In an age where people spend just as much time, if not more, online than offline, it’s important to take advantage of online resources to find tenants. Listing your properties online via the right websites is a great way to broaden the pool of prospective tenants and ensure you get the best tenants around.
Landlords who aren’t experienced with how to find tenants online might be overwhelmed when they look at the number of sites available for listing rental properties. It seems like a new one shows up every month, but not all sites are created equally.
To know which sites are right to use for your rental properties, you’ll need to analyze your property, your ideal renter, and your business needs. This information will make it easier to search for tenants online without wasting your time.
Though property rental management and tenant screening rely heavily on experience, there is a lot you can learn from the experiences of others as well. Let’s learn how to use online sources to find the best tenants around.
A Table Of Contents For How To Find Tenants Online
How To Find Tenants Online
Landlords who have decided to advertise their properties and search for tenants online for the first time might be overwhelmed with the options that they have to manage. The internet’s size is unfathomable, and this can easily throw you off track if you don’t focus on your goals.
When you’re working to find tenants online, you’ll want to focus on a few specific things to ensure you attract great tenants who will help your rental business succeed.
Use The Right Sites
First, you want to make sure you are using the right sites! If you only post your rental property on one website and it barely gets any views from renters in your area, you aren’t likely to find your tenants. In the end, you would end up wasting both time and money.
Do some research about which property listing websites are being used in your areas. You can do this by asking your current tenants where they usually search for properties, or you can reach out to friends and family in the area who are familiar with the market.
Even if landlords like you like the design of a specific website, renters searching for somewhere to stay might have different opinions. The key is to focus on what the tenant wants throughout this process, so consult tenant opinion as much as possible.
When it comes down to it, the best thing you can do is to list on too many sites rather than too few. In time, you’ll be able to see the patterns of which sites are bringing in profitable tenants and which are not.
Best Sites To Find Tenants
There are dozens of different property rental listing websites out there; how are you to know which ones are worth considering?
Here on RentPrep you can find a complete review of the best rental listing websites for landlords that showcase what each site is good for. With this list in hand, choose 3-4 sites to list on and see what happens.
Write A Good Ad
It’s not enough, however, to just rely on the website you choose to do all of the work for you. It is also very important that you learn how to write a descriptive ad that will highlight the best and most attractive points of your property.
Advertising is a skill that you’ll need to hone.
List all important details about the property, from the room division to the fixtures to what is included with the rental fees. Everything a tenant might ask about should be included so prospective tenants do not feel any hesitation.
Additionally, adding a little bit of information about what amenities are located nearby can be a good way to help people imagine what their life might be like if they decide to rent the property.
Take Good Photos
It will be hard for any renter to take your property seriously if the pictures don’t do it justice. Grainy photos that are poorly framed are not going to be enough to rent a property when everyone is walking around with high-powered cameras in their pockets.
Take some time to make sure your photos look nice. If you’re really struggling with the photos, consider if the cost of hiring a professional photographer would be worth it. The investment of time and money you put into the photos could be returned in the form of a fantastic tenant.
Keep Things Up-To-Date
If you make updates to your property, lower the price, or otherwise change the property in a notable way, make sure you are updating this information to each online rental listing as quickly as possible. Tenants appreciate landlords who are continually updating their properties, so giving these kinds of updates may be a point in your favor.
Respond Quickly
Depending on the volume of properties and renters in your market, time may be an incredibly important factor in whether or not you can snag the best renters in town. If a renter reaches out with an application or with additional questions, do your best to respond to these queries as quickly as possible.
Faster response times will lead to faster decisions. Time is money in the rental world, so you want to get things rented as soon as possible.
FAQs: Finding Tenants Online
How Can I Find A Tenant Fast?
The primary thing you need to do in order to find a tenant quickly is to make sure you are posting your rental property information in as many places as possible as quickly as possible; more exposure gives you more potential hits.
The speed at which your properties attract tenants, however, is also going to depend on the property itself. If you aren’t getting any bites after a few days of great exposure opportunities, consider how the following might be affecting your ads:
- Property staging
- Photo quality in listings
- Rental price
- Location
- Included utilities
- Property condition
All of these factors will have a big effect on whether or not someone wants to apply to be your tenant.
How Do You Find Renters?
Finding renters can be done in many ways:
- Newspaper advertising
- Magazine advertising
- Local ad space advertising
- Flyers
- Renter brochures
- Online listings
- On-the-ground marketing
- Social media advertising
The majority of tenants today find the rental properties they apply for online via search portals, but it is still very common for renters to find properties through flyers and newspaper advertising as well.
What Is The Best Website To Find Houses For Rent?
If you want to see the largest selection of houses for rent, visiting large property sites like Zillow and Cozy are likely to be your best option. Zillow, in particular, is a great option because the listings on this site are syndicated with their partner sites, and that means that your options will be truly comprehensive.
What Is The Best Way To Find A Rental Home?
To find a good rental home, renters should start by making a list of their must-haves:
- Property type
- Number of bedrooms
- Number of bathrooms
- Appliances (AC, etc.)
Using this information as filters, work through the top rental listing websites to see what properties show up. If you cannot find anything through these searches, you may need to make some compromises. Try altering your filters and searching again to find the best rental home for your needs.
If you still can’t find anything you like, consider reaching out to a local property management company and asking them if they have any properties available that fit your needs. Even if they don’t, they might have suggestions on where to look next.
How Do You Attract Good Tenants?
Attracting good tenants depends on the balance between your property’s condition, location, price, and advertising. Tenants of all types are going to consider these factors while searching for a new place to live, but the best tenants are going to take everything a bit more seriously.
Great tenants who are reliable and well-informed are likely to ask more questions and want more information, so you want to attract them by being very clean, organized, and consistent in everything that you do.
Once you’ve attractive prospective tenants, take time to understand each tenant to determine if they’re the right fit.
Conclusion
Finding tenants online has quickly become the norm in the rental world, but that doesn’t mean every landlord is comfortable in how to do this effectively. Thankfully, there are a lot of resources out there for landlords like you to guide the way:
- Choose your site carefully
- Craft a good ad with detailed information and nice photos
- Be very responsive
By following those three actionable steps, you’ll be on your way to securing your next tenant online.