By Robert L. Cain, Copyright 2011 Cain Publications, Inc.

Do you see what they see? Do you see the dirty front walk? How about
the untrimmed yard? What about the trash-strewn front entrance? Or are
you so focused on why you are at your properties and what you need to
do that the rest is just a blur? If it’s all a blur, the next time you
go by, over or around, spend a few seconds looking at what prospective
tenants see.

The US Census Bureau asked tenants why they chose the home they are
living in. One in eight, 12 percent, admitted that his or her choice
was based on exterior appearance in some respect or other. That was
the main reason. Still more cited exterior appearance as a
contributing reason for their selections. On the flip side, many
prospective tenants rejected homes because their exterior appearance
didn’t meet their standards for one reason or another.

But just being conservative, are you willing to lose one out of every
eight of your prospective customers just because your property looks
sloppy, unkempt, unpainted or ill-maintained?

Many times we aren’t much of a judge of how one of our properties
looks. After all, we’ve seen them so many times that we don’t think
much about it. If you believe it couldn’t hurt to run a quick test,
here’s a trick to show your properties to you in an entirely different
light. Take a picture.

Actually, take several pictures. Take two or three from across the
street so you see the first thing a prospective tenant sees. Now get
out of your car and take pictures as you walk up to the property.

Next, find on your digital camera where you can change the pictures to
black and white. Look at the pictures you took in color, and then
change them to black and white. Is your first response, “Oh, no!”? If
so, maybe it’s time to make your properties more marketable.

It just makes good marketing sense. When you walk into a grocery store
and look up the aisles, are they neat and tidy? Is the floor mopped
and shiny? Look at the items on the shelves. They are all different
colors and designs. Do you know why?

Manufacturers spend millions of dollars marketing their products. Part
of the marketing goes to designing their packaging so it is most
appealing to their prospective customers. They study people’s buying
habits, why they buy, and what attracts them psychologically to a
package. As landlords, we don’t need to spend several thousand dollars
to have some marketing magician tell us how to make our properties’
packaging look appealing. We already know what qualities attract the
best tenants: neat, tidy and clean.

A good tenant will run for her life when she drives up in front of a
property that shows little or no pride of ownership. Possibly it is
too bad that many landlords simply don’t pay much attention to how
their properties look. Or maybe not. That gives an edge to the
landlords who do pay attention, but that’s a story for another day.

My point is this. We all need to be constantly marketing our
properties to prospective tenants even if we don’t have any vacancies
now. You see, we also market to our current tenants by showing pride
of ownership and making their homes look the way that encourages them
to continue to live there. People do judge a property by its cover,
even the ones currently living inside that cover.

Do you see what they see? Get your camera out and drive by a property
or two. Take pictures. Does what your photos show make you beam with
pride? If so, great. You have done an important part of your marketing
and that one tenant out of eight who chose her current home because of
its exterior appearance might well be your next phone call.

“Robert Cain is a nationally-recognized speaker and writer on property

management and real estate issues. For a free sample copy of the
Rental Property Reporter call 800-654-5456 or visit the web site
www.rentalprop.com <http://rentalprop.com>
.