Should you advertise the address of your rental property?

Tenants look for 3 key points of information when making their initial search:

-    The location of the property - not just suburb, but street address as well
-    The cost of the property
-    The size of the property

The rental market can be very competitive so you need to do all you can to attract enquiry to your offering by telling the market what they want to know.  You risk having your listing ignored if you are not providing the basic information wanted by tenants.

By excluding the address you are automatically requiring the tenant to make contact to get it. Many tenants simply won’t bother – especially if there are similar properties available.  The result can be frustrating for the owner too.  They risk having to deal with enquiries that quickly come to an end when the tenant discovers the address is not suitable.

Providing the address means the tenant will know for sure how far the nearest facilities are, if it really is ‘just a 3 minute walk to the station’; if the location really is ‘central to everything’.  They will be able to ‘do a drive by’ before booking an inspection - another time saving strategy for both owner and tenant.

The reasons put forward for withholding an address from display include:
-    potential security issues
-    concerns for the privacy of current tenants
-    the belief that enquiry will be higher because tenants will have to make contact to get the address

There is little evidence to support the notion that security breaches are more likely to occur when an address is displayed.  If this were the case, no properties would have the address published.  A potential applicant will do themselves no favours by visiting the property unannounced.

Realistically, the privacy of current tenants is not threatened either. Potential tenants driving by the property can hardly be considered as encroaching on the occupant’s right to quiet enjoyment. Whilst inspections can be annoying for existing tenants, as long as the protocols for entry are adhered to and they are given due consideration, the landlord is not breaching their right to privacy.  It is important not to let the unreasonable demands of existing tenants impact on your right as a landlord to find a replacement tenant and so minimise the down time between leases.

Frankly it is a misconception to think that withholding an address is a clever marketing tactic, forcing applicants to make contact and so be given the ‘sales pitch’ for how good the property is.  Rather it will succeed only in discouraging potential enquiries, and wasting the time of both the owner and the potential tenant.

“You can’t sell a secret” is an astute marketing observation. The goal should be to attract the best possible tenant in the shortest possible time.  Withholding the address from an advertisement achieves neither outcome.

About Diane Bukowski

From school teacher to website entrepreneur, Diane Bukowski is the managing director of Eezirent – an online service delivering professional tools to self-managing landlords.  
After many years running an award winning real estate office, Diane took up the challenge offered by her business partner to set up a service that would level the playing field for self-managing landlords. The result is Eezirent which allows these investors to advertise their property on www.realestate.com.au, verify their applicants with the National Tenancy Database, and access the documentation and knowledge needed to efficiently manage a lease.
Diane’s blogs aim to provide practical advice to the self-managing landlord.