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Student Accomodation, Homes For Rent, Rental Home Apartments, Rental Homes for Western University (UWO) and Fanshawe College Students in London, Ontario

Landlords: How to Market Your (Student) Rental Property to Find Great Tenants 

6/2/2014

 
Landlords need to stop putting a “for rent” right on their property.

Gone are the days of families driving by on a weekend looking for a “for rent” sign or students walking on their way to school and looking at a property and wondering if they can come through for a showing. Signs usually erode over time, get knocked over, vandalized, fall apart, and this reflects poorly on your property. Although some Landlords like to take on the responsibility of renting out their house, they need to go about it the right away. Here are some tips on how to market you rental property to find a qualified set of tenants:

1.       Pictures

Pictures are literally worth a thousand words. If you are just taking pictures from your old flip phone and posting them on the internet, then you have major problems. Landlords need to take high definition, quality photographs of each room from multiple angles and lighting. This also includes the exterior and backyard of the property. We usually take 100 photos of the property and only post are best 10 on the website or classified ad sights including deleting 90% of photos and editing the photos to make the house look its best. Pictures are your first impression of the property. If you cannot handle this as an owner, then you need to hire a professional photographer who can accomplish this task for you.

2.       Video

Videos follow in the same footsteps as pictures. Several short clips of the main areas (kitchen, bathrooms, etc.) need to be stitched together, along with the great photographs, to create a video that can be hosted on YouTube and embedded on all the social media and classified ad websites to give more information to a prospective tenant.

3.       Description

Most of the time Landlords post very short ads on classified websites. They usually put up a few low quality photos and have a description that says “beautiful family home renovated call John between 5-8 at 555-555-5555 for a showing.” This is not enough. A heartfelt description of the kitchen, bathrooms, common areas, bedrooms, exterior, parking, appliances and upgrades need to all is laid out in plain English when advertising. The description will limit the “noise” or those perspective tenants who are just kicking tires on your property.

4.       Social Media

Social media websites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, LinkedIn, etc. need to be harnessed to successfully engage with prospective tenants. Your social media needs to be streamlined with services such as Hoot Suite, to make your social presence on all platforms efficient. Social media will provide your potential customers with another method of contacting you, as well as providing your ads or website with links back to your website which helps out with search engine optimization.

5.       Be Responsive

You can have the best photos, videos, descriptions, and social media presence in the world. If you are not responsive with your prospective tenants, you will never rent out your property. Setting up a specific time frame for tenants to get back to you is a definitely a bad move. Whether it’s an email, text message, phone call, voice mail, or a message on a social media platform, they should all be responded to within 6 hours, or 12 hours if it was sent overnight.

There it is! Renting out your property is not rocket science. If you are not able to successfully complete these five steps, then you need to re-evaluate your priorities and hire a company who is able to accomplish this task. If you are looking for a rental agent in London Ontario, then you have come to the right place.

Western University London Ontario University Investment: The Do’s and Don’ts List

2/5/2014

 
Several Landlords have called me recently to discuss a potential investment at Western University for a townhouse or single family residential property and rent it out to students. This is not as easy as it looks. Below is a short list of the do’s and don’ts of purchasing a university investment property in London, Ontario.

DO: Consult with other Landlords in the area.

Talking to Landlords who own student rental properties in the area you are looking at will give you a great idea as to what it takes to have a winning product. They will let you know the challenges of the neighborhood, and how to overcome them. They are knowledgeable and have real world experience of the tenants, rent prices, amenities, and geographic area. 

DON’T: Buy a house that when you close on it, is not rented.

There is no reason to buy a university investment property in London, Ontario without it being rented for ideally 12 months after you purchase it. The reason why it’s an investment is because it is generating income, and if you buy a university investment in London Ontario that is only rented it for 1 or 2 months (or even empty) when you take it over you better be getting a huge discount on the price. The only exception to this rule is if you are an experienced Landlord, and you are going to buy the house, upgrade/renovate, rent, and have the tenants move in. This should take a maximum of 60 days to complete otherwise you are losing money on carrying costs. 

DO: Call a property rental and management company PRIOR to buying your investment property

Sometimes I get a call from new Landlord saying “Hello I bought this property on ________ street in London because my Realtor said it’s a great university investment area. Can you find students to rent out the house for me?” Sometimes they bought the house in the right area, for the right price, that is updated, that is a natural student rental property. Sometimes, these properties are 5-10 KM away from the campus, in a run-down area, with no student rental in the neighborhood. By making a phone call to a property rental company in London, Ontario that specialized in Western University student accommodation, you might save yourself a lot of time, money and effort as we can tell you where to buy your property, and what you need to do to make it attractive for students to rent your house. 

