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How to Attract High-Quality Tenants

In our previous article, we talked about using rental payment reporting as a way to reduce delinquencies while increasing your net operating income. Today, we’d like to show you how you can frame up our program in a way that helps you market your properties to potential high-quality renters. In a nutshell, you can highlight the fact that you report to the bureaus and attract higher quality applicants who are looking to build or improve their credit scores.

Benefits of reporting rental history

Yes, reporting rental payment history is a way to keep tenants accountable and paying on time. It’s also a way to provide better visibility into a renter’s payment history if prior property managers have been reporting. Our program is a way for you to give credit where credit is due, reinforcing timely payment behaviors while reducing your risks of delinquencies, defaults, and evictions. While all of those things benefit you as a property manager, future tenants you’re marketing to may see reporting their rental payment history as potentially negative.

So today, let’s focus on how you market to potential tenants, and how you can frame rental payment reporting up as a positive aspect that sets your property apart from others.

How Does Reporting Rental History Attract Higher Quality Prospects?

As a property manager, you want to keep vacancies low. You want to rent to responsible tenants. You screen them, check their credit and ask for references. You do these things to try to find the best quality residents and reduce the risk of delinquencies and the possibility of evictions. Now, some tenants may not care much about late payments and delinquencies showing up on their credit reports. Higher quality applicants ARE concerned with their credit scores. For them, the things that show up on their credit reports DO matter. They know that a higher score can mean a better interest rate on their credit cards and that improving their credit score can mean a better loan at an auto dealer.

Highlighting rental payment reporting

So in your marketing materials, let them know that you report rental payment information to the credit bureaus. Highlight the fact that their on-time payments will lead to improvements to their credit scores. For those tenants who are concerned with their credit scores, this transparency will be a selling point for them. And for you, it will be an extra way to screen potential residents.

Let me leave you with a few examples:

Whether you advertise vacancies online or in print, try leading with that information in your headline, like this:

Build your credit while you rent here!

or

Improve your credit by paying your rent on time

or

Pay your rent on time? Get credit with the bureaus here

or

Bump up your credit score by paying your rent on time. Ask us how!

As an alternative, mention something about rental reporting or credit score improvement in your description of the property. At this time, odds are good that your ad will be the only one mentioning anything about improving credit scores. That’s just the thing to pique the curiosity of the type of tenant who cares about the things that show up on their credit report.

So, set your properties apart from others by appealing to those higher quality tenants. Let them know there’s an added benefit if they rent from you. Focus on the positive aspects to encourage them to rent from you, pay on time, and bump their credit scores up. And if you need more ideas on how to leverage our program as a marketing tool, we’d be happy to brainstorm with you as we get you set up.

Find out more at www.rentalpaymentreporting.com or contact Dave Haldi at 888-657-2484 and mention that you’re an AAOA member!

Dave Haldi is CEO of Trade Line Credit Solutions. The company’s Rental Payment Reporting service gives property owners and managers a new tool to incentive timely rent payments, while helping residents build credit.