Fort Worth, TX · Member since 2016 · 23 posts · 4 votes
Hi BP Friends!
I'd like to get your input on the best time during the year to put your house up for rent. What season have you had your best success clinching a renter?
@Sergio Rodriguez, I have had the best luck with my rentals listing during the summer. We try to only renew or expire during the summer months. This allows kids to be out of school and easier for families to move. Also college is normally out or relaxed during summer as well. If we have a unit come vacant during a non summer month when we rent it we try to only do a lease term to get us to a summer month and then renew it then for a year (I.E. if we rented in January we would sign a 6 month lease to get us to the summer and then renew a year lease with them at that point.) Winter sucks to move in as its cold and so many holidays.
@Sergio Rodriguez, I have had the best luck with my rentals listing during the summer. We try to only renew or expire during the summer months. This allows kids to be out of school and easier for families to move. Also college is normally out or relaxed during summer as well. If we have a unit come vacant during a non summer month when we rent it we try to only do a lease term to get us to a summer month and then renew it then for a year (I.E. if we rented in January we would sign a 6 month lease to get us to the summer and then renew a year lease with them at that point.) Winter sucks to move in as its cold and so many holidays.
@Clayton Plank@Justin Fox that's excellent! That's more or less what I was thinking too. I'm sure there are people looking for rentals year round but the hike is in this time frame.
I assume you may be asking to determine when to end a lease. The fact is tenants do not necessarily respect a lease and will leave when ever they choose. I have found that using only M2M leases creates a much better landlord tenant communication relationship and rarely ever have any tenant vacated without proper notice. It is rare for me to have any vacancies unless I choose to renovate the unit. If you use M2M leases you will have fewer vacancies because the tenant will not be leaving on short notice due to breaking a lease or doing midnight runs.
You post prior to the vacancy or when they leave without notice regardless of the time of year. Landlords that operate a business depending on a tenant honouring a lease term will be disappointed more times than not. You have zero control over when a tenant chooses to leave.
I have learned from experience that if you have a reasonably desirable property there are tenants moving and looking 12 months of the year.
All year long. As soon as you know it's available advertise. If it's a house your currently in and want a good pool of applicants be ready to move in 30 days and start advertising now. People relocate and move constantly so if your property is move in ready and you have a good lease all set then it's up to you.
Follow your state landlord tenant laws you can google that..
I only have a few units, so it may have just been bad luck. But I've found the summer to be the worst time to find tenants. I'm in NOLA and it is brutally hot and humid here in the summer, so I've always attributed the difficulties to that. I know if I had any flexibility, I'd never move during the summer either, lol.
But I can definitely understand why summer is the best time for most of the rest of the country.