Newer Pittsburgh Landlord (Duquesne: apartments, rentals, houses)

[jea6321]

I became a landlord in pittsburgh about 1 year ago. I am an owner/occupant of my building ( 4 unit ) in mt washington.

One of my units became empty a month ago and I did a bunch of work and painting and now am looking to rent it. Where do people advertise besides CL? I have it listed there, and have had a bit of interest but a lot of flakers who set up appointments and dont show, or people who show up and admit they are not even really looking to rent a place and just want to check it out.

is a yard sign really an effective way to advertise anymore?

any advice from people who have rentals or people who have found apartments around the area from other ways than CL would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[I_Like_Spam]

Yard signs can be effective depending on where the units are located. I'd definitely put one up, even if you're using other methods so folks who are coming out to see it know they are there.

I found past apartments in the City Paper and South Pittsburgh Reporter.

[jea6321]

thanks. Im going to get a yard sign today. The building is in a pretty high traffic area. w sycamore, a few buildings down from the shiloh street shops.

[I_Like_Spam]

Also, you might want to let your current tenants know of the vacancy. Of course they can see the unit is empty, but unless you tell them, they might think you already have plans for the apartment, a new tenant already lined up.

[fleetiebelle]

You could also contact Duquesne or the other local universities. The student housing or grad student organizations might keep a database of off-campus apartments.

[Retiredcoach]

I do own some rental properties myself, and I pretty much use Craigslist exclusively. I have tried the yard sign route, but to be honest, I have never found a real potential tenant this way. The calls received from those seeing my sign were usually from from competing landlords looking for rental price barometers for their own rentals. Others responding to my sign (and there were very few) were not quality potential renters.

From my experiences, if I am not finding the quality tenant needed to occupy my rental through Craigslist, I re-examine the market and my approach to the market. The best months (with the largest number of quality tenants looking for rentals) in the Pittsburgh region for me have been May through August.... I try to have all of my leases expire during those months whenever possible. I always try to continually update my units anytime a vacancy arises paying particular attention to the kitchen and baths. I budget for yearly improvements, property aesthetics, and preventative maintenance to sustain the quality of the unit. Lastly, I try to undercut my competitors by offering my updated units at a cheaper rent than they will. My strategies seem to work for me, as I rarely have a vacancy, always get my rent on time, and my tenants stay. I have always found that it is much more profitable for me to keep a tenant longer with the cheaper rent, than to charge the higher rent and have a series of rental transitions. Good luck!

[onwardandupward]

I agree with pretty much everything that Retiredcoach has said. The biggest demand for rentals is in the June-August timeframe, which corresponds to the the university school year, so if you can structure your leases to begin and end then you'll be able to take advantage of that demand. You could offer a shorter lease now, for example Oct-July, and then start in August with year-long leases. Craigslist has worked best for me as well, and photos help a lot. I also agree that you want to out-perform your competition, either on updates and amenities or on price. My strategy has been to offer furnished apartments, which are still rather uncommon in Pittsburgh as compared to D.C. and NYC. Furnished apartments are popular with medical and graduate students, who are here just for a few years.

[jea6321]

thanks for all the responses. I am going to try the yard sign route as well as continue with CL and citypaper.

[jea6321]

Put a yard sign out and about 30 min later I hear a couple talking in front of the building. " look, this is the place we liked and now its for rent" Nice professional looking couple. Watched them write down the number.

Not saying it will def work out, but hey. Not too bad to already have a lead from a 10 dollar sign.

[selltheburgh]

I have a few rentals and what onwardandupward and retiredcoach said are pretty spot on. I only use Craigslist or sometimes the neighborhood email list.

I always have more trouble renting units out after September and before April.

1 bedrooms always rent pretty fast. I try to make my leases end in the Spring/Summer.

Another good thing to do is to have "open houses" for an hour or so. A lot of potential tenants are flakes. Just have it open for an hour on a weekend or evening.