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Finding Tenants

J

JohnMacEwen

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Sep 28, 2007
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Hello everyone!

I thought I would start this topic because I have recently run into the problem of not being able to find a tenant for my condo/townhouse in Hamilton. Thus far i have used gottarent.com and viewit.ca for putting postings out there.

I was wondering what other methods REIN members use in a cost effective manner to help find new tenants. If there is anyone who knows someone that is looking to rent in Hamilton as well, I would really appreciate some help.

John.
 
Hi John,

One thing that I know we recommend is to do a Google search for "houses for rent in Hamilton" or something like that. Put yourself in the shoes of a potential tenant, think about what they might type in. Then make sure you have your ads in the sites that show up first, because that`s where people click right away.

Make sure you put a good description of what the house is like. Make it interesting and informative. People don`t like reading "4 BDRM 2000SQFT RENT ME" (an exaggeration, but it gets the point across - abbreviations aren`t necessary when you have tons of space to write online).

Also, make sure you have some excellent pictures. I`m looking at one ad on kijiji (which, incidentally, is the first site that pops up on Google) that has really dark, bland pictures. It wouldn`t make me want to rent the place. If you`ve got bright pictures that show off the best features in the house, it`ll obviously make people want to rent.

You could also take a look in the Classified Ads section of this site to see what other REIN members are writing, as well as post your own ad if you haven`t already, which people will see if they click on "Classified Ads" on www.ontariorein.com - it now links to the MyREINspace page.

I know that Don`s booklet "Solid Oak Marketing", which you received when you became a REIN member, has several tips for writing ads. That`s worth checking out too.

Members can check out this thread for more information, as this discussion is already happening in the Members-Only section.

Good luck!
 
There is also a marketing subforum in the "Ask An Expert" forum if you are a member (and I see that you are!) - somebody could definitely help you out with strategies over there.
 
It's worth putting an ad in the local newspaper since people do look there. The most price effective way to do this, since it can end up costing alot, is to call the paper and ask them what their heaviest days of readership is. Oftentimes is Friday and Saturday. This way you can save cash by not putting it in the full week. Also, libraries, and Grocery Shopping Markets and any public place that allows postings is worht it. I also have tried Kijiji and also just looked for any website that offered free advertising. I've had responses from all of these sources. Viewit.com I thought was a little pricey since they dont give you any credit back if you rent your place quickly, which is what happened to me. I had it up for 3 days and then rented my spot and received nothing back. Gotta rent does give credit so that is great. All the best



Vivian Clement




QUOTE (JohnMacEwen @ Sep 28 2007, 01:44 PM)
Hello everyone!



I thought I would start this topic because I have recently run into the problem of not being able to find a tenant for my condo/townhouse in Hamilton. Thus far i have used gottarent.com and viewit.ca for putting postings out there.



I was wondering what other methods REIN members use in a cost effective manner to help find new tenants. If there is anyone who knows someone that is looking to rent in Hamilton as well, I would really appreciate some help.



John.
 
JOHN

Try using the free website KIJIJI.CA . I have rented all my properties from this website in Edmonton and Calgary. Hello everyone!

I thought I would start this topic because I have recently run into the problem of not being able to find a tenant for my condo/townhouse in Hamilton. Thus far i have used gottarent.com and viewit.ca for putting postings out there.

I was wondering what other methods REIN members use in a cost effective manner to help find new tenants. If there is anyone who knows someone that is looking to rent in Hamilton as well, I would really appreciate some help.

John.
 
Thank you everyone for your comments. I will look into all of them this week and get a new action plan started. Thank you for the quick responses, I should have tried this earlier.
 
Here is a idea that I have been toying with. Advertise in the local paper Rental open house saturday between 1-4 please bring references all applicants considered etc etc etc. This should drive the interest up.

Good Luck,

James
 
Hi!

A friend of mine, who has rental properties in Toronto, stopped using the newspapers about 3 years ago. He now only uses Craigslist.org and Kijiji.com. He runs the free ads with great pictures and has an `open house` on one or two afternoons. He always gets them rented immediately and it doesn`t cost him a cent.

Hope this helps. Let us know the route you chose and the outcome!
 
Hi just wanted to add my vote in for websites. I have had great success filling my rentals in the Barrie/ Orillia area with www.gottarent.com and www.rentboard.ca. locating larger companies that will permit you to post a flyer on their employee bulletin board has worked for me as well.

Cheers
 
Hi One thing I do as well is to let all my current tenants know about any upcoming vacanciess and I offer bonuses to anyone who refers me someone who becomes a tenant.

One great aside about this, is that tenants let me know as soon as they are looking for a new place instead of me hearing about it with less than 30 days notice and I can start marketing their unit, therefore reducing the chance of having costly vacancies.


Michelle Thorn
Ethical Property Management
Real Estate Investments, Apartments Available, Property Management
65 Colborne Street East P.O. 2542 Orillia ON L3V 7A3
705-259-1051
 
There are tons of renters who post ads on Classifieds sites with what they`re looking for, budget, any financial constraints, their budget, etc. You even see quite a few of these people looking for Lease Option arrangements. These may be the people who don`t want to search the ads, but would rather have property vendors come to them (or the very conscientious ones who are also actively searching). The two best online classifieds sites are Craig`s List and Kijiji. Don`t forget that there are 9 cities for Craigs and 14 for Kijiji for GTA and the Golden Horseshoe. The rest of the most popular classifieds sites for the GTA are Eye Weekly, NOW Magazine, eclassifieds4u.com, and the Toronto Star LIVEDEAL.

Kijiji is far quicker for posting ads because you can post the exact same ad in multiple categories in multiple cities. But with Craig`s, the site will stop you if you try posting the exact same ad twice anywhere (regardless of whether its in another city or another category) so you have to switch around the wording for at least the first couple of sentences to get by this screen. But it`s probably worth the time doing this because Craig`s is a lot more popular than Kijiji. Craig`s sites collectively get something like 5 billion hits per month.
 
John,

I just recently started my real estate investment career and found craigslist.org a very useful place to find tenants. It is completely free and all my friends that are currently renting start at this site.

Andrew
 
We have always used kijiji & Craigslist and had great luck with them until this fall. We had a very nice property with great pics get zip reponses. We also had a standard ad in the paper. The only people to view it were ones we didn`t want.

Finally, our property manager called to say we might re-consider the price. I gave a last ditch effort and submitted a newspaper ad that followed REIN`s guidelines for classified ads. Yes, more pricey, but.... drum roll please...

We got a great tenant the FIRST night the ad ran! And they need the place right away. Voila!

Thank you REIN!

Cheers!

Carla
 
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