How to find tenants — finding the suite spot

Do you know how to find tenants? Do you understand where the suite spot is for your rental unit? How will you know when you found it?

I used to get calls from frustrated landlords who ran their ads for months and wondered why their property wasn’t renting. There are many excuses in this economy. The simplest explanation for finding tenants is that most properties (excluding the executive rental market) have a suite spot. The frustrated landlords haven’t found it yet.

How do you find tenants with the suite spot?

How to make sure your property is in the suite spot

To find tenants, you need to ensure you;

• take professional quality pictures of your property that show off its features and benefits and place them in a logical sequence. Imagine you are walking through your property starting with the entrance, pictures should follow the same flow
• write a compelling advertisement that appeals to the type of tenant you want to live in your property. Don’t write a boring grocery list. Instead, think like the tenant and make your ad align with and speak to their needs and wants. Make sure to check your spelling and grammar
• write a short, punchy title that covers your property’s main selling features. Examples:
• You’ll fall in love with this trendy, bright furnished northeast 2-bdrm condo
• Have it all! Luxurious SW 1-bedroom condo with amazing amenities & location
• advertise in well-trafficked online publications such as Rentfaster and Rentboard, and for lower-priced properties — Kijiji
• fix and clean everything in your property so that it’s in sparkling condition. A clean, well-maintained property will rent over a messy/dirty property 100% of the time
• have a timely system for answering email and phone inquiries (within a few hours)

Next step — monitor

Once you’ve completed your pictures and ads, monitor your ads. Are they generating healthy viewing stats, and most importantly, are people calling for a showing? Good viewing stats are 80- 100 views within a few days of posting an online ad…