If you have professional photos and you're priced correctly, there is no reason to have more than two-months of vacancy between April and September in most of the Twin Cities market.

My number one piece of advice for avoiding vacancy is market timing. I never allow tenants to go month-to-month, and all leases are structured to end between May and July. If I take over a lease that ends outside that window, I'll re-sign for an odd number of months (under or over 12 months, depending on the tenant's preference) to make sure the unit turns during peak renting season.

Professional photos are an absolute must. Most independent landlords still aren't doing this. Spending $250 to save yourself months of vacancy is an incredible ROI. If you have vacancy and don't have professional photos, use the opportunity to take some. I'll watch investors spend $10,000-$20,000 improving a unit, only to take terrible listing photos.

Use virtual staging for a few photos to show off potential layouts, but don't overdo it. I used to virtually stage every photo and realized many tenants viewed it as fake or dishonest. When I switched to having only 10% of the photos virtually staged, calls went up significantly.

Pricing is more of an art than a science. Get a Rentometer Pro account if you don't already have one, but Rentometer can be completely wrong at times. For example, it may not understand the difference between south of I-94 in St. Paul and north of I-94. Your best bet is to get pricing help from an active landlord or broker in the area.

I don't mind optimistic pricing on a nice listing in a good area if it's the first time bringing it to market, because I'd rather test the ceiling than underprice it. If there's not much action after a week or so, I'll drop the rent without hesitation. It's not like listing a home for sale—reducing the rent doesn't usually hurt your leverage.

Different types of units require different amounts of lead time. A higher-end single-family home might rent quickly because relocating families are searching from out of state for something nice and immediately available. Student rentals are often the opposite, as many students secure fall housing during the winter. Make sure you're following local laws regarding how soon a tenant must decide whether they're renewing.

Lastly, avoid vacancy by not buying weird units. Some places are just hard to rent, and it's almost always because they're odd. Any unit will rent if the price is low enough, but I try to think about mass appeal when deciding what to buy.

Hope this helps. If you're struggling with vacancy, feel free to DM me anytime. Always happy to take a look at a listing and give my two cents.