Rent or Don't Rent?
I was just talking with another agent about this question, and the pros and cons of doing rentals. She wasn't sure if it was worth her time and if it possibly would take away from her main objective, of selling homes. I know there are a lot of agents who would never consider renting a home, either based on a dislike for that form of real estate or just a feeling that it is below their status as a professional real estate agent. I must also throw in that they may be too busy listing and selling homes and just don't have the additional time to get into the rental side of the business (yes there are some still who fit into this category).
This is what I told her, that many of today's renters are tomorrows buyers. If you are looking at the long run and building a client base of potential home buyers here is an excellent way of doing just that. I have had many of my renters later become my home buyers. Like anything else the secret is persistence and keeping yourself in front of your renters. Yes signing a lease normally takes them out of the market to purchase, for at least a year, but we have home buyers we are working with who may take that long. The difference is you don't need to search these folks out, you should already have all the information you need to do a drip campaign or any other form of staying in touch with this potential home buyer.
The cost is minimal, you should already have built up rapport, and if your wanting future business here is a simple way to accomplish your goal. This is a relatively inexpensive way to build future business off a past hopefully mutually rewarding relationship. You still need to invest in staying in touch but you shouldn't have to build trust and you don't need to pay for the lead. So if you originally paid for a lead with this client (and we do in some way with all prospects) why not double dip and get paid twice, or perhaps three times, or more.
I have stated in past blogs that perceptions many times over shadows reality. So you need to reset your renters perception to fit with reality. We tend to retain what we did as compared to what we heard (I personally sometimes can't do either). A renter who is going to enter the purchase market may only remember that you do rentals and may feel you specialize in this and only this. Yes you told them to find you when they were ready to purchase but we have most of our buyers who don't call us back. Just like our buyers if we don't stay in touch and keep informing them of our worth we will become irrelevant to them.
I like renters because many times the time between first contact and getting paid is short. They create a built in future business. During the slow times they help to keep me busy and during the good times help build a future client base of home buyers.
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