What Marketing Is, Why You Might Care, and How It Affects Renting Property

The following is from the book Get It Rented, available on Amazon.Copyright 2017 Cain Publications, Inc.

The Census Bureau published The Property Owners and Managers Survey in 1996, the latest reliable and comprehensive figures I can find, in which it analyzed rental owners. The study found that “Overall, 58 percent of multifamily properties made a profit or broke even. About 27 percent had a loss, and for 16 percent the owners did not know whether they made or lost money. About 58 percent of small and medium size properties had a profit or broke even, compared to 51 percent of large properties.” Think of that; just over half of multifamily properties did not lose money. Notice the figures are for making a profit or breaking even. We can deduce from that that fewer than half of the rental owners made an actual profit. But a telling figure is that 16 percent of owners had no clue if they made any money or not (and they’re in business?).

What are they doing wrong? Why aren’t all those rental owners ahead of the game? One of the reasons is sloppy, indifferent or NO marketing. After all, tenants are going to rent from someone, so why aren’t they renting from those landlords? It has to do with marketing. Much of marketing begins in the owner’s brain. So many rental owners think they only have to think about marketing when they have or are about to have a vacancy. Then it’s too late. They end up like every other landlord who can’t figure out what to do to get that property rented. They don’t know why the phone never rings and why nobody wants to see their property. Or just as bad, they can’t figure out why everyone who calls shouldn’t be able to even rent a Barbie Playhouse.

Here’s how to adjust your thinking. If the other rental owners aren’t paying attention, all the better for you. You will get the edge that could mean that your properties make a profit every year, your bank account bulges, and you will be able to retire in comfort. It begins with marketing.

Marketing is everywhere and we can learn things that work for our rental properties by watching not just how the pros do it but also what other techniques can be even more effective. Everyone buys (or rents) for his or her own reasons, not ours. So in order to be effective, we need to appeal to as many of those reasons as we can to hit the bull’s-eye of why a particular person buys.