When situations lead to a winter vacancy, finding a tenant for your Bar Harbor home can be a challenge. Although the market tends to slow down during winter, there are still ways to attract new tenants to your property. The idea is to make your property as appealing as possible to ensure your rental home stands out. With these strategies, you can attract tenants to your rental home even during the winter.
Seasonal Marketing
One way to fill a winter vacancy is to market seasonally. The standard marketing tactics you employ the rest of the year may not be enough to attract tenants in the winter. When you post in places you don’t normally do, you expand your audience. You can also hire a professional, like Real Property Management Acadia so that they can do photography for you or write you some great ad copy. Doing extra marketing activities can increase your chances of attracting potential tenants to lease your property.
Offer Favorable Terms
Offering favorable terms to potential tenants also increases your chances of renting out your Bar Harbor rental property in the winter. If more inquiries are coming in than applications, it might mean that you need to review your lease documents. If your lease still seems good, you might benefit if you loosened up your terms. A few changes can make a world of difference. Making your rental home pet-friendly will attract a new set of pet-loving tenants. Another thing you can look into are the terms of the lease length. If you offer shorter leases, that vacancy might be filled right away, and you can decide to re-lease the property in the busier spring or summer months.
Add Incentives
By offering one or more incentives, you can make your rental home more attractive to future renters. There are a host of creative incentive ideas. You can give your tenant a gift card, a wholesale membership, or local freebies. Another idea is to reduce rental rates or make their first month rent-free. It might look like a lot of money, but giving up one month’s rent will give you better annual cash flows than allowing your rental home to stay vacant for the entire winter.
Enlist Help
To make marketing your rental property during the winter more effective, you can get additional help. Sales professionals know that there is nothing better than word-of-mouth advertising. So why not make the most of it? Ask willing friends or family to recommend your property to their friends who are looking for a rental home. You can also post your rental on social media and ask your friends to share it. A great option would be to get a property management company to find your next tenant for you. Established property management brands have a large audience and many resources that allow them to find tenants efficiently even during slow seasons.
Although the challenge to fill a winter vacancy is there, it is still very possible when you have the right strategies. Would you like to learn more about how professional property management could help you reduce vacancies and increase your Bar Harbor rental homes’ profitability? Contact us today or call us at 207-561-7482.
We are pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity throughout the Nation. See Equal Housing Opportunity Statement for more information.
