How to rent place. What are we doing wrong?
Blue Bell, PA · Member since 2017 · 8 posts · 2 votes
Earlier this summer, my wife and I bought an older city town home that we renovated lightly (updated bathroom and kitchen), within a reasonable budget. We ran into a 2 month setback with our first contractor and decided to rent it instead of living there because of delay +baby. Finally finished it and are trying to lease it for the past 1.5 month now (3.5 months from purchase), It's in a high rental, very popular neighborhood, 1 block from numerous restaurants, cafes and shops, train. A month in, we lowered the rent 5% and despite a lot of showings and positive feedback, we've only had 1 applicant so far, which was rejected due to credit history of late payments.
We posted on Cozy, Zillow, ETC. Any suggestions? I can answer any questions. We rent a place in Houston out and that was gone in 5 days so this is a little discouraging considering the 3 month set back of original contractor and new one having to finish things.
The front photo and the street with the overpass are not the most attractive. Since you've had many showing maybe the photos are ok. But since you had many showings and only one application something is wrong, and I would suggest that the people coming are expecting more for their money.
I think in both renting and selling, it always come down to the money. If the rent was half of what your asking it would rent the first day. I'm not suggesting charging half rent but somewhere between what you are charging and half of what you're charging the is a point of equilibrium between the minimum you'll take and the maximum that a tenant will pay.
I've rented properties for many year. When there is turn over there are a few things that I do. I always use Craigslist and Zillow for renting, rarely do I put a sign on the property unless there is a fair amount of traffic. But I don't like to rent on streets with lots of traffic, no double yellow lines for me. I also don't rent places that don't have off street parking, maybe a garage, maybe a carport, or maybe just a driveway.
I will look at comparable ads on CL and Zillow to look at their pix, what looks good what doesn't and what rents are they charging, and how old are their ads. In addition, I'll test ad putting in an ad higher than I think it will rent for just to validate my rent. If I rent at the higher price, good for me. If the rent is too high for the product, then a lower the rent and get it rented, which is alos good for me.
I'll also look at rentometer, just to see that they have to say about the rent price.
Remember its always about the price$$$$$$$. Sometimes lowering the asking price $20 does the trick, but I never want vacancy for 30 days, my goal is 14 days or less, and I might lower rent every week to get it rented.
I've bought and sold over 900 properties and have lost track of how many tenants I've had, but its been a lot. Vacancy is a killer and I've had several 30 year tenants, I had one tenant that I didn't see for 24 years, which was alright with me as long as they paid the rent.
Bigger Pockets Podcast #82 guest
wow
Just call the people who saw the apt and ask why they didn't rent
I think with a 4BR you will be marketing to a large family. But without allowing pets (which most families have), you are setting up criteria that is virtually mutually exclusive. Consider allowing pets with an additional fee (either one-time fee or pet rent, whichever is the local custom).
Another idea you might try is to put up another ad, identical in all ways, but put it as a 2BR with office AND den (or something similar). That way, you can also attract professionals who room together or a couple with no children. Your rental might be getting filtered out of their searches as a "4BR". We had a similar situation where we had a 3BR that attracted large families that could not qualify, so we marketed as a 2BR with a den and had much more traffic from the professional demographic and rented it more easily.
The RING Reia group meets at the Manyunk Brewing company at 4120 Main Street. They have a meetup page, check it out and if you don't already go to their meeting, you should to meet other real estate investors. It a good forum to ask other local investors questions and see what they think of your rental property. Good luck
@Jeff Schleyer - Try listing it on hotpads.com as well. I put my rental on there and it automatically got listed to all the other main sites (Trulia, padmapper). I lived in a rental a few blocks away on Gay Street, and I remember finding the listing through padmapper. Like someone said earlier, you probably want to target a family, or young professionals (22-25) who work in the city and want the nightlife of manayunk/center city
Train access is great, but it's tough to park in that area which could scare away people who drive. If you can find a local parking lot that is cheap, maybe list the details in the listing. Good luck!
I have to agree that the ratio of 1 bathroom to 4 bedrooms is going to limit the rental pool.
Anyone with the need for 4 bedrooms is going to at least want 2 bathrooms.
Are the comparables also 4-1? If so, and if the money allowed building a second bathroom would put you
ahead of the competition. Good luck.
Don't take this the wrong way, but the picture from the front makes your place look unprofessional and like a dump. I don't think the front of this house is anything special to see (I grew up in the city) so I would probably put your best picture forward and move that one back in the grouping, and maybe even retake it with the tacky "For Rent" sign gone or blotted out. Other thing is that according to Zillow you are on the very high end of this scale. Houses that don't rent, assuming there's an audience and no unreasonable barriers to entry (i.e 5 months rent in advance, 800 credit score, etc), lack perceived value for the price. So the people that see your house compare it to other houses, decide it's nothing special, and move on.
Thanks for the feedback. I will switch some photo's around.
The area is Manyunk and its only 1.5 blocks walking to the train and main street so i know location is solid. We did a pretty good job comparing surrounding rentals and again, the comps were a lot smaller or just dumps when you went inside them
Hhhmmm... Not knowing the area, that suggests you may be the best (looking) unit in the area .
I didn't pick up on the info about the window units. Maybe feature that more prominently.
The radiators and surface wiring don't make a good impression, in my mind. There are areas where electrical codes - if they allow surface wiring - would require more outlets allowing for shorter cords.
... and yeah, 4 beds, 1 bath? Might be a turn off.
My $0.02 ...
@Jeff Schleyer - I might be a little biased, but there might be value in hiring a Real Estate Agent to properly market the property on MLS as well as other syndicated sites (Zillow, Realtor, Trulia, etc).
Speaking from my own experience, most of the large brokerages have rental departments with pools of potential tenants and companies with relocation clients.
I know Manayunk well and I think the rent is in the right range. Have you had any success with Craigslist and or Zillow?
I rent college apartments in my city. Here, you have to rent June, July, and the first week of August. Otherwise, you'll either have to wait for the few that start in the winter semester or market to someone else. (I thought your place looked really nice.)