Finding Tenants?
Anyone have advice on finding good tenants? I never used to have this issue, but with Covid-19 I found it extremely difficult to get tenants in my area. The apartment is below market rate and looks better than what is on the market within my area. No calls, no inquiries. Are there sites you would recommend to advertise on? Any tips that worked for you are more than welcome! Thank you!
[{"id": "fyjoynr", "text": "Where are you advertising it so far? The usual Zillow and Craigslist are the starting points. From there, apartments.com and other similar sites will pick up the random person who doesn't use one of those methods.", "replies": [{"id": "fyjoz9s", "text": "**I found links in your comment that were not hyperlinked:**\n\n* [apartments.com](https://apartments.com)\n\n*I did the honors for you.*\n\n***\n\n^[delete](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fu%2FLinkifyBot&amp;subject=delete%20fyjoynr&amp;message=Click%20the%20send%20button%20to%20delete%20the%20false%20positive.) ^| ^[information](https://np.reddit.com/u/LinkifyBot/comments/gkkf7p) ^| ^&lt;3", "replies": [], "depth": 2}, {"id": "fyk4exh", "text": "Been using all of those sites simultaneously. No luck \ud83e\udd37\ud83c\udffd\u200d\u2642\ufe0f", "replies": [{"id": "fyk59aa", "text": "Is your asking price too high? Do you have room in your budget to ask less and still turn profit? It may be worth it to get someone in for a year and raise the rent after a year than to let it sit empty for months. That's money lost that you're just paying out to the bank for no return.\n\nYou could also contact a property manager or two and ask their advice.", "replies": [{"id": "fykkuq5", "text": "So at the moment I am the property manager. I am taking on all the roles because it is my first property. I've decreased the rent multiple times. It's lower than all other units on the market now. Still no replies. Thinking, what else can be done? \n\nThanks for replying though!", "replies": [{"id": "fykn9b3", "text": "How is the quality of pictures? The description of the property? At this point I might consider pricing it back up to market value and re-evaluating the listing itself. The reason I suggest contacting a property manager is for a couple reasons. First, if you plan on ever using one in the future it's good to find out who they are and what options you have right now, and second, they have a perspective on what rents and what doesn't, and why. Is it the location? Amenities? Pictures? Description? Are you posting it regularly on Craigslist or just letting your current ads go to waste as they fall back on the pages? Things like that all matter.\n\nAre you getting any contacts at all? Make sure your ads have the correct contact info too.", "replies": [{"id": "fyktjh6", "text": "Hey thanks for pointing those things out. Yeh, I've primarily been using Zillow and Facebook marketplace. No real luck there, I have around 1-2 inquires a week, I just to have 15-20 last year, exactly around this same time. \n\nI just posted on Craigslist and [Apartments.com](https://Apartments.com) as well, just so that the listing shows up on other sites as well. For reference, I'm in the Los Angeles market. In terms of using Zillow, they had a feature where I create one post, and it would be spread out to multiple websites. I've never spent money ad placements or advertisements, but I'm thinking of trying it now, just not sure where it would be most effective. \n\nIn terms of photos, they're clean, but they are aged. I'm waiting for the current tenants to move out so that I would be able to get in the unit, repaint, fix anything that is broken, do a 360 video tour as well as HD photos up. \n\nI'll probably lose a month of rent which is a huge bummer, but that's just this type of market now. Hopefully,  I won't lose more. \n\nIn terms of speaking to a property manger. I'll definitely shop around and see what they recommend. thanks for all your advice.", "replies": [{"id": "fykugre", "text": "Not a problem. Hope I've given you a little direction. Are you factoring vacancy rate into what you're setting aside for this property? Times like this are exactly why you should put a percentage of every months rent away for vacancies.\n\nNot really familiar with the LA area but I assume a lot of people there are having this issue there right now. We -are- still in a full swing pandemic after all. If it's still rented for the moment, you still have time. One month vacant isn't the end of the world. Plus you'll have the ability to update the listing and post new pictures when they're gone.\n\nIs there any way you could convince the current tenant to stay for another year? Throw em a discount or something? Just thinking of any other options.", "replies": [{"id": "fykv0yt", "text": "No, I reduced the rent by almost $350 a month and they still didn't want to stay. Just going to ride this one out.", "replies": [], "depth": 8}], "depth": 7}], "depth": 6}], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fykkrle", "text": "Perhaps market rates have lowered significantly?", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]