Finding Tenants Without A Letting Agent- An Update (Part 2)
Written by The Landlord on 28 Jun 2008
Ok, so it’s been nearly 2 weeks since I started advertising my soon-to-be vacant property. For those out of the loop, feel free to catch up on part 1, Finding Tenants Without A Letting Agent. But basically, all I did was design a flyer (to put in various shop windows), advertise on Gumtree and spread the word on my Facebook profile, ensuring that everyone I know is informed about the upcoming vacancy.
I think I’ve had a pretty positive response so far. Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t had to take my phone off the hook, but I have had a few decent enquiries. I haven’t put out flyers yet even though I said I initially would. I changed my mind because I thought i’d try and get tenants with minimal effort, so I decided to utilise the internet first because I don’t have to move out of my seat for that. The property won’t be vacant until the 22nd of August, so that’s why I’m being casual about the whole thing; I have a few months to play with. I definitely advise any landlord to start looking for new tenants at least 2 months before due.
If I haven’t got anyone lined up a month before the property will be vacant, then I’ll step my marketing game up a gear and try local newspapers and local outlets to advertise the flyer I designed.
Results from Facebook
I was actually pretty surprised how well Facebook worked. All I did was occasionally update my profile status and made sure everyone knew I had a vacant property. What’s funny is that one of my close friend’s, who I actually talk to on a regular basis, showed interest in the property after I updated my profile status. I didn’t even know he was looking for a new place. It just goes to show how useful social media sites can be. He’s going to view the property on Monday. I’d love to rent the place to him because he has a good job and he’s too much of a good mate to stiff me for rent. I definitely trust him.
The other enquiries were from distant friends. They showed interest and asked the right questions, but eventually bailed out for various reasons, such as the property being out of their budget…and because they realised I didn’t come with the deal:
There’s proof right there that I’m a desirable piece of kit, people! Not a conversion, but oh well, I got the enquires, that was the main thing.
Results from Gumtree
I’ve heard great things about Gumtree and their rental classified section, especially in the London area. Loads of people have told me that they don’t even bother with letting agents anymore, they just advertise directly on Gumtree because it has such a high success rate. My property isn’t quite in London, just outside in fact, Essex, but I thought I would give it a good crack anyways.
For the first few days I didn’t get any response, and I wondered why. I was starting to think that the reputation of Gumtree was a little over exaggerated. Then I realised that the majority of people that search for rental accommodation on Gumtree are probably looking for immediate accommodation- I’m advertising a property that will be available in 2 months. The lack of response made sense. But then again, my theory is only based on speculation; I have no basis, but I think that explains it. Anyways, I’m waiting for a big influx of enquiries closer to the time of availability. However, I did get 2 enquiries. One of which was particularly positive:
I rang the lady, and she’s arranged a viewing for Monday night.
So basically, without spending a penny and exerting barely any energy I’ve arranged 2 pretty strong viewings for Monday night. As I’ve already discussed, a letting agent would charge me 1k for that service. Need I say more?
Like I said, I haven’t had thousands of enquiries; in total about 8 or 9. But if you look at the bigger picture, everything is going according to plan so far. I wasn’t expecting a barrage of responses because I haven’t yet started using the heavyweight marketing tools e.g. local newspapers. Moreover, I genuinely believe that rental properties tend to get more responses when they’re on a “available now” basis, as opposed to a “available in 2 months”. However, if the early work pays off, and one of the limited enquiries agree to a tenancy, then I should have a relatively smooth transition, avoiding all the last minute panic that many unorganised landlords face.
Fingers crossed I’ll have tenants lined up by Monday night. If not, no harm, I still have a while left before I need to panic. I’m confident that social networking online will prevail as being my trusty sword.
All articles in this experiment
Finding Tenants Without A Letting Agent- A Live Experiment (Part 1)
Finding Tenants Without A Letting Agent- An Update (Part 2)
Finding Tenants Without A Letting Agent- An Update – A Smelly Cat & A Slight Change Of Plan (Part 3)
Finding Tenants Without A Letting Agent- Just Received The Worst Tenant Application EVER (Part 4)
Finding Tenants Without A Letting Agent- Mission Accomplished (Part 5)
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3 Comments - join the conversation...
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Yeah, craigslist is HUGE in the states. There is a Uk section but i'm not sure how successful it is for Brits'. I might give it a go though.
Hey Llennon,
I've not yet found a dedicated rental website for the UK. And you're dead right, Gumtree is extremely broad. I'll have to have another look around. Cheers :)
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I initially started this website because I wanted to document my every step from property idiot to property landlord,
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