The bane of the real estate investor is empty units. Even a relatively low vacancy rate can change a great investment into a mediocre one. In trying to keep units rented, landlords who manage their properties themselves make several common mistakes. They:

• start too late
• advertise in the wrong place
• respond too slowly

As a landlord, start marketing vacancies before they happen. If your state allows sixty day notice to renew a lease, make sure you have a renewed lease in hand at the sixty day mark. If not, start marketing your property. With the advent of free services like craigslist and iiProperty(shameless plug for my new company’s service) landlords no longer need to spend a lot of money on advertising, so there is no risk in advertising early, even if you’re not sure about existing tenants staying. (I don’t think there is a legal issue here, but check state law on this one)

When you do start advertising, advertise in the right place. If you’ve got a high-end apartment for rent, make sure your advertising channel reaches people who can afford a higher rent. Throwing an advertisement in the classifieds might not be your best choice - for example, high-end rentals typically are rented through local, high-end real estate brokers. Ask advertisers that charge about the economic demographics of their viewers/readership.

When you start advertising, make sure you’re ready to go. Tell your tenants that the apartment is being advertised and that you may need to be showing the apartment with 12 or 24 hour notice(again, check state law here). Politely ask them to keep their apartment relatively clean during this time. And make sure you respond quickly to potential tenants. If you don’t, the landlord down the street might get a tenant that would have preferred your apartment, simply because the tenant wanted to make a decision quickly.

Start early, advertise appropriately, and respond quickly. If you do these three things consistently, you will lower your chances of being in a situation where you are trying to decide about having a unit vacant or taking a less-than-perfect tenant.

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