How to Advertise Your Rental Property Effectively

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

There are lots of good potential tenants looking for a great apartment like yours. You just need to know how to advertise your apartment to reach these prospective renters and show them why they should be clambering to lease from you. 

For all the property owners out there wondering how to market your apartment for rent, this is the definitive article for you.

11 Tips to Advertise Your Rental Property Effectively TL;DR

To effectively market your apartment for rent and reach a wider audience, consider implementing the following strategies:

1. Craft Compelling Online Listings: Ensure your online listings stand out by providing detailed information about your apartment. Highlight its unique features and appeal to the target audience. Include a call-to-action directing potential renters to your listing.
2. Optimize High-Quality Photos: Incorporate high-quality photos of your apartment in your listings. Showcase the space, amenities, and lifestyle potential. If applicable, feature furnished areas and create an authentic representation of the property.
3. Leverage Social Media: Share your apartment listing on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. Encourage your network to share the post, expanding your reach. Utilize Facebook Marketplace for additional exposure and consider targeted social media ads.
4. Install For Rent Signs: Place visible “For Rent” signs outside your building to attract the attention of passersby. This simple yet effective method can capture the interest of potential renters in the local area.
5. Highlight Features and Amenities: Clearly list the features and amenities of your apartment to attract qualified leads. Emphasize the benefits of each feature in your descriptions to make your listing more appealing.
6. Build Trust with Content: Regularly share helpful content related to renting on your social media or website. This builds trust with prospective renters and establishes your credibility in the real estate industry.
7. Utilize Listing Websites: Advertise your rental property on popular listing websites such as Zillow, Craigslist, Apartments.com, Realtor.com, and Rent.com. These platforms have a broad reach, increasing the visibility of your listing.
8. Incorporate 3D Virtual Tours: Enhance your marketing efforts with 3D virtual tours to give potential tenants a comprehensive view of your property. Platforms like VEED can assist in adding subtitles and optimizing the tour for various devices.
9. Implement Email Marketing: Reach out to your existing email list of previous or prospective renters with professional and engaging emails. Direct them to your property listing or website for more information.
10. Collaborate with Local Businesses: Establish partnerships with local businesses, universities, and relocation companies to expand your reach. These connections can lead to referrals from employees, students, or clients in need of rental properties.
11. Utilize Professional Home Selling Services: If you’re looking for a quick and hassle-free way to sell your house, consider professional services like GoHomeBeacon. They specialize in making the process easy for sellers, allowing you to focus on marketing your apartment for rent.

Determine who you’re advertising the apartment to

Who is most likely to rent your apartment based on its location? And what appeals to them?

Create a Buyer Persona: Understand Your Ideal Renter

Who is most likely to rent your apartment based on its location? And what appeals to them? To effectively market your rental property, consider creating a buyer persona, providing insight into your ideal renter. This involves understanding the specific demographics and preferences that align with your property.

If you’re taking advantage of offering short-term or month-to-month leases , you can serve niche markets that are willing to pay more for the flexibility of shorter rental agreements. This includes:

• Travel nurses. If your rental is near a hospital, there’s a good chance it would be in demand by travel nurses to come into town for a few months at a time. Because of their demanding work, they are typically good, low-key renters.
• Students. College students might be looking to lease from September through May, leaving the summer months available for you to use your income property as a vacation home for personal use or to use it as a short-term vacation rental to earn even more money.
• Vacationers. Are you in a hot tourist spot? Vacationers pay a much higher nightly rental rate than long-term renters. 
• Military service members. If you live near a military base, you can market to service members who generally make good tenants because of reliable income and military conduct standards.

Additionally, if you’re in a high-demand area, your apartment might serve as a landing pad for people relocating to your city or moving between long-term leases.

If you’re planning to use longer leases, you might focus on large employers in the area. You can reach out to the relocation department to see if you can get your apartment on a list of available rentals. Or you can cast a wider net, advertising in local print publications if your ideal renter is older or advertising online to reach Millennials and Gen Z.

For online marketing, you may want to incorporate technology such as CRMs in lead generation and nurturing. Your choice of tools will largely depend on the size of your real estate agency, so you may need to compare the real estate CRMs in the market to get the perfect fit for you.

Use high-quality photos of the apartment

However you decide to market your apartment for rent (and to whomever), you’re going to need high-quality photos to appeal to your prospective renters. Many apartment hunters decide whether your listing gets rejected or added to their shortlist based solely on the photos. 

