How do Mainland landlords find renters?

Selling land or filling up estates is easy because you've got land search. But if you are doing mainland residential rentals, how do you get the word out? What works best for ya?

I found sending a notice within the land rental group notifying current renters a space is available works well. People refer their friends.

Also placing what is available in your profile works good.

In addition you can post a thread in the classifieds in the various forums.

Post on the forums and put the SLURL in your signature

Genius!

I think I'm going to do a finder's fee offer.

You can also put out a classified and list it under search for property rentals. The only rentals I have now are on the mainland on a really nice waterway sim on the OLD cont. to boot. Still have that one last rental to fill

Very good Question. Im still looking for that answer.

I count mostly on my goodwill and word of mouth, and the few who stumble in.

More important to me is keeping my current residents happy, so i dont need to find new renters.

Classified ads are not very productive for me.

Natural search has seemed to work best, IMHO


shameless self promotion in the forums Is just plain wrong, so i wont tell anyone I have plots in Gyala for rent at 1.5l$ per meter, per month...

Unfortunately, the very best secrets for finding tenants for your properties probably won't be broadcast in a public forum, since those wisest landlords are competing for your tenants.

But seriously my philosophy is 1) Create a reason for people to want to be there in that sim, and then 2) "work it" by inviting people there in your daily SL social life, and let the word spread. I don't feel that this is abusing people's friendships, since I'd want to take them to beautiful places anyway, whether I own the sim or not.

I'm a person who loves the culture of SL and is immersed in it daily, rather than someone who uses SL for money, so this is easy and fun for me. I would imagine that a person only interested in making money would find this difficult to do. I'm not sure which type you are, Raymond.

I'm not sure I'd waste time with a link in the signature (in this forum). I think of a signature as something that appears every time you post, and grabs people's attention; not something that you have to go and find. It took me 2 months before I bothered to figure out where signatures were and go find one, and I'm a hardcore SL'er!

Natural search, is still the most honest

It would be good if rentals were added to the land search for both estates and mainland. It's so time consuming if you want to rent land jumping around the grid to find those you don't have to buy. I really don't know where to look for mainland rentals apart from the few who put them on the forums, unless of course not many do rent due to being hard to find the tenants with no system in place.

There's a facility in-world in Oggy called 'Rental Central' which has been going for some months now (find it in Classifieds). It allows both Mainland and Estate landlords to rent a small booth to display their Rental Vendor and notecard giver etc.

The theory is that they pay for an expensive Classified with keywords to attract potential tenants, who have a one-stop-shop to find a house or commercial property, rather than you as the landlord having to pay for a classified.

Rents are relatively low, so even moderate success will pay for it quite quickly.

I have reasonable traffic at my Card Store (which is on the same sim as my rentals), and have placed a Vendor outside that. I've found that the combination of that and Rental Central has produced as good results as I used to get from Classifieds, so I've stopped paying for an Ad.

HTH.

I've got a whole list of forums that someone else gave me to advertise in.

I could email them to you if you have an address for your avatar.

IM or PM me if you want the list.

Classifieds.

Will do.

Not to reveal my ignorance, but what do people mean by "natural search"?

Raymond if you've gone with hippotech there's a place called "Rental Central" where you can put up a vendor. I've picked up a few renters and enquiries that way, I think it's L$50 a week.
They have signposts for adverts for mainland, estate, commercial, residential and property.

Also consider writing some low cost classifieds and putting them in the land rental section. Take a photo of your land and upload it or use a company logo, I prefer a photo of the land as that's what I look for when I'm looking for land but plenty of others just use one logo.

Establish "your" (avatar's) reputation

The best way to earn money within Secondlife is to build a good solid reputation, whether you be a landbaron, or a small business owner. Long term avatars create a well known name for themselves and yes word of mouth (and voice) does get around in SL. Of course there will always be those who will do anything for a buck, but they disappear quickly and end up paying yet again for another membership for their new avatar. Some people can afford to do this, but no founding business reputation is ever achieved.

Try to integrate your AV name into the land rental listing... people who read the forums at all will recognize Raymond Figtree and probably will trust a rental from you more than a rental from just anybody.

Will your rental plots have pre-made houses on them or will you be letting people build whatever structure they want? You should make a rental covenant to make sure people don't make your tropical paradise look like sh*t.

Create also a website, or free blogspot, wordpress, SL blog etc for people to view information.

It is allowed in Forums to post a Homepage URL in your profile.
Quick Links.........Edit Profile............Home Page URL

That way if anyone clicks on your name and wishes to view your profile they can also visit your home page if they choose to.

If one has storefronts or mall locations, or friends who do, a one-prim sign that distributes a notecard description and a landmark can bring in a few renters--and if it's the right mall or storefront, the customer demographic might fit the target for the rental property.

i do the forum & search listing, but only have a couple of renters yet. i think it just takes a lot of persistence.

i made a park and garden outside my little enclosed mall thinking that would attract tenants... thinking the tenants can host events there.

was that a waste of prims?

just a simple listing in the about land tab, like "land for rent" or Apartment condo for rent or lease"

no classifieds or spinnig ads, basically no real marketing beyond the basic description

Thanks for the good words about Rental Central.

I started Rental Central for these reasons:

1) new tenants often told me they had been looking for days for a home
2) I had a shiny new Hippo rental vendor and there was nowhere to put it.

One point of correction: you do NOT have to be a Hippo user to join Rental Central.

My hope is to bring landlords and tenants together in a pleasant environment. Since we opened in April we have grown steadily and now occupy a quarter of the Oggy sim at 350m.

It pays to invest in people. Many rental tenants are new to SL. If a noob lands on your doorstep and you help them, they may come back and rent from you. If you are patient and helpful, your existing tenants will bring their friends to rent from you. Be fair and consistent with financial transactions. If you make a mistake, own up to it and fix it.

Business ethics also matter; an SL Landlords group recently formed and may become a vehicle for developing a code of conduct.

You can list your rentals in search "places" and "classifieds".

3Ring, I say that beautifying Second Life is never a waste of prims.

As far as whether it will make or break a potential lease, it depends on the tenant, really. Some want a beautiful location, and others only care about their own space and how many prims they get. I prefer the former type of tenant, myself.