Peak Rental Season: How to Prepare as a Landlord

As the summer months approach, so does the peak rental season. This is the time when tenants are either looking for their next home or renewing their lease agreement, which will warrant different next steps for you as the landlord.

To help you properly prepare for peak rental season and everything that comes with that, we outline everything you need to know for a smooth process that can increase business profits.

When Is Peak Rental Season? 

Peak rental season occurs when there are the most tenants looking for rental properties, which generally happens between May to August. There are a handful of reasons why peak rental season occurs in the summer months:

• It’s harder to move during the winter. For most of the United States, moving in the winter requires moving furniture through snow and sub-zero temperatures.
• Parents typically want to move during the summer so their children’s school year is not interrupted.
• College students prefer to sign a lease right before the school year starts.
• Graduates typically finish school in the summer and look for their next apartment post graduation.

During peak season, landlords can charge a higher rent price due to increased demand, but it’s still important to ensure your price is fair.

What Can Landlords Do To Prepare for Peak Rental Season?

To best prepare for peak rental season, complete the following five steps.

1. Determine If Your Tenants Will Renew or Move Out 60 Days in Advance

If your rental property is currently occupied, ask your tenants if they plan to renew their lease agreement or move out. Tenants planning to move out will need to provide a non-renewal lease letter that outlines by what day all of their belongings will be out of the property.

As the landlord, you will be responsible for reminding them to transition all utilities out of their name and that they’ll be responsible for cleaning the property before returning the keys. After doing this, you can officially begin the process of finding your next tenant.

2. Turnover Your Rental for the Next Tenant

Before listing your property, address any repairs or maintenance that your previous tenants have flagged. Make sure the rental property is professionally cleaned and is ready to be photographed for your listing and shown to renters during a showing.

To ensure you properly turnover your apartment, use an apartment turnover checklist. This way, you have a running document to check what’s been completed and what’s left to complete before your next tenant moves in.  

3. Determine a New Rent Price

As previously mentioned, peak rental season is generally when landlords can charge a higher rent price now that the demand for available rentals is higher. The amount you can increase your rent price by will depend on local rental comps and the value your rental provides to tenants. For example, if you’ve recently renovated the unit to include new stainless steel appliances and in-unit washer/dryer, then you can charge more to reflect this change. 

To find rental comps, you can manually look through available rentals online or invest in an Avail Rent Analysis report. This six-page report includes information on local rental comps based on similar properties, average rent prices for different types of rentals, and predictions on local demand for rentals in the upcoming months. To purchase a report, create an Avail account and input your property’s location. You can then see an example report to determine if it includes the information needed to determine a new rent price. 

4. Refresh Your Rental Listing

Craft a rental listing that shows off the best features of your rental property to attract prospective tenants. Include an eye-catching rental listing title and publish it across the most popular rental listing sites.

Need tips on marketing your rental property? Get expert tips on how to write a rental listing title and description.

5. Determine How You Prefer to Screen Prospective Tenants

It’s important to have a comprehensive tenant screening process before listing your property so you know what to do once you begin generating tenant leads. Certain states also have landlord-tenant laws in place that restrict what screening reports landlords can request. For that reason, conduct some research on your state and county laws regarding tenant screening to avoid violating them. 

Based on the laws, you can determine what screening reports you want from applicants and what tenant screening service you’ll want to use. 

6. Refresh Your Lease Agreement Template

This step will apply to both lease renewals and leases for new tenants. There may be instances where you want to remove or add certain lease addendums to ensure your lease agreement is current, accounts for hiccups that can happen during the lease, and protects both parties.

7. Leverage Online Tools for Landlords

You’ll generate more tenant interest if you make the entire rental process easy for them. This means offering everything online — from an online rental application and a digital lease to online rent payments.

An easy way to prepare for peak rental season is by leveraging property management software like Avail to help you along the process. With Avail, you can streamline the process of managing your rental and handle various parts of the renting process in one platform. Market your rental property, screen prospective tenants, access lawyer-reviewed lease templates, and much more. 

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What If Your Rental Lease Ends in the Winter? 

In order to make the most of peak rental season, you’ll want to get on a summer vacancy cycle. If your current lease ends in the winter, you can ask your tenants to sign a six-month or 18-month lease. That way, the next time you have to search for tenants, it will be during the summer.

Alternatively, if there are necessary rental property repairs or renovations that you need to make, you can schedule a rental vacancy around those projects and have your updated rental property ready to go by peak rental season.

How Should You Decide the Start and End Dates on Your Rental Lease?

You can take advantage of peak rental season by making sure your lease ends in the months of May to August so you’re looking for new tenants in the summer. But, your property location can also help you decide what month to end your lease.

For example, if you’re near a university and tend to rent to students, then you should pay attention to the school’s annual calendar. You’ll probably want to sign a lease 30 days before the school year starts because students want to move in right before classes start.

On the flip side, if your rental property is in a temperate climate, then it might be less important to sign your lease in the summer months since tenants can comfortably move in the winter, too. 

Easily Find Your Next Tenant With Avail

Making the most of peak rental season will help you find more interested tenants, be selective, and charge a higher rent price. But tenants won’t find your rental property unless you’re getting your listing in front of them. With Avail, landlords can post their rental listing across a dozen of the most popular rental listing platforms that tenants are looking at to find their next place — for free, all at once.

For additional resources on renting, explore our Resources page for landlords, which offers helpful articles, toolkits, free forms, videos, and more.

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