Is there a disconnect between the highest and best use of your rental property and your marketing niche?

That’s a really important question that has given my partner/son Josh and I the ability to create an increased cash flow, an improved tenant clientele, and increased property values on all of our units over the last few years.  Of course, we didn’t ask the question exactly that way, because “niche marketing” has only become all the rage in the past several years.  But the thought process is the same.

There’s some fun and profitable lessons here, so let’s explore the subject.

First of all, niche marketing is defined as the marketing of a product or service to a small and well-defined segment of the market place, typically a market whose needs are not being well served.

Some various residential rental property niches might be: high end, low end, ghetto, on the way down (deteriorating), on the way up, mid-level rentals, seasonal, senior housing, student housing, low income housing, subsidized/Section 8, etc.  Then each one of those categories could be broken down into even smaller segments.

You need to always, always, always invest primarily for cash flow, so whichever niche you choose should lead you to an increased cash flow.  To flesh out the idea, here’s some personal examples: More…