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How To Prepare For The Slow Holiday Rental Season

 

Experienced landlords know that the housing market goes through different phases and cycles each year. Spring and summer can be hot months for leasing units fast and for top dollar. This can change quite a bit once kids are back in school in fall. Most people have locked down in a new lease for the year. People get busy focusing on the holidays, and the weather may put a damper on showings. How can rental property owners ace it, and still keep their units full at this time of year?

Move-In Specials

Consider offering move-in specials. Take a look at your competition and see what you need to do to stay competitive. Can you offer a free month of rent, lower security deposits, or a discount on monthly rent? Test some out. Track the performance of these deals and tenants over time and reevaluate if they are worth doing again.

Make Open Houses More Attractive

Real estate in general slows down in fall and winter due to the weather. It is just generally less appealing to go out and view properties. Change that dynamic. Give potential tenants more motivation to come out, and come in to your open houses. How about hosting Santa, or giving away hot chocolate and other freebies?

Themed Marketing

Build up your inbound marketing and keep in front of potential movers with themed content. Use hashtags, relevant keyword phrases, and seasonal titles to get noticed and build SEO. This includes blogs, social media posts, and email newsletters. There are tons to choose from starting with Halloween through New Year’s Eve.

Pump Up Your Team

You can’t have your leasing team getting down or considering a new career. Keep them pumped and loyal with holiday dinners, seasonal gifts, bonus plans, and a little extra time to spend with family or holiday shopping.

Get Financially Prepared

Thousands of new real estate investors and landlords get crushed during this season each year. They just don’t see it coming. Maybe they got into the game in the buzz of summer, and made plans based on that market. Those who aren’t prepared can go broke, get discouraged, and quit fast. Anticipate the need for reserves. Be financially prepared with cash flow to get through the months tenants are most likely to be late on their rent.

 

Late August through December can be a little more challenging for landlords. Especially for those who aren’t prepared. Get ahead of the game and make this the season you stand out and excel.

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TJ Lokboj

TJ Lokboj is an entrepreneur with a passion for adding value to the real estate investing industry through adopting digital transformation. Some of TJs companies have been featured in Yahoo Finance, Morningstar, Benzinga, and many other publications.

TJ is the managing partner of Holdfolio, a real estate investment firm that leverages a premier crowdfunding platform.

He is also a member of the Forbes real estate council and co-founded SyndicationPro, which is the #1 syndication management SaaS solution in the market today.

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Ready to invest in real estate?

We make real estate investing simpler, more transparent, and accessible to individual investors.