Avoiding long term vacancies is crucial to your strategy of earning consistent rental income and growing your ROI. When your Charlotte rental home is unoccupied, you’re losing more than rent. You’re also losing the money you have to spend on maintenance, marketing, utilities, landscaping, and other expenses.
A profitable investment experience relies on good tenants who are eager to rent your property and stay in place year after year. Here are some of our tips on avoiding those expensive and frustrating vacancies.
Charlotte Rental Values
Are you pricing your property correctly? This is frequently the first thing we look at if an owner is having trouble finding tenants. With the abundance of information available online, tenants are more educated than ever when it comes to the Charlotte rental market and what homes are worth. They won’t be willing to overpay.
Conduct a thorough competitive market analysis so you know what similar properties are renting for. It’s never a good idea to price your property too low, but a price tag that’s even $50 a month too high can lead to longer vacancies.
Charlotte Rental Property Condition
To rent a property quickly, it has to be well-maintained. You can expect long vacancies if the paint is smudged and peeling or the carpet has stains or the landscaping is a mess.
Attract high quality tenants by providing a high quality property. If the pricing is right but you’re still not getting a lot of interest for your home, condition is almost always going to be the reason. Make sure everything is clean, functional, and attractive before you begin advertising or showing the home.
Effective Online Advertising
If your property looks great and is priced right but you’re still looking at a longer-than-normal vacancy, it could be due to the fact that no one knows you have a home for rent. Make sure you’re marketing the property aggressively, using online websites that good tenants pull up when they’re looking for a new rental home. Your listing should be on Rentals.com, Zillow, Trulia, Zumper, HotPads, and others.
Take special effort with the photos. Tenants are going to look at pictures before they read descriptions. Make sure the photos are bright, clear, and able to provide the best look at your property.
Welcome Pets into your Charlotte Rental Home
Pet-friendly rental homes will attract a larger pool of tenants than homes that don’t allow pets. There are a lot of good reasons to hesitate; pets can cause property damage and invite a lot of liability into your home. But, with a great pet policy in place that includes a pet fee and expectations about pet behavior and cleaning, you will eliminate a lot of that risk. Allowing pets can reduce the chance of vacancy.
Focus on Tenant Retention
The best way to avoid vacancy, of course, is to keep your current tenants in place. Offer incentives at lease renewal time so you don’t lose them. Make sure you’re providing them with a fantastic rental experience. Accept online rental payments, respond quickly to maintenance, and establish a good relationship with your residents. This will save you a lot of money on turnover costs and vacancy loss.
Working with a Charlotte property management company is another excellent way to limit the number of days your rental property is vacant. Would you like to hear more? Contact our team at AM Realty.
