Newsletters are one of those aspects of property management that can swing either way. Depending upon your business and goals, newsletters can either go a long way toward improving and growing your business or, frankly, result in a relatively low payoff for a lot of effort on your part. So how do you know where you fall along the spectrum? Following are some ideas to keep in mind that will help determine whether a newsletter is a good business strategy for you and your property management business.

Newsletters offer a great medium for getting information out there in a regular and proactive manner. Rather than requiring people to actively take the time to come to your website, a newsletter gets the information you want spread right into their inbox. Generally speaking, property managers want to get three primary forms of information out there: 1) vacancies, 2) company marketing information, and 3) information that affects tenants such as policies and procedures and property updates. With this in mind, although you ultimately want to spread all three varieties of information, the best medium for doing this is not uniform across the spectrum. Let’s look at each of these areas specifically.

No: Advertising Vacancies
Advertising vacancies is one of those scenarios that is most often best handled through mediums other than newsletters. For newsletters to work optimally, you need a targeted mailing list. By its very nature, it would be almost impossible to formulate (much less keep updated) a list of potential tenants. When it comes to advertising vacancies, your best route is not a newsletter, but websites that are targeted to potential tenants: Craigslist, RentWiki, RentalHomePros, and the rental section of your local online news publications.

Yes: Marketing Your Property Management Company
If you’re looking to grow your property management clients and forward your business’ reputation, newsletters can be a great resource. They allow you to get your company’s name in front of both existing and potential clients on a regular basis and to show off your stuff.

Rather than overtly pitching for business, woo clients by letting them know what you’ve accomplished (for example, ACME Property Management has lowered vacancy rates for our new clients by an average of 20% within the first six months). Position yourself as an industry expert by including e-news articles on topics that property owners will be interested in. You can even provide links to other recent news articles written by other sources to take the work out of news-gathering for your clients or potential clients.

Maybe: Tenant Information
The answer to this last one is more subjective than the others. As we’ve touched on previously, keeping clients informed is an essential part of keeping your properties running as smoothly and efficiently as possible. So is a newsletter the best way to share this information? The answer is: maybe. If you manage multiple properties or a single complex with a particularly large number of tenants, newsletters may be a good way to get information out there quickly and en masse. But if, for example, you run a single property that only houses ten units, chances are you’ll be much more efficient by jotting off a memo and distributing it in tenant mailboxes.

Determining whether or not newsletters are right for you and your business is another one of those occasions that presents a good opportunity for you to sit down and revisit your business goals and strategies. Our best advice? If you are actively looking to recruit new properties to your portfolio and expand your company’s reputation, newsletters may just be the best route for you.

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Earlier this week we discussed the three online rental sites you can’t afford to miss, but didn’t write about the additional resources these sites offer. Read on to find out about the many resources at your finger tips.

• RentWiki offers a great apartment advice blog, brimming with interesting information about industry happenings.
• Follow @Rentwiki on Twitter to stay up to date with RentWiki news.
• NARPM® members receive added benefits from Rental Home Pros.  Click here to learn more.
• Gone are the days of Craigslist geographic specificity. Residents can now search all of Craiglist.
• Although OLX was not mentioned in our initial blog post, this new company has nearly $30 million in financing that says it will be the next big thing.

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In so many ways, property managers have it easier today than they did a few years ago. As opposed to earlier times when marketing vacancies generally consisted of taking an ad out in local newspapers and advertising on bulletin boards, today there are a variety of online mediums to utilize. This means more vehicles through which to market your properties and, subsequently, more visibility. Think, for example, how much easier it now is for potential tenants moving from out of town to find your properties. If there’s a downside to this increased technology, however, it’s that there are so many online rental marketing options, sometimes it’s hard to determine which ones are going to be the most advantageous to you and your business. Following are a few of our favorite online rental sites, how they work, and why you should use them.

