Any family, no matter the size, with school-age children will choose a home based on the school district ratings whenever possible. For a property manager or investor, this means that finding and highlighting school districts associated with your rental property is a valid marketing tactic that can help you to appeal to families. In fact, research shows a home’s proximity to schools can actually raise the value of the home, or what prospective tenants are willing to pay for the rent.
The King County and Seattle/Eastside area is well known as home to many great schools, and you should point them out when advertising your property.
How to Find Your Rental Property’s School District
Students in Bellevue are automatically assigned to a school based on their address. You can find which school districts overlap with your rental property using the Bellevue School District’s website tool here.
For Washington State, or all of King County, you can use a tool like SchoolDigger here for the same information.
How to Use School District Information
Once you know the school district or districts overlapping with your property, you can use the information to market to families moving into the area. Highlighting any nearby schools will make your property seem more desirable. Providing a list of nearby schools is a good idea since families are often concerned about school opportunities for multiple ages.
It’s also important to note nearby schools, especially good ones, as they are amenities that can affect the rental rate. But, don’t get too excited. Most nearby rentals have likely already made this adjustment in price, so you won’t be able to charge more than local rates without making it more difficult to secure a tenant. However, you can highlight items that make your rental seem advantageous, so you can rent the property out more quickly.
Other Points
Nearby school bus stops, transport, or the distance to walk or drive to each local school from the property are great points to include in your marketing tactics. Many people drive their kids to school, or allow them to choose between biking and taking the school bus. Property that is close enough to walk or bike to is especially desirable for this reason. If you’re very far away from a school, you might want to leave this information out.
Highlighting school districts, local schools, and the distance to travel to them is a great way to add value to your rental by making the amenities more obvious to families. If you need help with schools or other local marketing tactics, consider hiring a local property management company to do the research and marketing for you. A local company will already know the area, know what to market, and how to do so to fill your vacancy as quickly as possible.
To find out more about SJA Property Management, and how we can make property investment easy throughout the Bellevue and Seattle area, by calling us for a free quote at 425-658-1920, or visit this page for more information.