If you are contemplating becoming a buy-to-let landlord, there is much you need to know about the business you are about to invest in. Before you even think about mortgages and costs, you should sit down and decide what part of the buy-to-let market you want to enter.
Are you looking for a property to attract families, young professionals, or students? Each demographic will be looking for a home that specifically suits their needs.
With this in mind, it is important you select the type of property and neighbourhood that will suit your target market. Once you have made that decision and bought a property you believe meets all the requirements of your target market, you now have to set about attracting them.
This requires more than just putting a house to let ad in your local paper or on a listings website and sitting back to wait for the phone to ring. To attract the right target tenants, you need to put in the hours.
Here are three tips to help you find your ideal tenant.
Make your advertising work
Despite the beliefs of some people in the advertising industry, the purpose of advertising is not to win awards or entertain, it is to get an end result. The majority of advertising is to convince people to buy a service or product; the aim for your advertising is to find you a good reliable tenant.
For this to happen you have to make your advert stand out from the many other ads competing with yours to find tenants for their property.
You must do your best to describe your property in the best possible light. Obviously, you will describe the rooms, location, and what white goods you will be providing. A washing machine and tumble dryer are expected to be provided, but the offer of some other amenity, such as free Wi-Fi, could also make the difference between a prospective tenant reading your ad as opposed to just scanning it and moving on to your competitor’s ad. Pictures are essential.
With the technology available to people today, there is no excuse for not providing good quality pictures on your advertisement. You should have pictures of every room taken from different angles if you feel they will help. Views from the outside will also help shine a good light on your property. If there is a garden, several pictures of this must be displayed on your ad.
Highlight the benefits
One of the golden rules of advertising you should follow when you advertise your property is to highlight the benefits over the features.
All the information discussed in the previous section of this article concentrated on the physical description of your property. The number of rooms and their sizes, the white goods you are providing etc. These are all features. To make your ad really work for you, you must highlight the benefits your prospective tenants will enjoy by choosing your property to live in.
These benefits will differ depending on who you are trying to attract. A family with young children will be attracted by the benefits of the quality and location of schools in the area.
Young professionals will be looking for good quality restaurants and bars they can relax in after work, while students will be looking for (cheaper) pubs and bars. Good transport links, public parks and open spaces are benefits that could also attract people to your property.
You must do your best to find out all you can about the neighbourhood. What amenities it has that will appeal to your target tenants. Highlight as many positive things you can find and include them in your advert.
The personal touch
The personal touch comes with the viewing. There are many people who treat the viewing as a chore. This attitude is counter-productive. The time you spend showing prospects the property can have very positive results. You will be able to answer any questions they have and let them know you will contactable if any problems arise during their tenancy. They will see you as a landlord who will have their best interests at heart and will be more inclined to select your property as their home for the foreseeable future. At the same time, you will be able to size them up and see if they are your target tenants and the right tenants for you.
Although accompanying prospects on viewings will take time, it will be time well spent. If you want to attract the right tenants for your property, you have to put in the hours.
Of course, the above tips are just some of the things you will have to consider if you want to attract good tenants. If you would like any further information and help in how to attract your target tenants why not contact us now, and we will be happy to give you all the help and advice you need.