8 Reasons Your Rental Property Marketing Isn’t Working

If you want your rental properties to make money, they need to be filled with paying tenants. And if you want to fill your vacant properties with tenants, you’ll need to market those properties.

Unfortunately, even thoughtfully developed marketing strategies sometimes fall flat. You could be stuck with a vacant property you’ve been advertising for months, with no real progress to returning to a profitable model.

What are the common culprits for rental property marketing strategies not working?

Hire a Property Management Company

If you’re struggling to fill your vacant properties, consider working with a professional Dallas property management company. Property managers have significant experience not only marketing properties, but also working with the tenants who eventually fill them. 

In addition to helping you with the marketing and advertising side of the equation, they can help you with tenant screening, collecting payments, and even managing maintenance and repair requests.

It’s arguably the easiest way to solve the marketing problem, especially since in many cases, you won’t be required to pay an ongoing management fee for properties that remain vacant. It will be the property management company’s responsibility to fill those properties.

Why Your Rental Property Marketing Isn’t Working

That said, these are some of the main reasons why your rental property marketing strategy isn’t working:

1.   The property is in poor condition. While this should be obvious, do note that if your property is in poor condition, no amount of marketing will be able to save it. Describing a clearly dilapidated property that’s falling apart as “cozy” isn’t going to be persuasive. Accordingly, you should spend some time fixing the property up, eliminating superficial issues, and boosting curb appeal so that all your marketing slogans have the potential to land.

2.   You’re asking too much. Choosing the right rent price can be challenging. Charge too much, and people will click away from your listing before reading any of your persuasive bullet points. Charge too little, and you’ll end up with a tenant that compromises your profitability. Before you start marketing, you need to do competitive research and figure out what property owners similar to you are charging for properties similar to yours.

3.   You’re not using enough channels. Generally, the more channels you use, the better. Advertising or property on more channels means reaching more people in more ways, which increases visibility and should increase the number of applications you receive. There are some exceptions to this, of course, but if you’re only marketing your property on one or two main channels, you’re seriously missing out.

4.   You’re using the wrong channels. One of the exceptions we briefly alluded to is using the wrong channels. Expanding into new channels is a bad idea if you don’t understand those channels, if those channels are too expensive, or if those channels are not a good fit for your target demographics. You should be able to justify each communication channel in your arsenal.

5.   You don’t know your target demographics. Speaking of target demographics, if you don’t know who your target demographics are, or how they think or make decisions, you’ll be at a marked disadvantage. Studying and understanding your audience is vital to succeed in any marketing pursuit, including advertising a vacant property.

6.   You aren’t highlighting unique differentiators. Tenants looking for a place to stay are probably going to look at many properties in the area, comparing and contrasting them. If you want to secure more tenant applications and stand out among those rivals, you need to highlight the positive aspects of your property that make it unique. What are your key differentiators and why are they valuable?

7.   You have no professional photos. Great photos can make a huge difference in the impact of your rental property marketing efforts. If your photos look unprofessional or misleading, or if they showcase the property in a neutral-to-negative light, it could be the central problem responsible for your lack of marketing results.

8.   You have review or reputation issues. If none of the other points appear relevant to your efforts, your marketing failure could be due to review or reputational issues. Have previous tenants left bad reviews or issued formal complaints that are turning other people away? If so, how can you make up for that disadvantage?

Marketing and rental property doesn’t feel complicated, but there are so many variables in play that it’s hard for the average person to grasp. If you lack property management experience, marketing experience, or some combination of the two, it’s going to be even more challenging for you. Working with the property management company can help you quickly resolve this issue, but failing that, a bit of proactive analysis and effort should be able to clear up whatever marketing issues you happen to face.