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How do You Ensure that You Find the Best Tenants?

Finding the diamond in the rough with tenant screening.

How do we ensure we are finding you the best tenants for the property? That is a great question because bad tenants can cost you a lot of money. They can damage the property, not pay their rent, and force us to evict them. All of which cost a lot of money and lead to vacancies.

Marketing. The first thing we do is market the property. By actively marketing the property, we can get a selection of applicants. This gives us the opportunity to choose the best tenants. Then we screen all applicants.
Screening. When someone is interested in renting a property, we have them fill out an application. We then screen out the ones you do not want living in your property. We have an extensive screening checklist. You can learn more about it by going to 7 Steps to Flawless Tenant Screening.
Landlord verification. Although many landlords will debate the merits of landlord verifications, we believe they are an essential part of the screening process when available. Go to Problems with Landlord Verification in Screening and the Solution to learn more about the advantages and disadvantages of landlord verification, but more importantly, how we mitigate the disadvantages when screening tenants.
Manual checks. Because we take the screening process very seriously, we manually check all local criminal and eviction records. Why is it so important to check criminal and eviction records manually? Another great question. You can follow the link to read more extensively on the topic. In short, we learned through experience that national background check data bases are imperfect. While they are still a useful tool, they are not sufficient to stand on their own. We also check with the local courts for any recent filings or ones missed.

Tenant screening and marketing work in combination to ensure we have a selection of good tenants to choose from for each and every property we manage, We have several videos and blog posts available on the many things we do to market properties, but a good one to start with is My home is not leasing – some tips for better lease marketing.

Our experienced investment property management team can relieve you of the burden of managing your rental property while saving you some serious money! Call us today at (440) 220-7300 to see how we can help you!

My home is not leasing: tips for better lease marketing

Our marketing efforts are proven effective.

We get this a lot. Someone calls and tells us they have a property that has been sitting on the market for a year and nothing is happening. We ask, are they marketing the property? The owner responds that there is a “for rent” sign. We ask if they’ve gotten any calls on it. They tell us that they call their realtor or manager about it, but don’t get a clear response or any response at all.

If this story sounds familiar to you or it is your story, please call us.

We will bring energy to your properties and actively work to reduce vacancies.

There has to be a starting point, for us, that will be sitting down with you and discussing the rental prices to ensure they are marketing at a price that makes sense.

We spend thousands on marketing. Way more than most individual landlords can possibly spend because we can combine our efforts over all the properties we manage. We also spend our marketing dollars on the most effective marketing tactics possible.

Our first line of marketing is our website, ohiorental.info, which gets thousands of visitors every month. We also pay for syndication. This gets our property listings out to dozens of websites. We follow up with every lead on every property. Our marketing program has proven effective day in and day out. Also, we add to and improve our efforts anytime we discover a new or better option. We regularly look at our efforts to make changes as needed. We also use MLS, which is massive and Craig’s List to provide constant exposure to properties.

Our property owners get weekly activity reports. You will never go weeks or months without hearing from us. Weekly reports show things like how many page views a property listing received. They show how many inquiries the property got and how many showings were scheduled. We also provide advice on possible changes based on the information provided.

We found that roughly 30% of the time, we have a deposit on a property before the previous tenants even move out. In addition to our marketing efforts, tenant screening is an essential tool we use to reduce potential damage to properties and reduce vacancies.

How to use video marketing to lease your property faster

Rent your properties faster than ever before with less showings.

Video marketing is a huge tool and something you should already be using. Video tours can save you a lot of time showing properties because people will have the opportunity to preview the property first. This will filter out a lot of tenants that wouldn’t otherwise be interested once they had a chance to see the rental unit. In this way, video marketing also attracts more serious prospects.

The success of video marketing is completely dependent on the quality of the video. The key to success is making a video that is smooth, clear and provides an accurate and appealing view of the property. Here are a few tips to help you make a video tour that will get your property rented fast.

Use a decent camera. You don’t need an expensive camera or professional equipment. You just need a decent camera that will take clear video. Most smartphones now actually have excellent cameras and allow you to upload them directly to YouTube.
Use a wide-angle lens. Even if you are using the camera on your phone, you can get a wide-angle lens attachment. This is particularly useful when filming small rooms because it will allow you to shoot the entire room at once, which will make it look bigger and more open.
Sweep the room. You want to ensure when you are showing a room; you aren’t moving too fast or jerking the camera around. Start at one side of the room and slowly and steadily sweep the view up, around, and back down. Then slowly back out of the room. You don’t want to physically turn around and walk out because you will inevitably end up with a close-up of a wall.
Limit the length. No one will sit through a 30-minute video tour…or even a 10-minute video tour to be frank. Aim to make your videos 3 to 7 minutes. 5 minutes should be your max, but depending on the size of the property, you may need to go up to 7 minutes. As with any marketing, video marketing must be short and to the point or people will stop watching.
Walk smoothly. You may not feel it, but the simple act of walking can make your video turn out jerky and shaky. Our eyes naturally correct that jerky when we walk, which is why you won’t see it until you’re trying to watch a video you recorded. One way to limit the movement in the video is to take your shoes off, so you can slide your feet as you move around. Some cameras come equipment with stabilization, which also may help. There is also a certain amount of correction you can make using Youtube editor. The finished product does not have to look professional, but it needs to be as smooth as possible.
Hold the camera with both hands. Holding the camera with both hands will help to keep it steady and centered. The less you move the camera around the better the final video will be.
Walk through the center. Regardless of whether you are moving down a hallway or through a door, stay in the center. This will keep the walls from cutting into the video and make the space look more open.
Be prepared. Before you start filming, walk through the entire unit, turn on lights, open drapes, and bedroom doors. Do everything you may need to be done while filming, so you don’t need to stop or mess up the video by having to open a door while shooting. Open the drapes and turn all the lights on. The brighter a room is, the more open it will feel.
Highlight anything special. Make a list of all the selling points of the property and make sure they are in the video as well as talked about. For example, if the apartment has a laundry room, don’t just show the laundry without saying anything…or say there is a laundry room without showing it. Include the laundry room in the video tour and when you do, tell the viewers that they won’t have to lug their dirty clothes down to the laundry mat or save up all their quarters to use a laundry room…

When you start the video tour, you always want to start outside in front of the property. Use a very casual, conversational tone when talking, and start by saying something to the effect of, “Hi. Welcome to ________________….” Then start describing the benefits of the property.

Before you go into the property, do a slow and smooth 360, so the viewer can get a look at the neighborhood.

As you walk through the house, name each room you are going in to. This will help the viewer create a mental map of the property. It is best to shoot the entire video without editing. If you make a mistake, laugh it off in the video. If doesn’t have to be perfect, and mistakes make you look more real.

When describing the house, focus on the benefits, opposed to the features. For example, instead of saying there is a “large family room” you can say, “plenty of room for company.” Instead of saying the house has a “high-efficiency furnace,” so it has “low heating costs.” The key is to market what people want, such as low monthly expenses or having friends and family over.

Remember, the video does not have to be perfect or dramatic. Just make it happen. Video marketing provides a new dimension to a marketing plan.