How to Advertise Your Maryland Rental Property Successfully

Successful landlords in Maryland have one trait in common: great marketing skills. Great marketing and advertising ensure low rates of empty rentals which, in turn, means more money for you.

As a landlord, you may have the best property on the rental market, but prospective tenants may not know of its existence. As such, your job as a landlord is to use your rental property marketing skills to maximize your ROI.

When you’re able to advertise your rental property well, you mainly benefit in two ways. The first is that you’re able to attract a large group of potential tenants. In turn, this can greatly raise your chances of your dream tenant signing that lease or rental agreement.

The second is that a robust and effective marketing strategy ensures that you quickly attract quality tenants who will be able to pay rent. This will lower the amount of time your rental property remains vacant.

In today’s blog, we’ll share three tips on how to advertise your rental property in Maryland and create sufficient demand.

1. Invest in High Quality Pictures

Property listings with quality pictures tend to get far more attention on the market than those without. In fact, according to one statistic, listings for rentals that include photos get as much as 95% more views and interest than those without.

It’s also worth noting that potential renters will spend more time looking at the pictures in your rental listing than anything else.

So, how do you ensure you take the best pictures for your rental listing to make your rental stand out from comparable rentals on the market and generate interest? Here are a few tips we’ve found helpful over the years that every landlord should consider.

• Stage your home. Home staging is an art designed to show off rentals in their best light. Start off by getting rid of all clutter and making the rental property rent-ready. Focus on one room, one space, or even one area within a room to ensure you get everything right to generate maximum interest.

Besides decluttering your home, also make sure to depersonalize the space. Renters searching for a new place will want to envision themselves living in your rental property so give them a clean slate they can work on.

Always make sure your home is spotless before scheduling any photo sessions. Removing cobwebs and mowing or watering the lawn can make a massive difference.

• Focus on lighting. Ideally, take photos for your rent listing during the day to take advantage of the lighting conditions. If taking photos during the day isn’t possible or if you happen to be shooting on a bleak day, make sure to maximize on your rental property’s lighting. Lighting definitely impacts the clarity and sharpness of photos.

Once everything is ready to market, make sure to have a checklist of what you’ll cover. Incorporate all rooms in your shot list, as well as outdoor spaces and any other areas that provide excellent ambiance to market effectively.

Taking pictures or even a video of the local community never hurts. This may help possible renters feel comfortable with the neighborhood they may potentially move to.

• Use a good camera. Of course, to get great results with your photos, you’ll need to have a good camera. That being said, this doesn’t mean you need to spend thousands of dollars on photography equipment for your listing.

If you have an SLR camera, that’d be great. A good smartphone can also get the job done, too. Preferably, 72 pixels should be the least resolution when you upload the pictures for advertising.

2. Write an Attractive Rental Ad Copy

After taking amazing photos, the next step should be to write a great ad copy for your rental ad. Your description of your Maryland property should be accurate and engaging. After all, the marketing copy is what is going to tie your whole story together.

Just like photos, there are certain things that are necessary to have in a successful rental listing. The following tips should get you started on advertising your rentals.

• Get the headline right. The headline is the first thing that potential tenants will see when they view your rental listing. For most viewers, that’s what will determine whether they continue reading the rest of the copy or not.

Make sure to include the most relevant information in the headline of the listing to give readers a good reason to keep reading. Those are: the rent price, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, as well as the neighborhood location and a desirable feature, or some optional information like square footage.

The following is an example, including the rent price and other important info:
$1,500 1-BR 1BTH Apartment in Baltimore with stunning views.

• Tell a story. Beyond the rent price and location, this is where you, as the landlord, will need to give a summary of the description of the property. It allows a prospective tenant to visualize themselves living in your property.

If your property has unique features or amenities, this is the section where you should highlight them. You’ll also have an opportunity here in the listing to tell prospects about what the neighborhood is like and any possible renovations you may have planned.

Also, don’t forget to talk about some rent policies you may have in place as the landlord. A good example is the pet policy. If you have a “no pets” policy, then stating it in the listing can help you avoid agreeing to rent to the wrong tenants. If you allow pets, you may also want to let prospects know of any restrictions you may have regarding the weight, breed and number of pets allowed when you market.

3. Begin the Distribution Process

Having a stunning rental listing isn’t quite enough. The listing will only get to be effective if a large number of prospects get to view it. Put yourself in the shoes of a prospective tenant: “If I’d be looking for a place to rent, where would I go?”

Would you look through rental listing sites to find a place to rent? If so, make sure to focus your advertising efforts on top rental sites. Examples of popular sites include Zillow, HotPads, Zumper, Redfin, and Craigslist.

Social media is free and readily accessible. For example, on top of popular online listing sites, Instagram is a popular app for rental units with plenty of resources for advertising, and you can easily make a free account.

Also, think about prospects who may not go online to these rental platforms or sites to find a new home to rent. For tenants who don't frequent listing sites, make sure to use in person methods for local traffic such as for-rent signs in the yard, rental bulletin boards, and local dailies for your listings. The idea here is to ensure that all different types of tenants are catered for when marketing your rental units, and rent signs are seen by a large number of great tenants who may not be looking online. You can also consider holding open houses.

Bottom Line

Setting a price and advertising your rental to create demand is just one half of the re-leasing process. Next, make sure to screen prospective tenants to avoid renting to potentially difficult ones. If you are a landlord and you need help with advertising or any other property matters, including leases, rental market value appraisal, rent collection, maintenance and more, McKenna & Vane has the resources to make that happen. Get in touch to learn more!