DON’T: Buy a student rental property in London, Ontario without a Residential Landlord License

The City of London enacted a by-law in 2010 that regulates all London Ontario University/College student accommodation housing. Landlords need to obey the rules and make sure they are up to date with their rental license. Buying a property that already has a residential landlord license is much easier than trying to get one yourself because there may be a lot of retrofitting/upgrades that can cost thousands of dollars prior to getting the license. 

Average Student Rental Fanshawe College House For Rent Accommodation in London On – Prices!

2/2/2014

 
Picture
Above is an image of the average prices of homes for rent around Fanshawe College student accommodation housing bubble in London, Ontario. I will provide a little bit of insight in regards to these numbers and begin to justify them. First, the Fanshawe College Off Campus Housing service does not provide average rental prices for different types of accommodation, so these numbers were developed based off our experience and research of the local student rental market at Fanshawe College.

1 or 2 Bedroom Apartments – As you can tell, it costs more per person to live with less people. For a 1 bedroom apartment by yourself it’s $700 + utilities, for a 1 bedroom in a 6 bedroom house could be as low as $420 all in. The apartments across the street from Fanshawe College are usually full and not extremely popular with Fanshawe Students. Fanshawe College students are usually looking for a basement in a house or an apartment closer to Oxford/Richmond area. The drawbacks of an apartment are that they are expensive student accommodation, you need to pay your own utilities, and they are further away than single family residential homes

3 or 4 Bedroom Houses – It is difficult to find a 3 bedroom house at Fanshawe College. Usually a 3 bedroom houses is the upper floor of a single family residential house. Four bedroom homes are usually townhouses on Second or Third Street in London, ON which target Fanshawe College students. The 4 bedroom student accommodation at Fanshawe College provide really good value: short walk to school, all inclusive, usually 2 full bathrooms, and living only with 3 others for a great price. The three bedroom houses do cost a little bit more and there be another group/individual sharing the house.

5 or 6 Bedroom Houses – Five bedroom student rental accommodation homes for rent are the most popular with the Fanshawe College students in London, ON. The houses on Fleming, Prosperity, Farnsborough, Thurman, First Street, Mardell, Hyman, Mark, etc. are all popular student home for rent locations. The 5 bedroom houses at Fanshawe are so popular because: students enjoy living in larger groups, the houses are usually 2 blocks from campus, they come all inclusive, usually have 2-2.5 full bathrooms, and all of this for a decent price. The price and location cannot be beat on the five bedroom Fanshawe College student homes for rent. The 6 bedroom houses are a little more rare to find, usually have  1 or 2 rooms that are significantly smaller than the others, and sometimes it is really difficult living in a smaller homes with six Fanshawe College students.

As you can see, student accommodation and homes for rent for Fanshawe College students is difficult to organize because it is so fragmented. There are homes for rent, apartments for rent in London, and student accommodation that all have different Landlords who offer different properties, prices, services, leases, etc. 


AVERAGE STUDENT RENTAL PRICES AT UWO WESTERN UNIVERSITY STUDENT ACCOMODATION IN LONDON, ONTARIO – OFFICIAL STATISTICS!

1/30/2014

 
There are several hundred student rental properties available for Western University students at the moment. It is a difficult time navigating school, social life, your current living situation, and organizing a group to live with starting on May 1. Add in searching online for houses, making appointments, going to showings, the frozen temperature, and you don’t have a recipe for success. What we have done here is tried to make your life a little bit easier. Below are the average rental prices of student accommodation what you are going to pay for (all inclusive) at Western University in London, Ontario:

Average Student Rental Western University (UWO) London Ontario including Apartments:

Bachelor Apartment: $549

1 Bedroom Apartment: $682 ($772 Downtown)

2 Bedroom Apartment: $456 (each person)

3 Bedroom House: $458 (each person)

4 Bedroom House: $463 (each person)

5 Bedroom House (and up): $464 (each person

Now, we don’t necessarily agree with these statistics. They are provided by all of the listing on the UWO Western University Off Campus Housing Website. These prices can increase by 30% depending on location (i.e East London vs. Downtown). As of right now, here is a more realistic perspective on how much we observe average student rental prices near Western University in London, Ontario including Apartments:

Bachelor Apartment: $565

1 Bedroom Apartment: $1000 + utilities. 

2 Bedroom Apartment:  $900 + utilities (each person)

3 Bedroom House: $450 (shared) $550 (free standing house) each person

4 Bedroom House: $460 – 550 + utilities each person

5 Bedroom House (and up): $475 – 550 (each person)

As you can see these prices are a little bit higher, but once you focus on densely populated student areas in London (Old North, Near West, Masonville, Downtown, etc.) the prices for student accommodation rise dramatically. The reason for this rise is because the cost of living in these areas is higher, and this housing (especially new apartment buildings) are all updating, renovating, adding amenities that make their units very attractive for Western University students. 

    Author

    Core Property Rentals and Management's Advice on Student Rental Properties at Fanshawe College and Western University in London, Ontario, Canada.

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