Fliers Sell Houses!

A few years ago, I found myself in the unenviable position of having SEVEN vacant rental properties (ouch!). The typical newspaper ads were not pulling enough calls, and many of the callers were Section 8 tenants (barf!).

Nauseous at the thought of forking out another $4,500 on vacant properties next month, I decided to pull out an old, but underutilized technique… the paper flier. I made hundreds of fliers on my computer in various colors. I included a map with directions on the flier (thanks to www.mapquest.com). I had them distributed on car windshields in every shopping mall, supermarket and church parking lot within a mile radius of the rentals.

Did I get some nasty calls from people who didn’t appreciate the flier on their windshield? Sure, but who gives a hoot? Fliers sell houses! Read all about it in my Marketing For Motivated Sellers Course.

Here’s another bonus for fliers: you can legally discriminate using them. We all know that you cannot advertise for families, because it is discriminatory against single people. We also know that a family with kids is less likely to break a lease early than a single person (I don’t need statistics to tell me this, for I know that the thought of packing up my kids’ crap is enough to make me want to NEVER move!).

HERE’S THE POINT: If you place your fliers in places that families visit, your chances of finding a family to rent are increased. Rather than a blind ad in the newspaper, put fliers on windshields of cars parked at Bennigan’s & Chili’s Restaurants (who else would eat at such horrid places?). Place flyers in church parking lots, schools and Toys ’R Us. The law says you can’t STATE who you want as a tenant in your flier, but it doesn’t prohibit where you distribute the fliers!

Best of luck! If you are just beginning in real estate, having a good mentor and/or attorney can really be of benefit!