The current state of the rental market in Penrith and surrounding areas is seeing property vacancy periods soar. Here are a few tips to reduce your vacancy period for the savvy investor. 

1) Listen to advice given by your Property Manager

Your Property Manager is the best point of reference for what the market is doing at the time that your property becomes vacant. Because they manage many properties similar to yours, they will quickly be able to tell you the price point or the demands of the prospective tenants who are out looking for a new place to live. 

This may mean that you have to spend some money or some time revamping your investment property, or you may also need to consider a price reduction to ensure those applications come flowing in. Whatever it may be, try to be open-minded and take the advice of your Property Manager seriously because a long vacancy period can be costly to a landlord. 

2) Re-think your marketing strategy

With over 1000 properties sitting vacant in the Greater Penrith region right now, your advertisement needs to hit the bullseye. Treat your rental marketing the way you would treat a simple online purchase. What makes you click on an item and spend more time looking at it? Is it quality photographs? Is it the price point? Is it the fact that you have been part of a clever digital marketing campaign where you have been targeted and re-targeted until you click on the link? 

Your agent should be able to tell you the best strategy for getting people to look at your advertisement over the multiple other listings you are competing with. We don't expect you to know how many people visit real estate websites or even how they use them. But we know because it is our job to know, and an agent who markets your property strategically from the beginning is going to save you money in the long term on both vacancy periods and re-advertising fees. 

3) Forget the status quo

You may have had your investment property for many years and think you know how it all works. While you no doubt do have considerable experience and knowledge, the one thing you must never forget is that the property market is constantly changing. It can change slowly over a period of time, or it can change rapidly and without warning. Just because you rented your property for a certain price 12 months ago doesn't mean today you will fetch the same amount of rent. 

If you can try to be flexible with the type of tenant you are willing to lease your property to, or even flexible around the amount of rent you are willing to receive - these are the landlords that are experiencing shorter vacancy periods.

If you want to know more about reducing your property's vacancy period, give our team of award-winning Property Managers a call on (02) 4731 2899