Starting a Business
Starting an Apartment & Home Rental Business
Launching an apartment and home rental business is your ticket to owning a good, stable business if you have the creativity and tenacity necessary to be a successful entrepreneur. Here are nuts-and-bolts information to give you a jump-start on planning for your business.
We've assembled a number of pertinent advice on how to go about opening an apartment and home rental business.
Preparing for a Rental Business Startup
Over the past few years, apartment and home rentals have skyrocketed due to the recession and tighter mortgage lending requirements. Consequently, new apartments and rental units are entering the market everyday, creating opportunities for emerging apartment and home rental businesses to enter the marketplace.
As a rental agency, your business will serve as an intermediary between landlords and renters. The process of identifying and qualifying rental applicants is time-consuming. In order to streamline their business models, landlords outsource these tasks to professionals. If you're preparing for a rental business launch, it's important to understand the local rental landscape and the trends that are affecting rental decisions.
Developing a Rental Inventory
A rental startup begins with landlords, not renters. The idea is to build an inventory of relationships with apartment complexes and residential home landlords so you'll have units to advertise to renters. If you're successful, your landlords will pay you a commission on each unit you rent.
When you are looking for units to rent, you can elect to either cover the entire market or specialize in a market niche (e.g. high-end rental units, single-family residences, etc.). If you decide to cover the entire market, your rental inventory should include a diverse mix of options and price ranges so you can accommodate a broad spectrum of renters. If you specialize, you will need to dominate your niche, meaning that you will need to represent all (or nearly all) of the landlords and complexes in your rental category.
Attracting Renters
Your relationships with rental complexes and landlords are foundational to your business. But your relationships with renters are what really drive revenue and profits. Networking can be beneficial, however most rental businesses regular advertise their vacancies in local classifieds and rental publications.
In the Digital Age, many prospective renters rely on the Internet as their primary source of local rental listings. Some geographies offer regional websites geared toward rental listings; others offer no central online database of available properties. Either way, it's important to maintain an up-to-date business website with a listing of your properties and contact information, even if you also list your properties on the regional site. It's also helpful to offer a mechanisms for renters to submit applications directly from your website.
How to Write an Effective Apartment & Home Rental Company Business Plan
A business plan isn't just another startup formality. It's a core business document that will guide your apartment and home rental business's decisions and activities on a go-forward basis.
Accuracy and an eye for detail count when writing a business plan. Fudging the numbers is the equivalent of sabotaging your apartment and home rental business's strategic interests.
Instead, commit to creating the most precise business plan possible. As a further guide, consider what the experts say about business plan writing.
Check Out the Competition
Prior to launching an apartment and home rental business in your area, it's a good idea to determine how strong the competition is. Use the link below to get a list of local competitors nearby. After following the link, enter your city, state and zip code to get a list of apartment and home rental businesses in your area.
Gain a knowledge of how existing firms have positioned themselves in the marketplace, and then design your business in a way that sets you apart from the others.
Getting Advice from Experienced Entrepreneurs
Once you've finished assessing the competion, you really ought to learn as much as you can from somebody who is already in the business. If you think owners of nearby apartment and home rental businesses will give you advice, think again. Why would they want to educate a future competitor?
However, an entrepreneur who owns an apartment and home rental business in a location that is not competitive to you may be more than happy to give you a few tips, given that you don't compete with them in their area. In that case, the business owner may be more than happy to discuss the industry with you. In my experience, you may have to call ten business owners in order to find one who is willing to share his wisdom with you.
How does one quickly and easily locate an apartment and home rental business entrepreneur outside of your area who is willing to talk?
Here's one way to do it. Just use our link below, find somebody and call them.
Guidelines for an Apartment & Home Rental Business Acquisition
It's fairly common for apartment and home rental business entrepreneurs to gain entry through a business acquisition.
An acquisition isn't necessarily a bed of roses. You'll need to thoroughly evaluate the factors involved with buying a business. First and foremost, it's important to make sure the business is the right fit for your personal and professional goals.
If the business is right for you, the assistance of a business broker will help all of the rest of the pieces of the process fall in place and you will be well on your way to owning a proven apartment and home rental business.
Consider Franchising
The probabilities on your being a successful business owner are greatly increased when you opt to franchise rather than going it alone.
If you are thinking about opening an apartment and home rental business, a smart move is to check out whether franchising might help you avoid common entrepreneurial mistakes.
The link below gives you access to our franchise directory so you can see if there's a franchise opportunity for you. You might even find something that points you in a completely different direction.
Entrepreneur Interviews
These interviews should be of interest to you.
- Interview with Dennis P. Fassett, Founder of Great Lakes Investment Fund and the Cash Flow Mercenary
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