for the Week Ending July 25, 2010

Getting a “Hidden Treasure” Rented

Get a FREE Property Management
Information by Email

Do you have a tip or idea you would like to share with other landlords? We are looking for techniques and tricks that work for you and might work for others.

Please include your name. We will print only your first name and last initial, unless you tell us it's okay to use your entire name.

Email your tip

All material on this website is protected by the copyright laws of the United States and may be reprinted
only under specific circumstances.

How to Get Reprint Rights

This week's featured
landlord success tool:
Complete instructions for
conducting a rent
survey for your properties

Proud member of the Read the Bills Act Coalition

We received this terrific tip as a result of last week's tip:

Re: John Gerlich's tip of the week. 

You can often verify telephone numbers and addresses by going to :

www.whitepages.com. Be aware that unlisted and cell numbers won't show. There is another more informative site which will often show unlisted telephone numbers:

www.zabasearch.com

 This site will pull up the last addresses and telephone numbers for just about anyone (try looking yourself up for example.) All you need is the first and last name and town and state. You can then match the info from this site against the application. Be aware that people can hide out real well, by renting under a different name and all the normal dodges. My search not only returned my name and past homeownership, but also listed (my now deceased) wife as a probable relative. Not sure where the info comes from, but I'm guessing public utilities and store purchases.

Thx John Egan,
Grass Valley, Ca.  

___________________________________

We received this tip from Arkansas landlord Robert Young.

I find one of the most important questions I can ask a landlord is "Would you rent to this tenant again?"

Great idea, and one we point out in the landlord manual "Profitable Tenant Selection." In addition you can ask the same question of all the references: "Would you rent to this person?"

Sometimes even relatives will say "Are you kidding? I wouldn't want him living anywhere near me."

Now to this week's tip.

We got the following question from a landlord recently.

My property is behind another--no view from the street at all! In fact, people who have lived in this city have told me they never knew this was here. And to make things worse, it used to be called Foxton II. Foxton I, the property up front, is run down, darker in color, no curb appeal whatsoever, but they are on the street! I am not! What do I do? It's beautiful back here!..Flowers, clean, crisp, even the "street is free of pot holes! (Once you reach our property!)
 
All that's across the road from Foxton is a field and a bus stop. I think a sign over there will just get vandalized. Any suggestions? ~ Robyn

This is a problem that faces many landlords having trouble getting a unit rented. We have discussed the issue in the “How to Get a Unit Rented” telephone classes several times and come up with some excellent ideas. Here are four:

Obviously you won't get drive-bys, so you have to do something to encourage people to drive down the street to look at your property.

1. A treasure map.  Make it a game. Your headline could be, "Hidden Treasure."  If you find the treasure, there should be a reward.  That could be any number of things you believe would be effective, anywhere from lottery tickets to a free month's rent.

2.  Do an open house with the same treasure hunt idea.  But tell people to be careful, after all, real treasures are often difficult to get to, otherwise everyone would have found them already.  So they need to “watch out for the rough road.”  But once they get there they will be enthusiastic about what they find and will gloat to their friends about the treasure they found.

3.  Using the same theme, create flyers that could go in local businesses or on grocery store bulletin boards.

4. Distribute similar flyers to real estate offices and offer Realtors a finder's fee for bringing a tenant you rent to.

If anyone has some more ideas, please share them with the readers of the Tip of the Week. Use the "Email Your Tip" link in the left column.