This post is inspired by two things:

– a recent experience I personally had
– a recent post by someone I highly respect

 

So you’ve decided to rent your property. For the ease of writing, lets assume it’s a single family home.  You’re a rookie, but the market is “hot” or maybe you’ve got a buddy who is making a killing in real estate and you’re ready to cash in. Awesome. But before you do you’ll want to make an educated decision on what you should ask for your perfect rental home.  How?

Well, here’s how,…

You need to know three things:

– what the smartest landlords would get for it

-what the average landlord would get for it

-what the idiot landlord would get for it

 

How do you do this?  Easy.  Pick up a newspaper, scroll to the “houses for rent” section.  Look at as many similar homes to yours as you can, and average them.  Take note: generally ads run for several days… don’t record each day, just each home.  In general, this becomes your “idiot” landlord price.  Yes, that’s insulting.  I’m sure there are plenty of areas of the world where a newspaper is the best place to rent a home but chances are if you’re reading this you’re not living in one. These are generally the ads that landlords who’ve been doing this for decades and haven’t changed their Lease in decades write and expect to fill their vacancies.  And because nobody reads them, they are the lowest prices often.

 

Next, harness your mad Google skills.

Search away for various common phrases like “for rent (your city)” & “house for rent (your city)”.  What sites show up in the top 3 consistently?  That’s where you go to see what the average landlord will get and also what the smart landlord will get. What’s the difference?  Often, about $50 in photographers fees and a few hours learning about marketing.  And really, that’s about it.  View the ads, most of them suck.  Call the landlords, most of them suck too.  Maybe 1/20 will actually write an ad that draws people in.  That creates a “feeling” and a picture in the mind of the reader.  Those ads should be asking more $ for their unit.  As a rule, view the first 5-10 pages of ads and pick your top 15 or so closest comparable units and those are the average landlords results.

Now take that dollar number and add 10%, that’s where I target. Why? it makes my life easier.  I price out the deadbeats and generally get far fewer calls from folks wanting a rental discount. Fewer calls?! Yep, that’s what I shoot for. 2-5 calls per day from folks who I have directly targeted in my ad who are willing to pay more because they know the place is exactly what they are looking for.

Does it work?  Well, recently I rented a home in a bedroom community for $2,165.00 + utilities per month when the appraiser said it was worth $1,500.00 and most homes in the area are going for $1,700.00 – $1,800.00  … so yeah, it works!