There are many reasons why you might need to advertise a rental property. Maybe the investment property is being advertised for the first time. Perhaps an existing tenant doesn’t want to renew the lease or has handed in a notice to terminate.
Whatever the circumstances, your property professional will be able to walk you through the best advertising options available to you. When listing a property it’s best to have your ‘perfect’ tenant in mind. This will help your property professional work out how to reach them effectively to minimise the period of lost rental income.
Here are some of the best ways to advertise a rental property in today’s market.
Online listing portals
When Australians are looking to find a rental property, they generally head online. Online portals like Domain and realestate.com.au have a substantial audience reach, with millions of users accessing these portals nationwide.
Your property professional will be able to guide you as to which listing portal is more common in your area and will reach a more suitable audience. Example, Allhomes is more common in the ACT than other sites. These portals are easy to understand and navigate.
Social media
Advertising rental properties on social media platforms like Facebook, is becoming more common. With the opportunity to use both free and paid advertising, social media can be cost effective.
While it’s not necessary to use paid ads, there are many benefits to doing so. These include micro-targeting for specific audiences, reports and analytics, ad forecasting, performance estimates and more. For instance, your ‘perfect’ tenant is easier to target than ever with Facebook’s audience targeting software. Using filters that target specific demographics like age, location, interests and even online behaviours can track and target potential tenants to receive your rental property advertisements.
If paid ads are not an option, posting rental properties on real estate agency or personal pages can still be an effective advertising option, reaching a targeted audience with key word and filtered searches. The Facebook Marketplace page is also an alternative.
Newspapers
Newspapers are another effective way to advertise rental properties. Online newspaper ads can include links to other websites with directory to further information and photos. This could be a real estate agency website or the original property listing.
It is good to keep in mind that online newspapers generally have a younger average reader whereas printed newspapers generally reach an older audience.
If advertising in a printed newspaper, listing rental properties on Saturdays and Sundays may be more effective as people read newspapers more often on weekends. These advertising slots may be more expensive than weekdays but will likely reach a larger audience.
Signs and flyers
Signage and flyers can be an effective way to advertise and generate interest for an investment property in surrounding streets and suburbs. They are an inexpensive way to broadcast in specific locations, providing receivers with property and contact information. This may be important if seeking a specific type of tenant or advertising in areas with similar community engagement or services.
Hire flyer delivery services are available in most main cities in Australia for a relatively cheap price, with some packages starting at $130 per thousand flyers.
It’s important to remember that rental advertising costs can be claimed at tax time. The advertising expenses can be claimed in the same year that they were incurred, reducing an investor’s taxable income and improving their cash flow.
A vacant investment property can also present an opportunity for improvements to be made to the property, since tax deductible expenses can be claimed as long as it is genuinely available for rent.
If planning to make improvements to an investment property, it’s best to reach out to a tax depreciation specialist like BMT.
A BMT Tax Depreciation Schedule outlines every depreciation deduction claimable from the rental property. To learn more about depreciation contact BMT today on 1300 728 726 or Request a Quote.