If you were to turn your house over to a rental agency this close to the holidays, what do you suppose the chances are of actually renting out your house before Christmas? I will not say that it is completely impossible to find a tenant, but the likelihood is disappearing with each passing moment.

Most agencies will be closing the office on or before the 20th of December. Even if a tenant signs a lease before then, they may be out of luck if they want to move in over Christmas; there will be no agent around to hand over the keys! On the other hand, property owners using Rent My Estate have an opportunity to catch a great tenant.

Low Competition means the Opportunity to Find a Tenant is Knocking

With so many agents “out of the office” from 20 Dec to 6 Jan, you have a chance for your rental property to really shine. There are three weeks when your house will be one of only a few available for tenants to inspect and move into.

If the property manager is not going to be back until the 6th of January, any leads they had on tenants are likely to have dried up, so the chance of getting tenants in your house (and paying rent) before the end of January is looking slim.

Big Reward for Little Effort

Even if you are planning to take your own holiday over Christmas, you can keep in touch with potential tenants via email and phone messages without losing any good leads.

I keep saying how important it is to find the right tenants, so you may wonder what sort of people are looking during the Christmas season. There is a good chance that people who have kids in school will wait until Christmas break to move, so if you haven’t mentioned local schools in your ad, do so!

People who will want to see your property are not going to be time-wasters. These are generally highly qualified tenants who are serious, but not desperate. There is a good chance that these tenants (even if there are not very many) will be keen to formalise the agreement quickly and move in.

An Ad Santa Will Approve Of

Tenants looking for a house to rent at this time can be understandably frustrated from checking unattended ads. The sites are still active (the Internet doesn't take Christmas off), but after following up on a few ads and finding no agents to take their calls, tenants will begin to lose patience. Add something like “INSPECT THIS PROPERTY OVER CHRISTMAS” in capitals to your ad’s heading to really get their attention.

One of the great things about using Rent My Estate is that it is so simple to change and update your ad. Just log on to your account, make the changes you want, and in a couple hours the changes will be made on all of the sites.

Be Ready to Service the Calls

An important reason to find a tenant for your own property is that you can give it more personal attention than an agent will. Tenants will understand that you have family obligations during this time of the year, so they will really appreciate your efforts to accommodate them for inspections. Be sure to have a rental application ready for them to fill out!

We have a whole page dedicated to answering your questions about advertising your property. Click here to take a look, then click the button ‘Sign Up’ at the top right hand corner when you're ready to start creating your ad.

If you already have tenants, now is a good time to show that you appreciate them by sending a card with movie vouchers or a gift certificate to a local restaurant. Merry Christmas and Happy Renting!