If your rental property is sitting empty and you want someone in there tomorrow, here is the reality. You are about four weeks too late.

Why? Because the most suitable tenants are usually already renting somewhere else and most of them are on periodic tenancies. That means they need to give their current landlord 21 days’ notice before they can move into your place.

Here is how it usually works:

1. The tenant finds your property.

2. They apply, get accepted, and sign an agreement.

3. Then they give notice to their current landlord.

From that point, you are looking at roughly three weeks before they can actually move in. Add in the time it takes to process their application, check references, and finalise paperwork, and you are easily at a four-week window.

Sure, there are exceptions. Sometimes a tenant has just moved to the area and is ready to move in immediately. Or they might have a break in their living arrangements for other reasons, some more straightforward than others, some not so much. But those cases are outliers, not the norm.

The takeaway?

If you want your new tenant to move in tomorrow, advertising four weeks ahead is the way to go. If that isn’t possible then adjust the expectation for wait time for your suitable tenant to move in as sacrificing tenant quality to simply get rent in sooner can be short term gain at a long term loss.