Market and Fill Vacancies Online

Marketing our clients’ property is a vital factor of our business and comes naturally as part of our property management service. Our ultimate goal is to maximize our clients’ income property investment (see "10 ways to add value to apartment buildings in Los Angeles"). This can only be done by keeping properties rented and filling vacancies quickly with as little down time as possible.

Deciding to own income property in Los Angeles is a good investment as LA is one the hottest property rental markets in the country - renters outnumber owners by 9%. Half of LA’s population is from out-of state, and the median age of the Los Angeles renter is 32 years old earning ~$42,000/year in income (source: city-data.com/county/Los_Angeles_County_CA). This is the prime rental demographic. It is also this demographic that practically lives on the web. With approximately 80% of North America using the internet for search (source: internetsearchstatistics.com), marketing one’s business online is a necessity to remain in business. When it comes to looking for an apartment to rent, the majority of people do an online search before driving around looking for rental vacancies. For LA’s huge number of out-of-state rental prospects, this is especially the case. These prospects don’t have ability to physically look for rentals in person. Short of using an expensive rental broker, the prospects must find and rent a property using the web. First Light’s online system is designed to rent to any qualified prospect anywhere in country, with the help of virtual tours.

In our own income property business, we have seen this online trend increase dramatically in the last 10 years. Knowing that our clients demand the same things we’ve demanded from our property management companies, we’ve made a significant investment in marketing our client’s property rentals online through strategic search engine optimization, online advertisements on popular websites such as craigslist and rent.com as well as good old-fashioned “For Rent” signs. In addition to high quality photos, we often add professional walk-thru videos to property listings to bring the rental directly to the prospect. All of these strategies enable our rental prospects to easily find us, to search our database of rental properties, to see exactly what the property looks like, and to ultimately apply and submit all necessary rental paperwork through our website. 

Our Current Listings are searchable by zip code, rental prices, number of bath and bedrooms, and type (single-family, condo, apartment, etc). Studies show that the vast majority of online users, and in this case renters, are not interested in more than a few categories and will not engage or use a website form that looks too complicated or overwhelming. We keep it simple and right to the point.