Opinions tend to differ about including a rental property’s address in a newspaper ad, but I generally recommend including it. This informa- tion gives prospects the exact location of your property and helps them independently deter- mine whether it’s one they’re interested in rent- ing. The only situations in which you shouldn’t indicate the address in the newspaper ad are when the curb appeal isn’t up to your high stan- dards or when the exterior appearance of the rental unit is deceptive and gives the impres- sion that the unit is small or undesirable in light of the asking rent.
If you include directions with your address, make sure they’re correct and easily under-
standable. Ask someone who’s not familiar with your rental property or the area to proof- read your ad to make sure the landmarks, cross streets, or directions provided make sense. If rental prospects can’t find your property, you can safely assume they’re not going to be inter- ested in renting it. Although a more direct route to your rental property that goes past the local landfill may exist, have your prospects take the next freeway off-ramp and backtrack some- what to your property to avoid any unpleasant areas of town. This first impression can be very important. The advertising and presentation of your rental property is marketing, and when it’s done properly, it’ll make your job as a rental property owner much easier.
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Some newspapers offer discounts if you run the same ad for consecutive days, but doing so can be expensive. Instead, run a larger ad on the primary rental housing advertising day and then run a reference ad the rest of the week to lower your overall cost. For example, if the Sunday edition of your local news- paper is the primary day for rental housing ads, place a large ad on that day.
Then on Monday through Saturday, run a small, two-line ad that simply states,
“Kensington — 2bd/2ba available soon. See last Sunday’s ad.”
When your ad first appears, be sure to check the newspaper yourself to con- firm it’s listed in the proper classification and is worded exactly the way you wrote it. Newspaper ad reps are very skilled at taking down complicated ads with abbreviations, but mistakes can and do occur. There’s nothing worse than not receiving any phone calls because your ad was placed in the wrong classification or because the phone number was listed incorrectly.
Checking your ad for accuracy may be relatively simple if you regularly sub- scribe to the newspaper. However, if you don’t subscribe to it, be sure to have your newspaper ad rep send you a tear sheet, a sample of the page on which your ad ran. If the newspaper makes a mistake in your ad, be sure to notify it at once and ask for a corrected ad to run at no charge.
Some newspapers offer special ads for guaranteed results. For example, if your rental property doesn’t rent after your ad has run for a week, a paper may give you up to an additional week of ads for free. Check with your news- paper sales rep for planned special sections featuring rental housing articles and news features. These special sections are written with the renters in mind and can increase your ad visibility to prospective tenants.
If your rental unit is located near a military installation, be sure to run an ad in a military newspaper. The military also has housing referral offices at many bases, and all branches require transferees to register with the housing refer- ral office. Contact this office with your information.
Papering the neighborhood: Flyers
Distributing and posting flyers informs the neighbors that you have a rental unit available, which can be helpful to them because they may know some- one who wants to live close by. You can use flyers to direct people to more information (including maps and additional photographs) on a Web site. See the earlier section, “Broadening your horizons: The Internet,” for the scoop on using the Net to advertise your property.
Flyers allow you a lot more space in which to describe your rental unit. You can go into detail and list many of the features that aren’t cost-effective to list in a newspaper ad.
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The cost to reproduce flyers is very nominal and can run about $5 for 500 black-and-white flyers on white paper stock. For an extra $5, consider print- ing your black-and-white flyer on colored paper. If you really want to stand out, you’ll need to pay about $25 for 500 color flyers. The extra money is well worth it. Although keeping your costs low is always important for rental property owners, remember that you may be losing $20 to $40 each day your rental property sits vacant — and that’s money you never get back again! So if you have a rental property that looks great with a four-color flyer, spend the extra $20 and generate those important rental leads today!
In the following sections, I explain how to create and distribute flyers for the maximum positive impact on your rental property.
Making high-tech flyers
With the wide availability of word processing programs, making great-looking rental flyers that contain all the pertinent info, plus a photo and a map, is very easy. Although the widely used word processing programs have everything you need to make basic flyers, I highly recommend you invest in basic desktop publishing software. Several great desktop publishing programs are available, but three of the easiest to use are Microsoft Publisher, PrintMaster Gold, and Broderbund’s PrintShop. These programs have templates that simplify the pro- cess and provide you with the graphics and additional features to make your flyer look sharp.
Another invaluable tool for all rental property owners is a digital camera, which helps you prepare advertising that works! A high-quality photo can easily separate your rental property flyer from the others that may be circu- lating at any given time. Check out Figure 7-2 for a great example of a flyer that effectively uses photos to draw attention to a property.
Some people think a handwritten flyer actually has greater appeal and implies that the owner is a nonprofessional who has a rental unit at a below-market rental rate. This reasoning may be true, but I believe having a sharp, easy-to- read, typeset flyer with a high-quality photo and detailed map provides superior results.
Although your goal is to rent your property quickly, the reality is that you’ll be marketing your rental unit over a couple of weeks. This guideline is par- ticularly true if you’re able to start your marketing during the current tenant’s notice period. One of the problems with flyers (just like political placards) is that it’s difficult to know which ones are current and which ones are stale. I recommend putting a date on your flyers and keeping them fresh. You should also consider having a series of flyers with a different look, each promoting a different open house. Include the monthly rent on your flyers so prospects can immediately determine whether your rental property is in their price range.
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Figure 7-2:
Flyers are a great way to attract attention to your property.