As a Santa Rosa landlord, prolonged rental vacancies can always be a significant challenge that leads to massive losses. Since vacancies add to your monthly expenses and cut your overall profit, you will always want to fill your rental with qualified tenants quickly. However, several factors, such as location, rental prices, or property conditions, need attention before you put your property on the market. You have to be careful about the process, especially when renting a property by yourself, as it takes twice as long to fill your rental with potential tenants.
To give you a glimpse of what goes into the renting process, we present a breakdown so you can calculate how long it will take to rent your Santa Rosa home.
1. Assessing Property Condition
Maintaining your unit’s condition is crucial to make it stand out from the competition and get it rented quickly. Tenants always prefer a house that is in pristine condition and ensures high comfort and modern upgrades. You can consider making small changes and timely renovations to make your unit attractive. For example, installing modern appliances, improving curb appeal and applying fresh paint can draw the attention of your tenants and accelerate the renting process.
2. Deciding Rental Value
Setting the correct rental prices is vital in attracting potential tenants and renting your property quickly. While undercharging affects your property’s market value, overcharging may drive your tenants away, resulting in more extended rental vacancies.
However, the prices may vary according to many things, like location, condition, age and amenities available on the property. You can conduct comprehensive market research to charge your investment appropriately or hire PURE Property Management to get a free rental analysis or a complimentary estimate.
3. Advertising Your Property
How you advertise your rental unit affects the speed at which you find quality tenants. Using the right marketing strategies increases the visibility of your rental and attracts high-quality tenants in no time. For instance, at PURE Property Management, we thoroughly evaluate your property to price and market it right to attract quality tenants.
We also consider cosmetic upgrades to make it more appealing to tenants. Once we improve your asset’s condition, we list your rental on all major rental platforms, such as Trulia, Craigslist, Zillow, and our website, to get it rented quickly.
4. Considering Market Conditions
The frequent changes in the local real estate market play a vital role in determining how to rent a property. Due to increased rental prices (8%) and the fast-growing real estate market, owning a property in Santa Rosa is profitable for owners. Additionally, factors like neighborhoods, tenants’ expectations, and rental demands significantly affect the renting process. For example, in Santa Rosa, you can quickly rent your property if it is in popular neighborhoods like Bennett Valley or Historic Railroad Square.
5. Screening Your Tenants
Tenant screening is equally vital in renting as property assessment. Ideally, the process involves a few factors, such as setting tenants’ criteria, responding to applicants’ emails or phone calls, or communicating your rental requirements. We suggest our clients conduct stringent tenant screening, including background checks, credit scores, criminal history, employment, and previous tenancy history, to eliminate the risk of hiring bad tenants.
6. Simplify The Tenant’s Move-In Process
Renting process is incomplete without a perfect tenant move-in experience. It may require you to create a positive impression on your tenants. For instance, you must take care of repairs and address safety issues, schedule professional cleaning, complete property inspection, prepare the lease agreement, reiterate the move-in process in writing and collect the security deposit. Managing all these things for a DIY landlord can be overwhelming, which might end up hindering the renting process.
Renting your Santa Rosa property is a multi-step process that you may not be able to complete in a day. It is a comprehensive process that requires careful consideration and a few days to address all the above factors. However, you can consult an experienced firm like PURE Property Management to accelerate the process and rent your property quickly.
We offer top customer services in Santa Rosa, Cloverdale, Rohnert Park, Windsor, Rincon Valley, Sebastopol, and Sonoma. Our team genuinely cares for you and your valuable assets and strives to keep them rented throughout the year.
For more information, reach us at PURE Property Management.