The Frugal Landlord - 3 Ways to find tenants cheaply.

I went to my local book exchange library today. After living in Japan for 10 years I've pretty much read all the English books at all three of my city's libraries.

The book exchange often has some reading gold that you can borrow and keep for free. I've gotten tons of business books, travel books, biographies and novels there.

Today I was pleased to find The Frugal Gourmet cook book. When I was a kid I remember watching the show and him always taking a sip of wine and well that's about all I remember. I guess it didn't make THAT much of an impression on me but I thought the book might help me overcome my sometimes unambitious cooking.

Then I got to thinking about land-lording and how you could use the Frugal Gourmet premise when finding tenants. So here it is 3 ways to get champagne tenants on beer advertising budget.

1. Place your ads wisely - Newspaper and online advertising have become cheaper over the past few years but how about spending no money at all? It's old school but placing ads with the little phone number tags attached to the bottom is a fantastic way to get tenants that are looking in a specific neighbourhood. Places like laundromats, supermarkets, schools and community centers may have bulletin boards where you can post for free. Effective? Yes. Cheap? Very!

2. For rent signs- They are cheap, highly visible to foot and drive by traffic and they let people know instantly that this property is up for grabs. Not to mention you can put them up the minute the tenant gives notice. In fact you can keep it in the property and ask the tenant nicely to do it themselves! Save gas too....

3. Referrals - You've probably got some good tenants who respect your property like it's their home. They are a goldmine of untapped potential tenant networks.
Offer all your great tenants the chance to introduce their friends to your family of rentals and offer say, dinner for two or a movie, they would be more than happy to help you fill your vacancies. You maybe saying well dinner isn't cheap but it's a lot cheaper than a vacant property with mortgage payments.