Astute property owners understand that rental prices and vacancy rates are controlled by the basic market factors of supply and demand.
When your property is undergoing a change of tenancy, we cannot stress enough the importance of setting the right price and monitoring it closely throughout the campaign. Our Marketing and Leasing Departments are highly skilled in this regard, focusing on finding the best quality tenants for the best price with minimal vacancy time.
After analysing years of data collected from our leasing records, we have discovered that the optimal lead time to start advertising a tenanted property is 6 weeks before it is available. (Any earlier is too early for most tenants to start looking, and the listing then becomes ‘old’ and relegated to the back pages of the property searches.)
Furthermore, we have identified a small window of opportunity where we can match the best tenants for your property with the least vacancy time.
From our data, we can see that 3-4 weeks before the property is available is the best chance we have of securing a quality tenant with a minimum vacancy time…AT THAT RENTAL PRICE.
Therefore, if by that time we do not find a suitable tenant, we need to adjust the rental price by a sufficient amount to open the property to a wider market who is looking at a different price bracket.
This is the secret to minimising vacancy time – make the decision to adjust the price EARLY in the marketing campaign. The biggest mistake Owners make is to wait for the property to become vacant before adjusting the price. The process then starts again and it may be weeks before a good tenant can move in.
Our Leasing Reports are designed to educate our Owners on the current market conditions. If the rental market does not respond to the first 2 weeks of marketing, we act quickly in consultation with our Owners to meet the market with minimum losses due to vacancy.
MARKETING TIME-LINE OF A RENTAL PROPERTY
5-6 Weeks Before Available – Advertising begins and first Viewing is held. At this first viewing, we typically see the HIGHEST ATTENDANCE for this property at this price. This is due to the interest generated by the ‘new’ listing.
3-4 Weeks Before Available – Viewings continue and applications should start coming in. These applications are generally from GOOD QUALITY tenants who tend to prefer to secure properties several weeks before they need to move.
1-2 weeks Before Available – Current tenant is in the process of moving out. Property is often cluttered and dirty, which makes holding viewings difficult. Quality tenants may be ‘turned off’ looking through properties at this stage. Often we see the ‘desperate’ tenants with POOR RENTAL HISTORY looking at this stage, because they have not been able to secure a property through another agent.
Available – If no tenant found by this stage, the Owner starts losing money.
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