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Essentials of renting real estate: Marketing, customer service key to courting, keeping good tenants
March 2011
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| Rob Watt, COO, DMS Property Management Ltd. |
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| *V-Report Sponsor |
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By Clare Tattersall
Landlords that are having trouble attracting tenants might consider lowering the rent they are asking for their rental property units. But there are many other ways to attract good tenants besides offering a rent reduction, especially if the rental amount is fair market value. These include renovating older units, upgrading features in common areas such as the lobby, laundry room and outdoor patio/garden, or even offering a discount for a multi-year lease. However, Rob Watt of DMS Property Management Ltd. says marketing is the most effective tool to attract prospective tenants.
“In terms of attracting tenants in a market as big as Toronto where there’s lots of competition, having marketing that tenants have easy access to that really shows off your building for all its best qualities (is essential),” says the COO of one of Canada’s premiere real estate services companies.
But what constitutes an effective and easily accessible marketing campaign?
Watt says it’s imperative that rental advertisements be top notch: photos should be high quality and, perhaps, even taken by a professional photographer; property descriptions should be free of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors; and headlines and property description verbiage should be attention-grabbing to engage and spark the interest of the targeted audience. As well, he says landlords must utilize all marketing avenues – print and online media, including social networking sites – not just one or the other.
“The Internet has changed the way most landlords (need to) advertise,” says Watt. “It’s (now important) to make sure that when someone goes on to your website or a third party website that your product is presented in the best possible way.”
While marketing plays a large role in attracting tenants, Watt says good customer service is responsible for retaining them.
“If a tenant doesn’t feel like they are being treated properly or getting good value for the rent they are paying, they will become disgruntled (and leave),” he says.
The key to good customer service lies with the landlord’s frontline service employees, adds Watt. Typically, these are the people who are the first point of contact for tenants on a variety of issues, so if the quality of their customer service is poor, the building’s vacancy rate will increase and, subsequently, its bottom line will suffer.
“Dealing with tenants is like dealing with any other customer relationship,” he notes. “It’s much easier to keep a customer than to get a new customer, so keeping those customers happy will save landlords money in the long run.”
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