Having vacancies for too long can be bad for business, they can reduce cashflow, customer satisfaction, and employee morale. No matter how well you advertise or how well you maintain your customer relationships there will be turnover and vacancies. While it’s less than ideal, it’s not an impossible situation.

Here are 5 strategies to reduce the time units spend vacant:

Preventative Action

While tenant retention doesn’t help fill vacant units faster it can help to reduce the number of vacancies in your portfolio and encourage customers to stick around for the long run. To do this property managers can negotiate long term lease agreements, offer reduced rents for resigning or other discounts to management fees. Ask customers for feedback as to why they chose their unit and draw attention in listing to those elements. If your tenants widely agree on a particular value of your organization’s service, for example: on site gyms and pools, don’t neglect to features those elements in your online listings. It’s important to gather this information before you need it, to have it readily available as soon as a unit becomes vacant.

Prompt Posting

List your vacancies as soon as possible, it may seem obvious but the sooner a vacant unit is listed the more time it will have to draw attention of prospects. Every second units are vacant they should also be listed online so listings can be garnering as much attention as possible. Automation can facilitate the process of posting units immediately depending on your online property management software but the best systems will allow property managers to automatically issue pre-configured listings including photos and descriptions to their websites as soon as units are vacant.

Incentivized Referrals

Encourage your current residents who are happy with your customer service to refer your company to their friends and family. Recommendations are one of the most effective types of marketing because it involves conveying your message through people your prospects trust. An average of 80% or more of every age demographic from the Silent Generation to Generation Z, trusts recommendations and research shows that customers acquired through referrals have 37% higher retention rate than others. Offering discounts or other incentives to your customer to bring new prospects can not only help fill vacancies with good, trustworthy tenants but also help to retain your original customers.

List your Units in Multiple Spaces

On average 50% of marketers that use a multi-channel approach will reach their targets so it’s important to occupy listings on social media, corporate websites, and even community classifieds. This doesn’t mean that property management companies should oversaturate their online feeds with listings, but it should be part of their marketing and media strategy.

Focus on Value

No matter how many places if a property management company advertises available units it won’t be effective unless prospects can derive some form of value for themselves. People looking to make long term or high valued purchases do research before they commit so ensure to showcase what matters to your prospects. Let them know how much space they’ll be getting, use pictures and videos to show they can use that space and involve staging professionals. If your property management goes beyond the bare minimum showcase that not just on listings but on your websites and social media.