Develop a Marketing Plan
The slow season is ideal for strengthening a great marketing strategy if you don’t have one now. With more effective marketing, you can effectively attract great tenants and keep your rental property occupied year-round. At the very least, your marketing strategy must have an excellent newspaper or classified ad for each property you own, be knowledgeable about all the ideal places to post your ad online, and how to use social media to attract applicants. With your marketing prepared and ready to go, it’s one less thing you’ll have to worry about when things get busy.
Ask for Online Reviews
Apart from effective marketing, you should have a positive online presence. In today’s digital world, prospective renters will investigate to find out what past tenants have said about their knowledge of you and your rental home. You must guarantee that what they view is positive by asking your tenants to leave you reviews online. Through platforms like Google, Yelp, and social media, you can request tenants to leave feedback. Make it simple for them by sending them a link, and don’t let the fear of a bad review intimidate you. People who rely on reviews understand that the occasional rude review exists and don’t let it influence their final decision.
Re-Work Your Budget
If you haven’t updated your operating budget for some time, the slow season is a great time to do so. The rental market, just like your rental properties and tenants, is constantly moving, and your budget should be updated from time to time to reflect recent changes. Firstly, you need to go through your expense items and update any out-of-date numbers. At that point, recalculate things like your vacancy rate and capital improvements, changing the numbers when needed. Having an accurate budget can help you make more confident decisions about your rental properties throughout the year.
Get Your Paperwork In Shape
The slow season is also the exact time to get your paperwork in order – primarily if you’ve been putting off a few tasks, like collecting all the invoices for replacements or upgrades to the property, tax records, reconciling accounts or auditing your books. It can be hard to keep up with smaller tasks like monthly bookkeeping and bank reconciliations when you’re busy. And then there are the important annual tasks, like tax document preparation and auditing. Using the slow season to address tasks like these can streamline your schedule and keep your focus where it should be.
Plan Your Next Investment
To conclude, one of the right moments to evaluate your investment strategy and prepare plans to include in your portfolio of rental homes is when things are a bit slow. Whether your intention is to keep and rent a single property for future use or to build a large, lucrative portfolio, utilizing the slow season to prepare strategies is a wonderful use of your time. Then when things heat up, you will be prepared to take those next actions with assurance.
If you notice that your busy schedule is causing you to overlook these and other tasks, it may be necessary to hire professional property managers to help. At Real Property Management All Connect, we perform entirely of the day-to-day work of owning rental properties for you, freeing up your time for more necessary things. To learn more about the range of services we offer, contact us online.