Imagine if you will, you have had your vacant property on the market for almost 6 weeks without an acceptable application. You have never had an issue renting your property out before and you are not sure what to think. You are not asking much more than you did a couple of years ago but it is sitting there like a bump on a log. Why is your home not renting? I’ll explain.
Why Is Your Home Not Renting?
We are starting to hear this question more and more. The rental market is changing. Even in major metropolitan markets as we have in Long Beach, Los Angeles, and Orange County there are times the market cools off a little making it harder than in the past to get your vacancies filled. If you are finding your home sitting on the market, it is probably a combination of one or more of the following factors.
- Overpriced – price is the easiest thing to control and is usually the reason a property sits on the market too long. The right price can make up for a lot of short cummings. In a competitive market where prospective tenants have multiple properties to choose from, even small differences in price can significantly affect how many showings you get and reduce the time your property sits vacant. Be smart when pricing your property.
- Poor condition – the condition of a home matters more than you might think. Today’s tenants are especially turned off by worn carpets, sloppy paint jobs, and shoddy repairs. Just because you may have been willing to put up with certain things decades ago when you were in college does not mean that your next tenant will. Standards have gotten higher as rents have risen. Plus, you also probably don’t want the kind of tenant willing to take a home that is in substandard condition.
- Dirty – cleanliness extends past condition. Make sure your home is professionally cleaned. Properly cleaning a vacant property takes more time and effort than an occupied home. Things like dirty grout in showers and sinks can look pretty grimy in what is otherwise a clean home. Grease on an oven hood or dust on a fan that can also get overlooked. Tenants don’t want a place that seems like it has other people’s germs.
- Outdated – a property may be in good condition and very clean but can still be outdated. It is hard to achieve 2025 rents with 1985 bathrooms and 1995 kitchens. Even vintage homes need some modern touches. It is nearly impossible to update an occupied home so you may want to consider investing in some updates while your property is vacant.
- No appliances – properties that have appliances included are easier to rent than properties that do not. You may have to invest a little more upfront and you may have an occasional appliance repair along the way. However, at the end of the day appliances reduce vacancy time and pay for themselves.
- Functionally problematic – some properties are set up or situated in a way that makes them harder to rent. Appraisers call it functional obsolescence. Examples include: a four or even three-bedroom home with only one bathroom, walk-through bedrooms, or a home with too many stairs. This can also be a property on a busy street or with no parking. These kinds of factors make a home harder to lease.
- Furnished – leasing furnished homes is trickier than unfurnished homes. With furnished homes, the prospective tenant has to like both the home and the furnishings. The furnishings need to be very specific for this type of rental which is different than how you may furnish it for living. Don’t be guilty of using your rental as a place to store furniture you don’t know what to do with.
- Occupied – it is harder to lease an occupied home than a vacant one. Some people try to show a property while it is still leased, or the owner is still living there. This may work on occasion but it is not ideal. Scheduling is more complicated, and prospective tenants may feel like they are intruding. Plus, the prospective tenants may be concerned that you will want to show the property when they are there.
- Not properly advertised – if an attractive property is priced right, people still need to know it is available. Today’s renter is looking on the internet and comparing your property with several others on the market. There is more information out there than ever before. You want to make sure your property is properly advertised. It needs to be on all the major websites and shown professionally.
- Limited availability for showings – your property must be available to be shown. This can be an issue when prospective tenants can only see it after work or on the weekends and the manager is not around. Or if the prospective tenants want to see it through the week and the landlord is only around on the weekend. This is why many management companies are taking advantage of remote showings.
- Unrealistic criteria – some landlords set the bar unrealistically high, especially for a particular property. Your one-bedroom apartment in a below-average building is probably never going to get an applicant with a 790 credit score and six months of reserves in the bank. Waiting for someone you like or that overqualified tenant who happens to love your property may take too long and could put you at risk of a fair housing violation.
- Slow market – you need to be aware of what market you are in. More specifically, what the market is like for the specific property you have. Just because rents usually increase does not mean that they automatically go up every year. Not all parts of the market move in the same direction. Different areas and segments may behave differently based on local happenings and larger economic factors.
- Slow time of year - every market has some seasons or times of the year when vacancies are harder to fill. This happens during the holidays for much of southern California and in the summer for homes in the desert or the winter for homes in areas where cold weather is an issue.
- Not professionally managed – having professional management can help give you access to an unbiased professional as to why your property has not been eased. Plus, most tenants prefer to lease through a professional management company. Tenants can more easily vet a management company to help ensure a higher level of professional service as well as reduce the chances of falling victim to a leasing scam.
We just went through many different reasons why your property may not be renting. Price is the most common and usually the easiest to fix. If you have looked at everything else and done everything you can reasonably do, then adjusting the price is usually the best bet.
If there are other issues like the property's condition, you might as well go ahead and take care of it. Some landlords make the mistake of waiting to see if prospective tenants will request fixing it. This is a mistake. Go ahead and take care of issues ahead of time that way you can enjoy the benefit of showing a better property. Most people will move on to a nicer property rather than request a potential landlord.
For things you can’t control, like being on a busy street, price may be your only alternative. In separate blogs, we will look at various tips and tricks to give you a competitive edge in finding long-term tenants and tips for filling that stubborn vacancy. For now, knowing why your property is not renting is the first and most important step to getting it filled.
Bottom Line
Sometimes homes don’t rent as fast as anticipated. This can happen at times but is more prevalent in softening markets. Your property may be overpriced, in poor condition, dirty, outdated, without appliances, or functionally problematic. Some furnished and occupied properties are a challenge. The issue could be that it is not properly advertised, has limited availability or you have unrealistic criteria. Of course, it may be a slow market or a slow time of year.
A property management professional can advise and guide you through the process while putting prospective tenants’ minds at ease. The sooner you address the issue the better.
For Real Estate Advice
If you are looking for a reliable property management company to help you handle a rental property or a real estate broker to guide you through the sales process in Long Beach, Los Angeles, or Orange County, California; or you are just considering it and have a few questions about real estate contact the Mike Dunfee Group today! We are happy to help.
Dunfee Real Estate Services, Inc. DRE # 02026232
