Different Types of Ads yield Different Types of Tenants?

[bizaro86]

Hello,

I was thinking about the demographics of the people who responded to my ads for a condo I had for rent recently. 100% of the responses I received were in the 18-low 30s demographic. I`ve never thought about this in the past, as that`s the demographic I`m in, and likely people in that demographic make up most of the rental pool.

However, this particular suite might be well suited to an elderly person/couple, for a variety of reasons. Its ground floor, near a mall, transit, etc. (Its also rented, so I`m not trying to sneak in an ad) I`m wondering how much my advertising strategy (so far its been 100% online + signs in the window) has affected my tenant pool.

For those of you who have run analytics (or just have an opinion) how does the placement of an ad (online, newspaper, etc) affect the demographics of the renters you get? How about the quality? Do you get better tenants from one type than another? Has this changed over time as the internet became more pervasive?

Thoughts, opinions, and speculation welcome!

Michael

 

[Berubeland]

I recently attended the Canadian Apartment Investment Conference and one of the session was very informative, on this very subject. It`ll be going up on Million Dollar Journey in about 3 weeks about. I`ll come back and post it here.

Basically there are about 4 large demographic groups that rent. They all have different needs/wants and you can create advertising tailored to them.

Seniors tend to buy condos rather than rent them. For those seniors too poor to buy, they can`t usually afford to rent condos on their fixed incomes. That`s what I have noticed.

 

[bizaro86]

QUOTE (Berubeland @ Sep 28 2010, 05:56 PM) I recently attended the Canadian Apartment Investment Conference and one of the session was very informative, on this very subject. It`ll be going up on Million Dollar Journey in about 3 weeks about. I`ll come back and post it here.

Basically there are about 4 large demographic groups that rent. They all have different needs/wants and you can create advertising tailored to them.

Seniors tend to buy condos rather than rent them. For those seniors too poor to buy, they can`t usually afford to rent condos on their fixed incomes. That`s what I have noticed.

Please do post that here, as demographic information and targetting is something that would interest me (and others, I`m sure) greatly.

As for seniors renting condos, in this case condo==apartment, as what I`m renting out is an apartment style condo, actually a converted apartment building. I`m never sure what to say when someone asks on the phone "is this an apartment or a condo" the correct answer is of course that is an apartment style building held in condominium ownership, in the same way that bareland condos, townhouses, and new highrises are all condos.

Usually I just ask them what the difference means to them. I`ve hear everything from condos are highrises, or have elevators to they have underground parking.

You`re probably quite right nonetheless about someone on a fixed income not being able to afford what I`m getting for rent. A single person on OAS couldn`t.

Michael