ATTRACTING YOUR IDEAL CLIENTS
Rental housing providers, flippers, short-term rental providers and rent-to-own operators – what do they all have in common? Obviously, they’re all real estate investors, but what else? They all need customers: tenants, flip-buyers, vacation renters, and tenant buyers.
And here’s the not-so-secret truth: the game has changed.
We see it all the time in the news where business owners pivot. Or learning plans have to shift to accommodate learning gaps from the pandemic shutdowns. Or employers must adapt to prevent resignations.
Every real estate investor is facing a similar issue: our ideal clients have different expectations than they did 2 years ago. Generally people want to love their home, or their vacation home. And I mean love it as if it’s gilded in gold!
Trends matter, clean matters, and location always matters. But this means that we real estate investors need to be paying attention to our surroundings with even more vigour. What else can we do to attract our ideal clients? And this is tough for some of the penny pinchers!
But would you spend $100 to make $1000? Leverage is one of the key reasons we invest in real estate versus stocks. We invest $100,000 to buy an asset worth $500,000 (using today’s rules). But now that we own that asset, sometimes we forget to continue leveraging. Investing $100 in paint, with a little sweat equity, can easily generate $1000’s in revenue with a good tenant!
Of course it helps to know exactly who your ideal client is. However, almost everyone these days prefers an office space. In smaller properties, this can be as simple as a well-lit corner of a room. But in larger spaces, like rental houses, flips and even vacation rentals, they all benefit from one room that is multi-purpose, or one designated office space. And remember many clients are tired and stressed – make it easy for them to imagine that office space with real or virtual staging.
2021 is not the time to get stuck in our old ways. Maybe it’s time to switch out some of that 1980’s lighting? (Sorry boob lights, you had your heyday). What about updating a bathroom vanity? (Quality vanities with countertops already installed are relatively cheap – just add your plumbing fixtures). For vacation rentals and flips, kitchens are a really big deal these days. Dare we even say a deal-breaker! Do you want to spend more time searching for your ideal clients? Or do you want such a sexy product that your clients are coming to you – saving you time and energy and expensive vacancies! Personally, we would always prefer multiple offers on a flip, or multiple tenant applications to choose from.
We hear a lot about how hot the real estate market is, and how fast everything sells. Many of us understand how quickly this can change. So smart real estate investors will think about their end-users, their ideal clients. Providing the best home possible, on your budget, will attract the best tenant, vacation renter, tenant buyer or flip-buyer. And this is a great time of year to do your research with all the blogs and renovation shows and housing shows. You can pick a few upgrades, or go all in (for a flip, maybe?!). Remember, each investment property isn’t all about you! It’s about attracting the best clients possible—which then allows us to create our financial freedom.
