This is purely an informational post for people who are looking rent out there home. Specifically in Santa Clarita, CA, but some of the tactics will work anywhere in the country.

This post DOES NOT contain information on how to properly screen tenants, how to pull credit, criminal, and eviction history, how to verify income, employment, residency, late rent payments, property damage history, or the many other factors that need to be considered when renting a home. It only contains information on how to get some phone calls on your rental.

Again, most of the information here is designed specifically for Santa Clarita rentals.

First, let's take a look at the different basic types of advertising, and how I personally feel they rank in the scheme of things. I am going to list them in the order that I believe they perform, first to last.

1) Internet Advertising. This is the cheapest, easiest, fastest, and most effective advertising available. There are many free rental websites out there. Some work well in certain parts of the country, and others work in other parts of the country. For instance, we get a majority of our calls from craigslist (be careful not to type craiglist, you will be unpleasantly surprised). However, I talked a friend of mine in Little Rock, AR who also does property management, and she said that she only gets scams from craigslist.

    Other websites that we use include: westside rentals, 4rentinla, ezrentlist, and others.

    There are "pay" sites out there, however, I haven't found one that is worth the money for this area. I do have friends around the country who swear by homerentals.net, rent.com, forrent.com, and many others. Just do your homework first. Call some of the ads, tell them who you are, and ask if they are getting any calls on the ad.

2) Signs. As simple as those little red signs are (you can pick them up at pretty much any hardware store), they are absolutely worth it. Just be aware, they will probably get sabatoged, taken down, run over, or who knows what. I recommend checking them every couple of days. Make sure they are up for the weekend.

    Also, a large sign in your yard will certainly help. Live in a condo? Put the sign in the window.

3) Print Advertising. This is my least favorite form of advertising. However, it is the "necessary evil". Because of the cost, we do not include this service for our clients. The cost in Santa Clarita is $94/wk. for a rental ad in the Signal newspaper. We run a full-time ad in the santa clarita home rental section that simply directs people to our website. Once they go to the website, we can have a long description, pictures, virtual tours, etc... It can certainly shorten the time it takes to rent the property, and if you are going to go it alone, I recommend paying for the ad.

Happy tenant hunting! I hope this will help you rent your Santa Clarita home fast.