What color will work? (Photo: JaunJaen)
Once you have identified a rental property, negotiated the contract and closed on the deal, there’s one main component left. You have to find a renter.
I work with investors who like having two individuals pay their mortgage payments. The first being a reliable renter. The second the American taxpayer. Add those two individuals together and you have…a Section 8 renter.
Hopefully, you already read my thoughts on why you should add section 8 renters into your real estate investment portfolio and then you should have skimmed through my guide which discussed how to protect yourself from bad renters. Now you must attract a renter to your property.
There are many ways to find qualified renters. Here’s the marketing tools I use to lease vacant residential rental properties in 2 weeks or less:
A) Ugly Yellow Soldiers
Those signs are everywhere, especially in Phoenix, Arizona. You may not like them, and that’s okay, but I’m here to tell you that they work in getting leads.
If you want to capture renter leads in less than 8 hours. You’ll purchase what I call, “Ugly Yellow Soldiers.”
These “soldiers” our corrugated plastics signs with metal legs that you can stake into the ground. They color must be yellow. Not green, not white, only bright yellow will do. I won’t go into the psychology and research of using different colors in marketing. Just do it!
With a thick edge black marker, write out your offer. It should look like this:
Home For Rent
$XXXX Section 8 OK
Free Recorded Message
888-XXX-XXXX ext. XXX
The best time to place them in the battlefield is 6 a.m. on Friday morning. They will stand at the intersection and tell the world of your rental opportunity. They will work that street corner until you pick them back up on Monday afternoon or until they are captured by a street litter gestapo member.
B) Free Recorded Messages
If you don’t want to repeat the same thing 43 times, you’re going to want to use an 800#. Everyone prospective renter, who is interested, will hear the same information about the property… no matter if it is 8 in the morning or 11 at night. Most of prospective renters, have called my call capture 800 number between 4 – 7 pm. Either while they were out shopping or coming home from work.
An 800# offers privacy initially. I don’t like giving my cell phone or home phone out to strangers. I don’t want to hear about the latest make-a-million-dollars-in-your-pajamas-selling-energy-drinks opportunity.
You can record a message about the property, terms, and next steps. If they are interested they leave a message. Then follow-up with a good renter lead.
C) I Love Wal-Mart!
I specialize in finding the low-hanging fruit. I’m not stating that section 8 renters are low, they are just easier find and communicate with in comparison to the snow-birds, especially here in Phoenix, Arizona.
Where does your target renter shop? Target, Wal-Mart, Food City, shopping plazas with 99 cent stores or Nordstroms?
Where do they drive? Place your “ugly yellow soldiers” in the main intersections of your rental property neighborhood. Make sure, you have one stand gaurd in the front of your vacant rental property. It doesn’t matter if you have a 4-unit complex or a condo, you must use this guerilla marketing technique… your cashflow depends on it!
Take the time to understand your target renter demographic and market your property accordingly. If you buy an ad in the Greensheet or Super Saver, you may waste money and time.
All of our current section 8 tenants came from “ugly yellow soldiers” guarding the entrances of Super Wal-Marts’.
Moving Forward,
Kendall Matthews
Want more information like this article? Subscribe to The Investment Real Estate Corner by Email