RentWiki.com
What it is: Founded in January 2009, RentWiki may be a relative newcomer, but it has entered the online rental marketing scene with a bang. Co-founder Eric Wu attributes this site’s early success to building RentWiki around user-generated content. Wu explains, “Typical online rental sites’ information is supplied by property managers; we’re trying to build a rental search engine powered by renters.” With that in mind, RentWiki uses popular forms of online information sharing (such as wikis and social media) to provide information through peer review. Potential renters come here to find out not only about available units, but also about the things that really matter to them: a neighborhood’s vibe, social scene, and amenities.

Why you should use them: Consumers like to know they’re getting “the real deal,” and the peer review element of this site allows potential renters to get the down-low on a neighborhood from the people who will give it to them straight: residents. This means that by the time potential tenants find your listing on the site, they’ve already identified your neighborhood as one they want to live in. Chances are the referrals you get from this site will be from renters who are more educated about your neighborhood and, therefore, more likely to fill out an application. Best of all, with this site, you only pay when you get a lead (i.e., a phone call or email from an interested party). Wu encourages property managers to make the most of RentWiki by taking a couple of simple steps. “First, identify and reach out to your evangelists and have them contribute to the community.  Second, listen and engage in the feedback loop.”

RentalHomePros.com
What it is: Commissioned by the National Association of Residential Property Managers, it makes sense that, more than any other site, RentalHomePros has the best interests of property managers in mind. And part of your best interests includes creating a site where renters know they can come to find exactly the information they’re looking for. RentalHomePros.com makes it easy for renters to target their ideal property by allowing them to narrow vacancy search results down to exactly what they’re looking for (this site allows renters to get as specific as choosing whether they want a smoking or non-smoking building or a lease-to-own scenario). Best of all, it’s proactive; apartment seekers can enter in search parameters and properties that fit that criteria are sent directly to potential tenants via email as soon as a listing pops up.

Why you should use them: Because this site has property management professionals in mind first and foremost, they offer services that will benefit you. Not only do they place your listing on a number of different websites (in other words, more exposure for less work), but they also take care of all the research you need to do when listing a property—rental rates, average days on the market, rental trends, and more can be found on RentalHomePros.com. Mike Nelson, president of Rental Home Professionals, explains, “[The site is] designed to set property managers apart from the competition by offering access to information that other property managers simply don’t have.  Our statistics engine, comparative market analysis reporting, and market vacancy utilities allow a property manager to make better, more informed decisions, in a more professional manner, with the kind of immediate response property owners so often demand.  To maximize your chance for success, use RentalHomePros.com for what it is: much, much more than an advertising engine.”

Craigslist.org
What it is: As the eighth most-visited website in America with an average of fifty million unique visitors per month, chances are you already know what Craigslist is. Founded in 1995, Craiglist ranks among the few early websites that have consistently stood the test of time. This simple site is a hub for all things classified, broken down by city or region.

Why you should use them: Online users are programmed to go to Craigslist—after all, they’ve been doing it for years. No matter what area of the country they live in, this is one of the few websites potential renters know to go to (no Googling required) to find a comprehensive list of available units. Which means you need to be there based on sheer numbers. Also of note, Craigslist postings are free to you (with the exception of apartment listings in New York City, which are $10 per listing). For tips on writing successful Craiglist postings, check out our post on writing online listings that sell.

Of course, it’s also important to utilize any local online marketing sites that have a proven track record and offer efficient and affordable marketing options. Combined with the use of any or all of the above sites, filling vacancies has never been easier.

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We’ve all heard it before (including in the previous blog post): Location, location, location. The more you know about a neighborhood, the better you can feel about your real estate investments and properties. Use the following links to hep organize your location search strategies.

• David Cowgill begins 5 Steps In Helping Choose an Investment Property Location with those three famous words: Location, location, location.
• Learn what residents are saying about local neighborhoods.  RentWiki.com is a user-generated service that provides social info about neighborhoods.
• Homebuying tips can also be applied to investment properties. About.com explains what homebuyers should look for in a location when searching for a new home.
• Learn more about an area’s demographics by searching the U.S. Census Bureas’ website for data.
• Test the public transportation in an area with Google Transit. Map the best routes from prospective investment properties to area landmarks.

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