This is Part Two of my Above Market Rent post. My Zillow Ad has been up for 10 days now and it seems most of my rental pool has stopped responding to my Ad. I have had a few showings to well qualified prospects but for whatever reason, they have disappeared on me.

So, I need to do something to stimulate the market here and hopefully get some more qualified prospects to see this house, which is in mint condition now.

But a rent too low pulls in the unrentables. It's a balancing act. I would compare your place to others in the same price range before doing anything. It's definitely a tough go. I recently saw a ad from a local landlord almost begging folks to rent his place. I'm figuring he'll get someone in there a couple of months before having to evict. Many of these LLs gamble like that. I don't which is why my vacancies take longer to fill.

I would stick with it for another 10 days at least. I find that the qualified applicant timeline looks like a radio wave, peaks around the 15th and is at its lowest around the 1st. It could be that you have simply hit the low point of the cycle. I'm guessing that's because they want to move the last half of the month and be out by the 1st.

In my neck of the woods, I usually can locate my next tenant in 10-14 days. Sometimes it is less than that and sometimes it is longer. One of my personal faults is that I am impatient,...I want things to happen on my schedule and not someone else's.

Thank you MikeA (TX)

That is what I needed to read. The best applicants tend to peak around the 15th. I will try to be patient and not make any changes.

I usually let my ads go 3 weeks between price adjustments, and then I do not necessarily always lower it. Sometimes, I've raised it.

Gotta check your competition and see what they are asking. If you haven't checked, you might have missed the changing market conditions.

I have at times stopped my ad and created another ad nearly identical to the old one, but I change up the wording a bit and I post a different lead photo, and mix up the other photos.

spacious XX bedroom XX bath house located in the wonderful community of XXXXXX.

Lots of garage and off street parking

Walking distance to gas station, grocery store, restaurants and laundromat.

Washer and drier hook up available

Rent to own appliances available

There is a $xxx flat rate utility fee for water, sewer, and garbage.

Security deposit is XXXX

Rent starts at only $XXXX and report payments to increase your credit score.

Application fee is $XX

Credit score above XXX required

Good rental references and site visit required

You must pass a criminal background check.

Ask about our reduced security deposit program with your qualifying credit.

----------------------

You need to write an add that attracts the right people and steers away the wrong people.

Sid,

I just checked the competition on Zillow. Similar houses with out Central Heat/Air, are advertised in mid-700's. Houses with Central Heat/Air are in the 900's like mine is. My house and two others are the only ones advertised on Zillow. The pickings are slim here.

I have not lowered advertised rent price…..ever.

I would want to know if I hadn’t correctly priced it to start with, or if the market dropped. If I couldn’t verify either of those being the case. I would up my marketing game. We are way too reliant on the online advertising platforms that always cater to the local residents and miss the relocations. Far too often, The best renters don’t see our ads.

I sure wouldn’t line up for the race to the bottom by sweetening the deal until an unmotivated renter moves two blocks in order to save $50 per month.

Sisco,

You made some good points there. However, what other choices do we have in addition to online advertising platforms? I have not used a For Rent yard sign in over 10 years. All I ever got from yard signs was riff-raff who would drive around neighborhoods looking for empty houses.

Roy, have your own website with current listings, a YouTube channel to show the houses, more importantly to bump up your search optimization. Consider your presentation from the perspective of relocation whose is skittish of being scammed. Make adjustments.

Sisco,

I agree with GKARL's assessment about the work involved in driving traffic to one's own website or a FB page. Plus, I try to keep a low profile among the general public which keeps me off FB, CL or even my own website which I don't have. The more public exposure I have, the more opportunity for scammers to scam me.

Every single time I post an Ad on Zillow, usually within 24 hours, some scammer has copied my Zillow Ad and re-posted it on FB Marketplace with their contact information on it. I am being scammed right now on FB and there is nothing I can do about it. I get calls daily from total strangers asking me why the advertised rent on my Zillow Ad ($950) is different from "my FB Ad" at $650.00.

I wish I did not have to advertise at all on the Internet.

Find a local Facebook RENTALS group - I just saw one and I did just a quick quick look. Post a link to your CL ad there - you won't find a good tenant on FB, but they will TELL people they know and you will broaden your prospects exponentially. My local group has almost 10k members, and it's private! I don't know that I have ever rented to a member, but I know they do tell OTHER people who are not on FB or at least not part of the group.

I don't know where you are, but here's an example of such a group in AL: facebookdotcom/groups/784063141714415

That one is public with almost 20k members. Who all have at least one friend in real life, one would assume.

I agree the fast rent climb is over - people simply can't afford to keep chasing rents as their paycheck isn't keeping pace.

That does NOT mean Roy's place isn't worth his higher price though - he is not in a big city looking for thousands and thousands of dollars.

WMH,

WMH, well if you were the admin for our local group, I'd probably post more. Perhaps I should start my own group, but it takes time and effort to clear out the riff raff.

NE, I'd be interested in hearing more about how price drops are getting quality tenants.

