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When is the Best Time to Rent Out Your Property?

Renting Your House Out? Best Time of Year to Rent Out a San Diego Property

In San Diego, the best time to rent out a house is April through September. This is when there’s the most activity and more people in the market. Renting out your house during this peak season will bring you a better price for your property. So, we recommend that you try to schedule your leases to expire during these months.

Best Way to Rent Your House in Low Seasons

If you happen to have a vacancy during the low season, you need to compete with other rental properties on the market. Let’s say you are vacant in December, which is a bad month to have a vacancy. You’ll need to be more competitive on what you offer.

The property that rents is the best home at the best price. One thing you can do is be open to pets. That will help you attract more tenants. In San Diego, 50% of renters have pets, so you’ll increase demand by 100% if you’re open to pets. Look at improving your curb appeal and see if you can upgrade the appliances you’re including in your lease. Try to do whatever you can to make yours the best available property.

Best Way to Rent Your House: Pricing

In slow seasons, you may have to prepare to get 5% and sometimes up to 10% less rent than you’d get in the high season. Even if you make improvements to your property and you open it up to pets, you may need to be more competitive because of demand.

Additional Things to Consider When Renting Your House

If you’re near a college, timing is even more important. Leases run with the school year, so you want to list in April or June so your leases will start in July or August. In early October, you’re still okay because things don’t start slowing down until Halloween. After Thanksgiving, they really get slow. March is okay too, but not ideal. Everything gets better and the market is more active in April.

San Diego has year-round great weather, so it’s not like Minneapolis where there’s nothing going on in the winter. You can still rent in the winter, but it’s better to have your leases expire in the summer.

When we do have a vacancy in December, we have tried to market for a 6 or 18 month lease so it would expire in the better rental season. But most tenants are comfortable with the standard one year lease, and we found different lease periods would turn them off. We recommend you offer them an initial term of 1 year then do a good job of managing the property so your tenant wants to renew.

When it’s time to renew, you can offer a 6 month or 18 month option. Try different price points. You can offer a shorter term lease for more money or a longer lease at less rent, to entice them to sign for a longer term.

For an accurate report on your home’s rental value, check out our instant rent estimator!

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Steve Welty

Steve Welty is the founder and CEO of Good Life Property Management. Since its establishment in 2013, Steve and his team have made owning rental property easy for over 1,000 San Diego homeowners.Their purpose is Life Improved–creating opportunity, enjoyment, and impact for their community is what matters most. DRE #01744610

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Tagged getting your home rented, landlord tips

Hello! My name is Steve Welty, I’m the broker/owner of Good Life Property Management, where we manage single-family homes, condos, and apartment buildings throughout the Greater San Diego area. Today, we’re going to be talking about what is the best time of year to rent your San Diego rental property. So what is the rental season? In San Diego, it’s generally April through September. This is when there’s the most activity, the most people in the market, so you’re usually going to get a much better price if you schedule your leases to expire during this peak rental season. So if you happen to have a vacancy during the slow season though, let’s say you have a vacancy in December. Very bad month generally to have a vacancy, so avoid it at all costs. But if you do, you’re just going to need to be more competitive on your offering. So the property that rents is always the best property at the best price at any given point in time. So you may want to look at maybe being open to pets to help make your offering attract more tenants. About 50% of tenants have pets in San Diego, so you increase demand by 100% by being open to pets. Or maybe you need to look at your offering, look at the curb appeal, look at the appliances you are including in your lease, see if there’s other things you can do to help make you the best property. Generally, if you’re in the slow season and you have a vacancy, your property is going to rent at least 5% to sometimes 10% less than what you would get in the high season. So even if you do improve your property or being open to pets, you’re probably going to need to market it a little more competitive because there’s less demand out there. So, a few other tips. If you happen to be by a college, timing is even that much more important. The leases generally run with the school year, so you want to be listed in April to June for your marketing, and then most of the leases will start in that July/August time frame. And then if you’re in early October, generally it doesn’t slow down until after Halloween, and then really it slows down after Thanksgiving. March is an okay month, but it’s not ideal. We do see a pick up February to March a significant amount, but it’s still not as good as it is in April. And San Diego has year round great weather, luckily, so it’s not like Minneapolis or some of these other climates where there is just nothing going on in the winter time. You can still get rented in the winter, just make sure to schedule your leases to expire in the summer when you can. Last tip, we found that when we did have a lease that expired in December, we would try to market it for like a six month lease or like an 18 month lease to try to get it to expire in the better rental season. We found most tenants are very comfortable and used to a one-year lease, so it would drive some people away because they would think we had some ulterior motive or there’s some plan maybe to sell. So my recommendation, do the one year lease if you’re in the slow rental season, but then just do a really good job of managing your property, so that way the tenant wants to stay. And then when they go to stay, you can offer them two options. Maybe like a six month option or an 18 month option. Sometimes at different price points helps. Usually you get a better price for short term. So you can offer a short term at maybe an increase rate of X, or a longer term at maybe a little bit less rent to entice them to go to that longer term. If you have any questions, please do give us a call. We’d love to help, and make it a great day!