Smart Rental Ads to Attract Quality Tenants

Tenants come in all kinds; responsible students, irresponsible students, young professionals fresh out of school, young people without a high school degree, elderly folk whose marriages have recently failed. The list goes on and on. Point being: the type of tenant you end up with can be a coin toss, and minimizing the risk of a problem tenant is crucial to your success as a landlord.

Alerting potential tenants of a vacancy is only half the battle. All too often landlords neglect to give their rental ads the time and attention that they not only deserve, but require, to attract a quality tenant. An intelligently constructed rental advertisement can very easily be the difference between a successful or an unsuccessful tenancy. Good ads attract quality tenants. Of course, there is no such thing as a sure-fire bet, especially considering the issues surrounding the tenant friendly board. But if you can mitigate the risk and improve your chances of a painless experience, why wouldn’t you? Of course, a thorough screening process is the most important aspect related to mitigating the risk, but you can make the screening process much easier by starting with an effective and savvy rental advertisement. A good advertisement will attract a larger group of quality tenants, and dissuade those looking for an easy target.

Consider for a moment two scenarios: scenario one has a landlord posting an ad with very little thought or craft. The listing includes very little information related to the property besides a few crooked pictures that were taken in poor lighting immediately after the old tenant moved out, the space is still a mess, and the listing simply states “available now”. Scenario two, on the other hand, is well thought out. It has quality pictures taken in good lighting after the space has been given a thorough cleaning and has undergone any necessary renovations. The listing says a lot more than just “available now”; it carries with it a 400-500-word narrative explaining the unit’s features, amenities, a walk-score, and it clearly and concisely states the all-important aspects of “credit check”, “background check”, “first and last months rent required upfront” and “previous landlord and employment history required”. Which ad do you think will attract more quality tenants?

The answer is obvious, yet too many landlords fail to think about this when it comes time to search for a tenant. Advertisement number two will come out on top, time and time again, whereas advertisement number one will consistently attract the type of tenant looking for easy prey. Make no mistake, professional tenants exist, and they are always on the lookout for poorly constructed advertisements suggesting that the landlord a.) doesn’t know what they’re doing, b.) won’t be following through with any sort of background check, and c.) likely won’t even ask for a deposit. On the flip side, advertisement number two is exactly what these tenants try to avoid. They do not have positive references, they have poor credit and they know that you’re the type of landlord who will put them on the spot. In turn, advertisement number two will make your screening process a breeze. The tenants who respond are not concerned, because they know they are good, responsible tenants. They have good credit, they have good references, they have steady income and they take their word seriously.

Again, there will always be a handful of tenants who slip through the cracks; people can be crafty and manipulative. But handling your rental advertisement with a savvy attention to detail will serve to make your landlord business easier to handle. Pay mind to the photos you choose to advertise your unit. Hiring a professional is of course a great idea if it falls within your budget. If not, be sure to take your shots during the day, with the blinds open. Lighting is key to an attractive photograph. Centre your shots, and don’t shoot random spaces. Every shot should be highlighting a feature of the unit. Staging the space prior to photographing may take some time, but you’ll end up with much nicer shots. At the same time, don’t oversell the unit. Overselling will result in disappointment when the candidates come to check the space out. Make sure your advertisement is representative of what you’re offering, while highlighting the selling points. Be sure to list your terms and expectations clearly and concisely as to weed out the underqualified, and avoid indirect or redundant language. If taking these factors into account, you’ll start to see your ads work for you, year after year.

Advice for the Small-Scale Landlord

Typically, landlords fall into two categories: large corporate landlords, and small business residential landlords. Many of you may find yourselves in the latter of the two groups; you own a small rental property with one or only a small handful of tenants, or perhaps you rent out a basement/room in your personal residential living space. For many Canadians, working as a small business residential landlord has proven to be an incredibly lucrative investment that helps them to cover the high cost of living in most of Canada’s major cities, pay down their mortgage, and build equity for their long-term goals. However, despite many ill-informed opinions, being a small business residential landlord can be a ton of work as well as a major cause of stress. Large corporate landlords may have a bigger task on their plates, but they also have way more help, resources, and less risk; large corporate landlords have what is called “economies of scale”, meaning they have hundreds of rental spaces in a building. Point being, if one or two tenants are persistently causing issues, or not paying rent, the potential loss is minimized by the volume of tenants they are dealing with. Financial hardship is not threatened in these cases. For the small business residential landlord, on the other hand, they may only have 1 or 2 tenants. If these tenants start to cause problems, or fail to pay their rent, the risk of financial and mental hardship drastically increases.

For many small business landlords, the LTB (Landlord and Tenant Board) is not viewed as their friend. They feel the board favors the tenants, which in turn makes the landlord feel as if they have no one in their corner if things go awry.  Granted, the landlord/tenant relationship is a very complicated beast, and the LTB doesn’t have an easy task on their hands. It’s important for small landlords to understand this, and to familiarize themselves with the rules and regulations. If you are honest with yourselves, many of you have likely opted to not even contact the board in cases of issues with your tenants. This is not recommended. Yes, you may be given answers that you don’t want to hear, but without speaking with the board, your hands are tied in any case. Remember, the LTB is meant to moderate these issues. You may feel that the board is not fully seeing your perspective, and you may be right, but there have been many cases where the landlord comes out on top. At very least, by contacting the board you are a.) showing your tenant that you mean business and will not sit back while they mess you around, and b.) you are helping the LTB to collect information and adjust their rules and regulations moving forward; change doesn’t happen without persistence. In fact, the Minister of Housing has recently acknowledged that the rules for landlords need to change, otherwise the entire industry will be negatively affected as home owners will simply stop seeing the value in investment properties. So contact the board when you have issues!

More importantly, understanding how the LTB works will give you a much stronger perspective related to minimizing your risk moving forward. Things like a thorough screening process, understanding the eviction process and boosting residence retention are crucial to your success. Finding the right tenants from the get-go will make your life infinitely easier as a small business landlord, and understanding how to keep those tenants will maintain that ease of process. With that said, professional tenants often fall through the cracks. After-all, they have earned the title of “professional tenant”. But what’s possibly even more important to keep in mind, is the fact that even good tenants can take advantage of the system. Most landlords and tenants are familiar with the “pro-tenant” stance that the LTB typically takes, and even otherwise great tenants can find ways to benefit from the system. It’s not uncommon for tenants to lie about having pets, or behave absent mindedly with their rental space seeing as, hey, it’s not their property after-all, they are just renting it: guests become full-time tenants, pet’s cause smells and stains, smoke smell lingers, and wear/tear starts to cause maintenance issues. These are problems even the best of tenants brings with them into a tenant/landlord relationship.

Being a small business residential landlord can be an incredible way to pay down a mortgage, build equity and secure future wealth. But understanding the landscape you are dealing with will be crucial to your success and happiness. If you feel the LTB just isn’t giving you the help you need, you can look elsewhere: most of the rental business in Canada is created by small business people, so your community is rich. For example, there are organizations like The Ontario Landlords Association who can help you along the way, and property management companies like CMG Toronto who can drastically minimize your risk and stress level.