How to Attract the Best Tenants for Your Rental Property

Finding the best tenants for your rental property in South East London and North Kent is perhaps the most important aspect of being a landlord. Good tenants will always pay their rent on time, respect the property as if it’s their own, and leave it in excellent condition when they move out, giving you far less headaches to deal with.

But how can you ensure you attract the best tenants?

1. Define Your Target Tenants

Are you happy to rent your South East London and North Kent property to students or professionals? Maybe you would prefer to rent it to a family?

Defining your target tenants will help play a key part in how you market the property, so your adverts can be tailored towards your target audience.

2. Market Your Property Well

Making your property stand out is essential, particularly if you’re advertising on a national website where thousands of potential renters are looking.

Ensure that your lettings agent or property management company take photos which highlight your property’s assets, and make sure they’re taken in a good light too. And when it comes to descriptions, these will need to be clear and concise, and aimed at your target tenants.

For example, if you’re looking to attract young professionals you’ll want to highlight local transport links, whereas if you’re targeting families you’re more likely to highlight the proximity of the local schools.

It is always worth hiring a lettings agent to market the property, as they’ll have the experience and expertise to ensure that your property stands out from the crowd and is showcased in its best light.

3. Don’t Restrict Yourself

To give yourself the best chance of finding good tenants you’ll need to cast the net far and wide to find them.

Instead, it’s a good idea to ensure your property is marketed on multiple websites with nationwide audiences, so you can get the word out to as many people as possible.

And there’s no harm in being creative either. You can check social media or marketplace websites to find people who are looking for a place to rent. Consider everything, as you may be surprised where you actually find your tenant.

4. Entrust Viewings to Your Lettings Agent

The best way to find out about your potential tenants is to meet them in person. That way you should be able to build up a good picture of them and decide if they’re the best tenants for your property.

This will be possible if you are dealing with viewings yourself, or alternatively, if you are employing the services of a lettings agent you can entrust them to find suitable tenants and then meet the potential tenant for a final say. It’s also worth clarifying with them whether they’ll conduct individual viewings, group ones or an open house session. Individual viewings help get a feel for the client and can be fed back to you.

5. Carry Out Checks

It’s vital that you perform checks on prospective tenants so you can protect yourself from potential long-term issues with problem renters.

There are numerous checks you can carry out and it’s up to you how thorough you wish to be, but one essential check is the ‘right to rent’ check.

This will tell you if your tenant can legally rent your property. If you fail to carry this out, you could land yourself with a substantial fine so it’s crucial that you take the advice of an experienced lettings agent.

6. Present the Property Properly

It’s very important to present your property in its best light. This means ensuring that all minor repairs have been carried out before viewings take place, maybe a fresh lick of paint, and of course the place needs to be clean.

If you have missing light bulbs and wallpaper hanging off the walls it not only gives a bad impression of you as a landlord, but it also suggests to prospective tenants that they don’t need to look after the property either.

After all, if you want them to leave the place as they found it, then it’s important that their first impression is a good one.

7. Improve Your Property’s Kerb Appeal

Presentation applies to the outside as well as the interior. Whether it’s just de-weeding the front garden or adding a couple of hanging baskets, it’s wise to make the property look as appealing as possible at first glance.

Again, this comes down to making a good first impression and appealing to tenants who’ll want to maintain the property to its current standards.

8. Showcase a Blank Canvas

Finally, before you even think about taking photos or starting viewings make sure that you’ve emptied the property of any unnecessary clutter.

This will help emphasise the space that’s on offer and give potential tenants the chance to visualise themselves living there.

James Gorey Estate Agents are your local lettings experts for the South East London and North Kent area. Call us on 020 3633 9866 or email info@jamesgorey.com to chat with a member of our friendly and experienced team.