State Specific Question About: WASHINGTON (WA)

Whats an effective way to advertise available units?

Signs out front

ads on craigslist

ads in local shopper paper

ads on local call in radio shows

posters in local grocery store

Alex, everyone has his/her own position on this, in large part based on their particular market.

I don't find the newspaper to be a good investment. Others do.

I used to advertise in the local "throw-away" papers -- the Recycler, the Nifty Nickel, and other classified ads papers. I still do, but less than I used to.

Many on here use Craig's List. I don't. Except for units near the college, my target market isn't very computer savvy.

I mentioned "units near the college." Fliers on bulletin boards in the school and in college hangouts, and ads in the college newspaper, and listings with the student housing office are all I need to do for those units.

My major advertising are yard signs, directional signs in the neighborhood and large banners on the property.

I also pay a referral fee to my tenants, my former tenants and a couple of hustlers (one is a property manager at a large apt complex, who refers SFR seekers to me)for successful referrals. I love to give a couple hundred bucks to a good tenant for referring a friend because those often work out well. I find that a responsible tenant's friend will often be a responsible tenant. Flakes tend to hang out with other flakes, and responsible people tend to spend time with other responsible people.

You need to learn what works for you in your market.

In order of best respons:

1- referrals from current and PAST renters. That is why you always treat them good. I just got a referral from a renter that left three yrs. ago.

2- sign out front. Make it professional. Include phone # and web address.

3- Ad in the local paper. A real hit and miss. Use to be a good source (probably #1 on this list), but since the economy went south... nope. People stopped buying print.

4- Craigslist. Ton's of e-mails courtesy of this, but not a single renter yet. Too far away from Notre Dame/South Bend for me.

5- Billboard ads. One call, got nowhere. But alot of people have now heard of Miller's Apartment:) Web traffic is up a little since it went up.