GKarl, last year I had a property that was completely remodeled. Absolutely gorgeous, Town center. Perfect place. Comps were around $1700. The quality of tenant that came in at that price was abysmal! I’m talking, high-end, criminal, multiple evictions, mid 400s credit. I thought, what the heck is going on here?. So after a while, the price plunge game began. And I dropped and I dropped and I dropped and I dropped and finally at $900 a month about 5-6 months after first listing it. I was able to get someone to qualify. That’s how bad it was. Same criteria.

To me, that true market. When someone buys the truck or buys the happy meal or signs the lease, that is what the market will bear. Everything else you hear or think or read or see people listing their items for is just BS fluff.

That's a big drop, but if that's the market, that's the market. Pricing is part psychology and also practical. One's mileage may vary depending on your local market. I need pay closer attention to my market. I see places on Zillow that seem to stay there for weeks on end. Heck, the duplex I sold is an example. I could have cut rents but my best move was to sell it and cash out. I came to the same conclusion a year ago on a beautiful SFH that I couldn't rent.

You can afford to cut. There are others who bought at peak who can not.

"Pay attention to the big guys now too. Examples: McDonalds & Target both restructuring pricing practices due to slowing sales, either to cut prices or to provide a little more for a little less"

GKarl, it is a big drop, but it didn’t bother me at all because there are other factors. Isn’t there always though? It was listed heading into winter, finally leased in December. It was the first time listing this place for rent since purchase. The qualified tenant pool said it was worth $900/m. The unqualified tenant pool LOVED IT at every price. Don’t they always?

Always say we are lucky to own where we own and rent what we rent. Small homes are not a trend but a necessity for our target market - and our small homes, fixed up and pretty, are cheaper per month than even the crappy big ones. But people who quote price per square foot at me (some try it) aren't going to rent from us.

Roy,

I hear you saying two opposite things and a lack:

-not enough interest

-but don't want to market on ___ or ___.

-because I don't have a process to sift thru inquiries

Marketing makes the world go 'round, and online is king.

Market EVERY way possible, including yard and corner signs. DO not limit your draw.

Signs also bring in good people and neighbors who want to move, or the Mom helping her daughter find a place.

Use those staged pics I gave you to make your home look move valuable. Watermarking to stop scammers is free.

Weekly rent is a big draw for us. It looks less expensive on the ads.

BRAD

PS

Ditto MikeA on the timing. Their 5 days grace period is up so they paid and stayed where they are. No money until late in the month.

I call the last 10 days of the month "The Golden Hour".

Short answer: Market like a crazy person until it's rented.

"The qualified tenant pool said it was worth $900/ m. The UNQUALIFIED pool loved it at every price."

This. Exactly.

Even though I am in a very 'hot' rental market, it still takes due diligence to find the tenants I want. Just placed a well-qualified tenant off of a former tenant referral, and, OH! The neighbors, the former tenant's other friends ( maybe former friends) are all up in arms that 'they didn't get a chance' at such a nice house at a good price. What they don't think of is they wouldn't have qualified at twice the price.

What a post. It seems from this post that the rent price spiral for most areas is over. In my area rent was cheap for to long so I was glad to see an increase. I just rented a nice, with some new upgrades, 2x1 SFH good neighborhood for 800. I listed it at 850 about where the comps had it. Previous rent was 670.

Me I closely watch the local rent market and try to base my target rent based on local data, including input from local PMs and Realtors not what I see on TV. I have sold several cars over the years - you got to have the price right for your local market - cars or rentals do your homework then set your target price.

+100 points to Jason's and Brad's answers. Market everywhere you can (reasonably) and let automation sort thru the duds, and there will be many....

I use Buildium which syndicates out to Zillow, Zumper and all of their affiliates. Basically, when I push the "List It" button, over a dozen of the most popular online search sites get my ads within a few hours.

I stopped using signs. They get stolen and/or end up being an invitation for squatters. If I had FT maintenance or was FT like Brad, I could reasonably check them on a 2x / week basis to avoid the riff raff. Plus I'm still getting rented in 2 weeks or less most times. I don't see signs getting me rented much faster, so no reasons to spend that much effort for a miniscule improvement. The juice isn't worth the squeeze for me.

Sid,

About an hour ago, I rented out the house at $950.00. Yep, it all happened in about 24 hours. I rented to this family for 2 reasons,...5X income and they had the highest FICO score (620) I had seen in years. Most of my applicants are in the low-mid 500's.

NE, not for us. It's the reasons for it that matter. I've had tenants with low scores because they simply didn't use credit. I look at WHO they owe. Recent applicant had a bill with a cable company from another state - ordinarily I don't like that because if you don't pay a utility you can walk away from, not good. BUT the original bill was high, he now owes $58 so he WAS paying on it. I'm guessing it's from college and he got stuck with a group bill. But he is paying it so good.

Roy, congrats on renting the place out.

Mine is above 800 as well.

When banks do decide to deal with me I have to jump thru so many more hoops and add so much paperwork it is crazy.

When I had the W2 it was no problem.

6x6,

Instead of traditional banks loans which I can't get, banks will allow me Lines of Credit which I use for either buying a house cheap and/or the rehab that always follows.