HOW TO FILL A VACANCY FASTER JEFFREY TAYLOR
Even if applicants leave a voice message, by the
Always Highlight a WOW factor.
time you get back to them, they may have already
contacted another landlord. One who knows how to
When prospective residents do call and come to
get applicants to their rental or website to close the
view your rental, they’ll either think WOW! or
deal quickly. With growing competition, and a less
Whoa! Obviously you want them to think WOW! A
qualified rental pool in many areas, you can't afford
landlord recently confided to me that her rentals
to miss out on good prospects. If I happen to miss a
were nice, but there wasn’t really anything
call, you can bet that I, or one of my staff, will try to
impressive about them. She said it was common
reach them within minutes, not hours.
for her properties to remain vacant for a couple of
months before she was able to rent them. I believe
Hey, I don’t have to be available to answer the
that there may be a correlation. Your rental needs
phone year round. I do this only when I’m running
something to SPARK the attention of prospective
an ad, or aggressively marketing a property and
residents in a positive way. If it’s something that
need to fill a vacancy or two NOW, not a month
also separates you from your competition, even
from now. I know you can come up with a lot of
better!
excuses why you can't always answer the phone.
I'm just telling you, when an applicant calls, it's FAR
If prospects are coming to view your property, but
better if they actually reach a live person who is
none, or very few are filling out the application,
READY to immediately move the caller from
that’s a sure sign you need to add a Wow factor.
prospect to future resident. I'm not talking about
someone who is there to just take a message. If
Wow factors don’t have to be elaborate amenities.
you are currently frustrated and having a hard time
filling a vacancy, this is just one more tip to
They can be something as simple as squeaky
consider. It doesn’t make sense to spend money or
clean windows that glisten from a distance as the
go through the effort to get your phone to ring, when
prospect walks up to the home. Or, they can be a
there’s nobody available to answer the call.
thoroughly clean rental. I’m amazed at how many
Remember - Priority #1 Fill the vacancy!
prospects tell me other rentals they’ve looked at
are dirty. I pay someone specifically to do cleaning
detail as the final preparation step on my rentals,
so that they will be in showcase condition. Wow
factors can be a beautiful but inexpensive ceiling
fan, a swirl pattern design added to the living room
or dining room ceiling, or a two-tone color scheme.
Wow factors can be amenities that I take the time
to highlight and make a BIG deal about during the
showing of the property, like a HUGE walk-in
closet, a dishwasher, or the washer and dryer.