can't find tenants - links included

[George P.]

i (once again) am having trouble finding tenants for my latest house.

website - http://onpointrentals.com/index.php?p=1_16

craigslist ad - http://detroit.craigslist.org/wyn/apa/4226172664.html

it has no garage, good suburb, but with C schools. older neighborhood, but one street over from a C suburb.

3 bed, 1 bath, fully updated as you can see from the pictures. basement is cleaned out, bright and painted. not finished. appliances included

started working with a new realtor and she listed it on the MLS at $1,050. had 3 showings and nothing. one commented on the proximity to the C suburb. 2 weeks later, dropped it to $995. it's priced right based on the comps.

the previous realtor was very demanding with potential tenants, so i switched. i have also had simultanious ad on CL and nothing. days go by without any action.

i know the lower i go, the worse the potential tenants would be.

[Jon Holdman]

In my experience, just the opposite is true. Price it at or a little under the market and you'll have more applicants. Price it above the market and you'll get a crummy tenant. Better applicants have more choices and will choose a better priced choice. Crummy tenants have few choices and will pay a higher price.

Realize its a slow time of year. So, you're not going to get a lot of traffic.

You say its one street over from a bad area and that its priced right based on comps. Are those comps also just one street from the bad area? If not, they're not good comps. I had this problem with a house I sold. One block to the south would have been worth 5% more. One block to the west and it would have been 10-15% more. As it was - on a busy street across from a high school - the choice of comps was very limited. The proximity to a defect like this bad neighborhood can be significant. If its priced comparably to other properties that are further away, you'll have to be cheaper.