Promotional Ideas for Property Management

• Because people may have hundreds of choices for a home, use promotions to set yourself apart. Reggie Casagrande/Digital Vision/Getty Images

  Whether you oversee a few houses or hundreds of individual apartment units, as a property owner or manager, promoting your properties is the key to gathering consistent revenue. With mortgage lending rates at all-time lows as of 2010, renters and buyers have more options than ever, which means you need to be more creative in what you do to attract people to your sites.

Open House

• An open house is a fairly traditional promotional idea for a property. This idea hasn't gone out of use or style because it provides you with the opportunity to show the property to many people in a very short time. You can have "just because" open houses, but it is easier to host these events based on seasonal or holiday themes. This makes it a cinch to decorate and gives you more options for favors to give to potential renters/buyers.

Thank You Bags

• The use of a thank you card after a property showing is fairly standard, as is thanking the potential renter/buyer for coming to a showing. Set yourself apart a little with thank-you gift bags. In addition to putting a brochure, business cards, your property newsletter and other information about the community in the bags, you can put in candy and other treats. For example, use blow-pop suckers or mini-popcorn bags with a note attached that says "Thanks for popping in!" or something similar.

Gift Cards

• Property managers routinely use discounts like one month rent free or waived fees to entice renters and buyers. This makes them unoriginal -- some renters and buyers even expect them and use them as bargaining tools. Instead, on top of the usual discounts, offer a gift card with signing. Don't limit yourself to just one store. Instead, let the tenant choose and simply specify the amount you will cover. The benefit of doing this is that you also learn a little about your renter/buyer's personal interests by her vendor choice.

Home Items

• One of the biggest problems for a new tenant is how to make their new place feel like home. Offer low-cost items like a new picture of their choice, a warm fleece throw or even a robe or cushy slippers on signing. Another good choice is a welcome basket filled with items like cocoa or tea, chocolate, mugs, hand towels and soaps.

Raffle

• Sometimes purchasing many small promotional items ends up being more expensive in the long run than purchasing one large item would be. Consider buying a large-ticket item like a laptop or HD TV and then having a raffle between all the tenants who sign within a specified period. Give tenants additional tickets in the raffle for each referral they make that results in additional signings.