Top tips to letting a property in winter…

The rental market has undoubtedly shown signs of slowing as we head into Mid November and December which are typically, the quietest periods for Landlords.

As a yardstick, lettingaproperty.com received just over 5200 property searches that were conducted on the site in September as opposed to 4800 in October.  Although we have had a reasonably positive start to November with 2193 property searches in the first week, the trend will continue to fall over the Christmas period and then start to lift again in January / February.

Regardless of whether you are marketing your property with a High Street Agency or letting a property online, the danger for Landlords with vacant property at this time of year is that if the property does not let in November, the void period may be prolonged until the start of next year.

From our experience as ex high street letting agents, we have a few ideas to help you maximise the opportunity of finding a tenant before the end of the year.

1) Spread your Marketing.

It is true that around 80% of tenants will find their property online and if you are already marketing your property on lettingaproperty.com, then you have this area covered.  We advertise your property on 16 top property websites including rightmove.co.uk – the most visited property website in the UK.

However, there is always that extra 20% of tenants that find properties by other means and these are typically through To-Let boards and newspaper advertising.

To Let Boards – These are great for capturing a local audience.  The majority of people that move in an area are already living in the area.  They may be driving past your property everyday however; they do not find the time or the inclination to search online.

Local property classifieds – These are often read by tenants new to an area or wanting to avoid paying High Street letting application fees.
By mixing your marketing strategy, you allow yourself a greater opportunity of finding a tenant.

2) Offer Incentives:

A great way to entice tenants to apply for your property is to offer tangible incentives – these usually have a monetary value.

Here are a couple of inventive ideas:

a. Offer one month rent at half price, or better still – for free.

This is a real incentive for Tenants, especially over Christmas where disposable income is limited.  (You may decide to up the rent slightly over the rest of the 11 months to help offset the discount)

b. No Application Fee

Most high street agents can charge up to £300 for a joint tenancy application fee.  You would be surprised just how many tenants try to avoid this by searching for “private landlord’s property”.  We received just over 500 searches for private landlord property on the site in October  If you are advertising on lettingaproperty.com – we highly recommend including the benefits of *** No Tenant Application Fees***

c. Bills Included in the Rent

This is pretty straight forward however only really works well when you are a live-in landlord and you are able to monitor the tenant’s utility usage.

d. Flexibility on Furniture

If the Tenant requires a specific piece of furniture such as a bed or wardrobe – it can be far cheaper to arrange an item of furniture than loose rent for a month.  Equally, if the property is already furnished and the Tenant has their own bed, offer to remove yours for the sake of securing an agreement.

e. Luxury Items

Every tenant would appreciate a free luxury item like say, 6 months of FREE cable / sky TV (£18pm cost) or 6 months of FREE broadband.  This incentive really shows thinking outside the box and adds real value for a tenant.

The point of these incentives is to differentiate your property from the rest of your ‘competitors’ property.  When a Tenant scans a list of available properties, these incentives will help you stand out from the crowd.

3) Keep your advertising fresh

A new property is more likely to be let in the first 2 weeks of being advertised – fact.

If your property has been on the market for longer than this, it is always recommended to change the advert display.  Take new photos of the property, re-write the description, and include room measurements if you have good sized bedrooms.  Treat the advert as a re-launch and it will appear to the viewing audience as a new property to the market.

Remember the saying – “if you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always got!” Time to rebrand.

4) Price, Price, Price

If you want to reduce those void periods you will need to look closely at your rental price.  A rule of thumb when valuing your property to rent is to do your market research, check out your competitors, come to a realistic rental price and then take off 5%.

This is really important as a tenant will more than likely stay in your property for a longer period of time if he/she knows that they are paying 5% less than their neighbours.

It may also be more costly for you to lose one month in rent than to give a 5% discount over a 12 month period.

All of these ideas have been trialled and proven to be effective means of advertising a property to let.

If you have any questions on the above, please do not hesitate to call on 0844 567 0578 or visit www.lettingaproperty.com