Lower the rent: lowering your rent might be the last thing you want to do, but sometimes it’s necessary. Do you know what the market rents are for similar properties in your vicinity? If you haven’t checked them out lately, you may find that they’ve dropped—while you’re still asking a previum for your material goods. HUD publishes the Honest Market Rents for every metropolitan vicinity in the United States, which is accessible on their website: http://www.huduser.org.

Landlords can also check out rentometer.com, which uses a proprietary algorithm to tell you if the rent you are charging for a material goods is too low, way too high, or reasonable. Just enter the pocket up, number of bedrooms, and rent you are considering, and you’ll get an thought of what other units in the neighborhood are renting for. Smart tenants know. You should, too.

Waive one month’s rent: If your rent is where it should be, or you don’t want to set the precedent of lowering it, offer a emancipated month’s rent to a qualified tenant. Mathematically, it could work out the same for your bank account, but psychologically, “emancipated” is a foremost enticement to the tenant. It’s up to you to give the emancipated month up front, in the middle, or at the end of the lease.

Upgrade or pray the utilities:  If your rental material goods has basic cable, offer to pay for an upgrade to premium. Or give the tenant high-speed wireless Internet access for six months or a year. You could even pay the water bill, with a monthly dollar limit to discourage waste.

Replace the carpet, blinds, or an ancient machine: If you have a fantastic prospective tenant that you’re frightened will walk away, offer new carpeting if your unit needs it, or upgraded mini-blinds, or install a new stove or refrigerator. Most of these upgrades can be amortized over several years’ worth of tenants—but might be just the thing to entice one to go in now!