind about the type of property they want and that is all they will look for!

 

STEP 4. Validate the price yourself… you can do that by regularly looking at the competing properties in your suburb (very easy to do on REA). It is very possible that the rental price you were getting before, is no longer right which means that you will lose days/weeks. Or perhaps it may be OK compared to others, but you prefer your property to be rented quicker rather than sitting there…. in which case reduce the price immediately by $10 or $20. A $500 property advertised at $480m and rented within a week or 2, is a lot better than the same property advertised at $500 but not getting rented for 4-5 weeks…. Do the maths and I will not even mention the sleepless night.

STEP 5. Your Ad is up and running. The next thing to do is to go to REA and save the search a tenant would look for (ie 2 bedroom apartments in Hurstville) AND also to save EVERY competing property on the suburb. If you save those, EVERY time a new property is put up on the suburb OR something changes on a competing property, you will get an alert on your phone. This include when a competing property gets rented out. If other properties are getting rented out before yours, then something is not right… If other properties are reducing their prices, then maybe it is time to reduce your price as well etc…
STEP 6. At this point it is a good idea to ask the PM for a Monday update. How many people attended, what was the feedback… and the MOST important question: SHOULD WE CHANGE ANYTHING FOR THIS COMING WEEK?

 

STEP 7. If your property remains unrented for a few weeks…. DO NOT PANIC. Remember: THERE IS A TENANT FOR EVERY PROPERTY, PROVIDING THE PROPERTY IS ADVERTISED AT THE “RIGHT” PRICE. As time passes by, make sure to maintain open the channels of communication with the PM. Trust me: your property manager wants to rent it out just as bad as you do and the longer it takes, the more their confidence drops. Your job is to keep them motivated and to work together. Reach out mid week…. “Have you had any enquiries? Should we do something else? Did you see that other property that was advertised around the corner yesterday??… As time goes by you may suggest
  • Reducing the price by $5 or $10, 
  • Rotating photos, 
  • Hiding the price (ie Contact Agent), 
  • Closing the ad and starting again. This is important as after 3-4 weeks, tenants know that the property is stale and it has gone way down the list. If your property appears on pages 3, or maximum 4 onwards, its chances of getting rented are slim to none. Ask the PM to close the ad and re-advertise.
 
The bottom line in this: The more active you (the landlord) are, the better the chances you will find a new tenant quickly. Being involved keeps the PM motivated and your ad fresh. Besides, tenants will also save the ads – the same way I described above, and they will wait to see what happens to the local market and to YOUR property. They too are now looking for the best value for money! I’ve been a tenant and that is exactly what I did. This is why you should change things regularly on your ad, because every time you change something, the tenants that are interested in your property, will get an alert reminding them that it is there!
 
So I hear you say… That’s all good, but if I have to do all this, what am I paying the Property Manager for???
 
The simple answer is because the typical property manager, will never do the above… They will probably just stick the Ad out there and wait…. But a better answer is because at times like the current, the MOST important thing for a landlord to worry about, is having their property rented out. There will be a time in the future that you will not have to worry about it, but that time is not now.
Right now, every day counts and the reality is that your Property Manager is busy dealing with an avalanche of calls from tenants, all claiming “hardship due to Coronavirus”. If your property manager is a large agency, your vacancy is or will soon be one of 50 or more vacancies they are dealing with. The chances your PM is doing any of what I am describing above, are zero! Trust me… I KNOW!
My key message to all landlords for the foreseeable future and until the good old days return, is to take an active interest and to work WITH their Property Manager. It may be the difference between keeping your hard earned investment or losing it to Coronavirus…. Happy Investing and Stay Safe!

Who we are:

If you liked the content of this article and would like to learn more about NextGen and the services we provide, feel free to make contact with us by filling in the form on this location https://nextgenpm.com.au/contact-us/.

NextGen Property Mgmt (www.nextgenpm.com.au) is a boutique Real Estate licensed agency that specialises in property management. NextGen Property Mgmt does NOT has a sales team unlike most other agencies that specialise in Sales and have Property Management as a side business.

Our area of focus is residential property and we operate in Inner and South West Sydney, as well as St George.

NextGen was created from its infancy to cater for investors as it was founded by investors who quickly realised that in a highly regulated industry like Real Estate – competence, expertise, care and service by property managers varies greatly.

As an investor, you need to have trust for and feel valued by your property manager. You need to know that your property is being looked after with minimal disruption and you are getting maximum return for your investment. At NextGen we understand that because we are investors living busy lives ourselves, so our promise to you is that you will no longer have to worry about your most valued asset because we will make sure to take care of it as if it is our own.