When do you start advertising a property for rent

Question

We have a home we purchased in June. It looks like it 'should be' ready by the end of August. However, it could be the first or second week of September. Our contractor has had someone stop by that wants to rent it which made me think maybe it's time to start advertising. When should I start advertising the rental for rent.  What would I do for pictures? The previous pictures cannot be used as we are turning a 2-1 into a 3-2 and we've had (and done ourselves) so much work on the house that it's NOT the same.

Matthew Masoud · Answer

I typically start advertising once the contractor is working on the finishing touches. If you're pricing it fairly it shouldn't sit on the market for long.

Mackaylee Beach · Answer

I would start marketing when you are completing final touches. Market as "coming soon" with an estimated date. This will at least start attracting traffic. Most serious tenants start searching for properties before their current leases expire.

Richard F. · Answer

Aloha,

I never advertise until completely ready for showing (although if waiting on an appliance delivery ONLY I might). Prospective Tenants often cannot "see through the dirt/construction" and they get a poor first impression. And, as @Bryce Jamison indicated, folks that are looking very early, often continue to "play the field" until they find something better. I actually work the situation in the opposite direction...I often promote in my ads, "view it today, move in tomorrow, on approval". Lots of people actually HATE  the idea of "house hunting", so if they find something that generally pleases them, they would rather act now and get it over with so they can move and get settled.

The key is proper preparation. Everything should be functional, very clean, and secure. So many times when people view our vacancies, they exclaim "gee, it looks even better than the photos!" This also helps you to attract the top 10% of the Tenant pool for your price range. You never want to rent to someone that just "settles" for something that is dirty, damaged, or not functional.

Nathan Gesner · Answer

Contractors in notorious for running over budget and over the clock, so I would not start advertising it until you were within a week of completing the work.

if the contractor sends someone to you, make sure you screen them heavy like you would anyone else.

Bryce Jamison · Answer

I used to advertise my properties as soon as I could get in them. The problem I ran into was that I'd have so many people want to see the property within the first couple weeks before it was ready to be shown and when I reached back out to them once I could show it they'd ghost me.

Going forward I'm only going to post my LTRs for rent when they're ready to be shown. I believe it actual hurt me to list a property before I could show it because I missed out on the biggest wave of interested renters. I think I would have gotten tenants in faster by waiting to list until I could show.

This is only my experience in my area though. In a more competitive rental market you may want to list ASAP. I'd recommend going to local meetups to get a better feel for the rental landscape in your area.

Eliott Elias · Answer

Look at data on how much time it is taking properties to fill vacancies in your area. The longer, the better in your case. If you have tenants who are willing and able to move in right now, listing for rent before it is ready may not be a good idea.

When do you start advertising a property for rent

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