Vacant rentals can be a major cause of distress for any property owner as many landlords rely on their rental income to pay their mortgage and taxes. Managing the costs of maintenance, repairs, advertising, and conducting the tedious tenant screening process over and over till the house is occupied can also be exhausting.
However, there are a few measures that you can take as a rental house owner to ensure that your tenants are happy in the house and wouldn't want to vacate it anytime soon.
Here are some tips that may help you reduce vacancies in your Hampton Roads rental.
Do Your Best to Retain the Existing Tenants
Retaining the existing tenants is one of the most effective ways to prevent vacancy. You can very well retain them through small gestures like sending them well-wishes on special occasions like birthdays, or anniversaries, visiting occasionally to enquire about their welfare, responding to their calls or emails promptly. These small details can win their trust and make them feel important.
Addressing the issues that the tenants might have and being proactive is very important for tenant retention. Your efforts and responsiveness can motivate them to opt for lease renewal.
Provide New Offers/Incentives
Offering rewards to the tenants for complying with the lease, handling the property with diligence, or renewing the lease is a good idea. This allows them to avail of the additional benefits, thus reducing the chances of the rental being vacated.
Anticipating the needs of your tenants and making suitable offers will give them more reasons to stay. Offers like a free yearly subscription for Netflix or Amazon Prime, gift vouchers to the local Superstores, Wi-Fi installations, theatre token gift cards, or some new kitchen appliances can go a long way in building a healthy relationship with your tenants.
Practice Preventative Maintenance
Recurrent maintenance issues form a significant obstacle to a smooth tenancy. It is one of the critical reasons for repeated and prolonged rental vacancies.
Practicing preventative maintenance can considerably aid in increasing rental occupancy rates. Installing rain gutters to prevent water-logging, keeping the common areas clean, scheduling a fire alarm maintenance for avoiding accidents, timely water filter servicing, keeping the rooftop and the outdoors tidy, polishing the deck, and changing the AC filters are good ways of employing preventative maintenance.
Provide Additional Utilities/Amenities
Offering small but unique utilities or amenities could also be a great way to attract tenants and curb rental vacancies. You can provide utilities like hair dryers, toasters, garbage disposals, crockery sets, or speakers to the tenants as per their needs and your budget.
Improve Your Marketing Strategies
It is essential to improve your marketing strategies to find reliable tenants and reduce rental vacancies. For this, you can implement marketing strategies like promoting the availability of your house through radio advertisements, posters, flyers, and word-of-mouth publicity.
In addition, you can post advertisements with photographs that highlight the best features of your property and its location on trusted real estate websites or social media pages. Marketing your rental with the help of local property management companies can also boost the reach of the property.
Charge Rents That Are Consistent with the Market Rate
Conducting market research and analyzing the current housing trends will help you learn what the other landlords are charging across the neighborhood for properties similar to yours. Try to charge rents that are consistent with the market rate and avoid increasing the rent costs by the end of the lease terms.
It can be challenging to manage your Hampton Roads property, implement the marketing strategies, and do the required market research on your own. You should consider consulting reliable property management companies operating in Hampton Roads, like Doud Realty Services.
Our property management experts help you conduct a rental price analysis for your Hampton Roads property and undertake all the activities required to ensure that your Hampton Roads’ property is never vacant. For more details, connect with us at Doud Realty Services.