The good news is that most of today’s cellphones take high-quality photos with good resolution and automatic color and lighting corrections. You just need to make sure the apartment looks its best:

• Open all windows and turn on all lights to make the space as bright as possible.
• Stage to show off the space and the lifestyle potential. If you’re offering a furnished apartment, make sure the furnishings are arranged to fit the space well and that they’re in good repair. Add a few accents like wine glasses on the counter or a book on the end table to sell the lifestyle afforded by your apartment.
• Be authentic. Don’t over-edit or misrepresent the apartment. You’ll just disappoint people when they come to see the space in person.

Share on social media and Facebook Marketplace

Do you want to promote your listing for free? Then head to social media. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok allow you to post information about your rental for all your friends and followers to see. And since these platforms make sharing easy, your social network can share your post to their accounts, instantly boosting your reach. 

Facebook Marketplace serves as an online classified section, allowing you to post your apartment for rent. And you have the option to use low-cost social media ads if you want to target a specific demographic (taking care to avoid filters that could violate fair housing laws, of course).

Put up for rent signs

Do people walking by your building know that your unit is available? It’s so simple, but many people forget to put up a for rent sign to notify locals of the vacancy. You might catch the interest of someone looking for a place for themselves, but it’s also possible that your sign will make a passer-by think oh my gosh, this place is the perfect location for my friend! 

List apartment amenities and other features

Listing the features and amenities of your rental apartment is about qualifying traffic. You don’t want to field calls, texts, and emails from people looking for a pet-friendly apartment if you don’t accept pets. Instead, you want to be clear about what you offer and what you don’t. Then you’ll know that people messaging you know what they’re getting and are genuinely interested in your apartment listing.

While you’re listing features, make a note to sell the benefits of those features in your listing description. Instead of stating “fitness center in the building,” say something like “get in shape with the well-equipped fitness center, conveniently located just downstairs!”  

Build Trust With Helpful Content 

The landlord-tenant relationship is built on trust. As the landlord, you get to run credit checks and get references from your rental applicants. But what assurance do your prospective renters get about you? 

Regularly posting helpful content for renters on your social media account or website does three main things for you:

1. It shows that you keep current on important issues affecting renters.
2. It demonstrates your genuine interest in the well-being of your tenants.
3. And it reminds people that you’re in the real estate rental industry so they can contact you when they need a place or recommend you to friends and family

Use Listing Websites

There are numerous property listing websites available where you can advertise your rental property. Websites like Zillow, Craigslist, Apartments.com, Realtor.com, and Rent.com, among others, are popular platforms that prospective tenants frequently visit in their search for a new home. These websites have a broad reach and can get your rental property in front of millions of potential renters.

Top 6 Websites to List and Manage Your Rental Property:

1. Zillow: Zillow is one of the most popular real estate websites, allowing landlords to list their rental properties for free. It provides a user-friendly interface and has a wide reach.
2. Craigslist: Craigslist’s classified ads section is a go-to platform for many renters. Posting your rental property on Craigslist is free and can attract a diverse audience.
3. Apartments.com: Apartments.com offers a free listing service for landlords. With its extensive database, your property can gain visibility among a large pool of potential tenants.
4. Realtor.com: Realtor.com is a widely used platform for real estate listings. By listing your rental property here for free, you tap into a platform that is visited by a significant number of home and apartment seekers.
5. Rent.com: Rent.com provides a straightforward way to list your rental property for free. It’s a well-known platform, making it a valuable addition to your online marketing strategy.
6. June Homes (For Property Management Services): If you’re seeking a property management company, June Homes offers comprehensive services for property owners. Their expertise includes property marketing, tenant screening, rent collection, and maintenance, providing a hassle-free experience for landlords.

Utilize 3D Virtual Tours

Today’s technology allows for the creation of virtual tours for your property. This enables prospective tenants to walk through your property from the comfort of their own homes. It’s a powerful marketing tool that gives tenants a feel of the property without having to physically be there. 3D virtual tours have become a crucial part of property marketing, especially in light of COVID-19.

To enhance the viewer’s experience, consider platforms like VEED to add subtitles to the video tour so all potential tenants can follow along, regardless of their auditory abilities. It’s also important to ensure your video or speed up video can be viewed on all devices – a handy video converter can assist in changing your videos to more widely supported formats such as MKV.

Email Marketing

If you have a list of previous or prospective renters, you can use email marketing to inform them about your available property. Ensure your emails are professional and engaging, with a clear call to action leading them to your property listing or website.

Collaborate with Local Businesses and Organizations

Establish relationships with local businesses and organizations that might help you reach potential renters. For example, you could connect with local employers, universities, and relocation companies who can refer their employees, students, or clients to your rental property.