Section 8 and Public Housing.
Contact the local public housing authority if you are willing to take Section 8 tenants. Note that housing authorities may have stringent inspection requirements, e.g. heating in Miami or screens on every window.
According to noted real estate investor and attorney William Bronchick, some states, such as California, Minnesota, and North Dakota, prohibit discrimination based on source of income - so you cannot discriminate against prospective tenants who rely on public assistance such as welfare or social security. Does this apply to Section 8 housing in those states? It is best to check before some miffed Section 8 tenant complains.
Military and college housing for rent
If near a military base, contact the housing office and use military papers. Colleges and Universities may also have a housing office.
You can also advertise in Motels or use Motel employees as finders as prospective tenants often stay there.
Vacation Rentals
Many people are looking for short term accommodation while they are on vacation. This may apply particularly if you can provide fully furnished accommodation with utilities included.
Sites advertising these types of properties include vacationrentals.com and www.corporatehousingbyowner.com.
Corporate Rentals
Many companies are looking for accommodation for employees who are on temporary assignment. This may apply particularly if you can provide fully furnished accommodation with utilities included.
For example, the following companies employ
traveling nurses : Nightingale Nurses and Cross
Country Staffing.
Rental Property Managers
These are licensed real estate agents who may have a pool of existing tenants, some who may want to move, and they should have prospective tenants from previous general inquiries. They also can take a lot of the marketing and tenant checking responsibilities out of your hands.
However, they can be very expensive and charge from 50% to 100% of the first month's rent as a finder's fee. There is the rare one who will charge nothing such as leading San Diego Property Management company, American Heritage Properties.
The Internet
One advantage of the world wide web is that its users tend to be more affluent and potentially a better class of tenant than those finding properties from street signs or newspapers. The response to your advertising efforts can be immediate too.
You can set up a sponsored search campaign such as Google's Adwords, or Yahoo's sponsored search. When someone searches for "St Petersburg FL apartment for rent" then your ad may appear on the page, if you have bid enough for its display. You don't actually pay unless the person searching for the property clicks on the ad (that is why it is called "Pay Per Click" or PPC.
There are very many other paid and free avenues of advertising your rental property as well.
- Craigslist is one web site which allows free advertising to an educated target market. Its effectiveness has been diluted by the number of scammers who also place ads there, so renters may have trust issues with it.
- Postlets is one web site which allows free advertising listings which look attractive. It also propagates its listings to many other sites, such as craigslist,
Facebook,
FrontDoor,
Google Base,
HotPads,
MySpace,
Oodle,
Trulia,
Twitter,
Vast and
Zillow
- MySpace is another with currently a younger demographic.
- Google has currently entered the free classified market place with Google Base
- Backpage is an important Craigslist type site, but a little more commercially oriented
- Adpost allows free advertisement posting
- Penny Saver USA allows free ads to be posted on the internet, as well as providing a portal to place print ads as well. If you post here, your ad will go on The Flyer as well, as both publications are owned by the same company.
- There is one called Home Rental Store, but it is unknown what sort of traffic that they get.
- Inet Giant is another free classified service that may also sell lists of available homes to tenants.
- County Loop - not working right now, maybe they will return.
- Oodle offers a number of ways to advertise your property, including Lycos Classifieds, Need 2 Lease and OLX.
- Outside of the USA, there is Kijiji, an eBay company analogous to Craigslist. It will probably be introduced to the US soon.
- Social networking sites Facebook and Friendster have also begun offering free classified ads.
- You could also place a video of your rental property on YouTube.
- In Florida, some Housing Authorities, such as those for Pinellas County and St Petersburg, have linked up with Florida Housing Search. This is a service allowing affordable housing to be advertised for free and found by prospective tenants. It is a free resource where renters can find affordable properties, and landlords receive free listings. Either online or by phone at 877-428-8844, a number of helpful services are also available, such as a rental checklist, financial advice, and renter's rights and responsibilities.
One very useful link you could include on your site is the Walk Score. This site calculates how walkable your property is. Walkability factors in proximity to amenities such as libraries, grocery stores, restaurants and public transit.
If the local neighborhood association is well organized, then they may have a web site, and perhaps a forum where notices can be posted. The neighborhood I lived in, Historic Kenwood, in St Petersburg, FL, has such a site.
Once you have gotten a pipeline of potential renters, you will move on to the next step, which is Renting the Home To Your Prospects
| yahoorealestate.com |
paid |
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| zillow.com |
free for sale ads |
| condominiums.com |
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| condocompany.com |
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| interinvestments.com |
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| newcondosonline.com |
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| move.com |
post rental listings, but unknown if cost |
| trulia.com |
sales |
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| primemove.com |
UK |
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| propsmart.com |
sales |
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| viviun.com |
International |
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| rent.com |
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| rentalo.com |
vacation rentals |
