List the steps to get my units rented ASAP!

[Simon Obas]

Greetings. I am getting ready to purchase my second home and will be continuing my house hacking strategy. My current home came with the tenants and they have been stellar. I didn’t have to go looking for tenants. But my new home has 0 tenants. Can someone list out the steps that I must do in order to get my units rented out? I’ll have 3 units to rent out and I’d like to have them all rented out by August 1. Pls help.

[Bridgette Delva]

@Simon Obas check out your local market to see what's going on and what other landlords are doing; check your local Zillow and Realtor.com listings.  Pay attention to the listings that are pending, # of days listed and the condition of the homes.  If you want to rent quickly, you have to be competitive in cost and cosmetics too.  If your market is competitive, you may want to consider a discounted rent or free month of rent just to entice prospects. 

Make sure you've gotten all maintenance and minor upgrades completed before you take photos.  Fresh, neutral paint, LED light bulbs, well manicured lawn, pressure wash the exterior where needed. 

Once you've got the basics done then you want to take superior quality photos, which can be achieved good lighting and any recent model iPhone or Samsung.  Good quality photos are free to take but so many landlords skimp in this area.

Price the unit competitively, which means you have to know your market - or you can talk to a local PM and ask what they would rent it for.

Of course, the place needs to show well so make sure it's clean, well lit and smells good every time you show a prospective tenant the place; first impressions mean everything for renters because they tend to move quickly when they find one they like.

I assume you have a good standard lease agreement but if not, there are templates for just about every state in the BP FilePlace - https://www.biggerpockets.com/files

If the unit is move-in ready, you've got good pics and know how much to rent it for - the next step is to list it!  We use Zillow, Cozy (which links to Realtor.com) and we always print nice quality yard signs from VistaPrint.  The signs are cheap and look more professional that the ones you get at your local hardware stores; of course, those will do the job too but it's your call on which yard sign you want to use.  Zillow & Cozy have screening and application capabilities so if you want to use them, it's free to you but the tenant pays the $29 fee.

Good luck!