Key Takeaways:
Here is a quick look at the common landlord mistakes that often lead to longer vacancies:
- Overpricing your rental is the single biggest reason units sit vacant for weeks longer than they should.
- Unattractive photos and thin descriptions quietly drive away qualified applicants before they ever call.
- Skipping proper tenant screening feels like a shortcut, but it usually creates a bigger vacancy six months later and possibly an expensive eviction, along with repairs.
- Forgetting a written move-in inventory delays your next placement when disputes arise at move-out.
- Listing when it doesn’t show well, or trying to manage everything alone, adds empty days you can’t get back.
Every empty month costs the average London investor somewhere between $1,800 and $3,500 in lost rent. That money is gone forever. You can’t make it up next year, and you can’t claim it back on your taxes. Yet we watch new investors repeat the same avoidable patterns, season after season.
The thing is, first-time landlord mistakes rarely look dramatic in the moment. They look like a slightly ambitious asking price, a few phone photos taken in poor lighting, or a callback that arrives two days late instead of two hours. Individually, these mistakes feel harmless. Together, they add up to a property that sits vacant while the identical unit across the street rents in nine days.
After 25 years of placing tenants across London, Ontario, we’ve seen every version of this. Below are the most common landlord mistakes that lead to longer vacancies and, more importantly, what to do instead.
Why Do New Landlords End Up With Longer Vacancies?
Mistake #1 — Pricing It Wrong Out of the Gate
Most new investors anchor their rent to the wrong number. They look at their mortgage payment, property taxes, and maybe a neighbour’s inflated estimate, and set a price that has nothing to do with what the market will pay.
The average renter views seven to nine properties before deciding. If yours is priced 8% above market, most won’t even click the listing, and the ones who do will likely not submit an application. Worse, every week your unit sits empty costs you more than you would have “saved” by holding firm.
The fix is straightforward. Run a real comparative market analysis based on current active listings, not last year’s rents. Review performance weekly. If you’ve had fewer than ten serious inquiries in the first ten days, the market is telling you something, and it’s time to adjust. Need help with this? We KNOW our market and can suggest a good target starting price that aligns with CURRENT market conditions.
Mistake #2 — Poor Listing Quality
This one frustrates us more than any other issue because it’s entirely within your control. Fewer clicks mean fewer showings. Fewer showings result in lower offers. Lower offers become longer empty weeks.
A bad listing usually shows the same fingerprints: two or three dim phone photos, a description that says “beautiful unit, great location,” no neighbourhood context, and no sense of who the home would suit. Renters scroll past it in seconds.
A strong listing does the opposite. Sunny, wide-angle shots at the right hour. Accurate descriptions that highlight the key selling points, such as the new kitchen, the peaceful neighbourhood, and proximity to public transit. Listings on all the major rental sites. These aren’t luxuries; they’re the baseline for attracting serious applicants quickly. MLS has been a strong contender for certain demographics and rentals for the past 3 years. That extra exposure is invaluable. At Harrison Carter, we pride ourselves on our realtor relationships built on trust and collaboration. Many PM and placement firms won’t work with realtors – limiting your exposure to the RIGHT tenants.
Mistake #3 — Treating Showings Like a 9-to-5 Job
Qualified renters work full-time. They have evening commitments, kids, shift work, or partners who need to see the place as well. If you offer only Tuesday afternoon viewings, you’ve just eliminated most of your best candidates.
We’ve tracked it over the years: response delays of 24 to 48 hours kill roughly a third of otherwise-qualified leads. By the time you call back, they’ve already booked three other showings.
Be available evenings and weekends during the first two weeks a unit is listed. Return calls within a few hours, not days. Group showings work well when demand is high; they create urgency and save you time. This is one of those new-landlord mistakes that look like patience but are actually costing you rent. Open houses save you time – but don’t allow good prospective tenants the liberty of asking questions. At Harrison Carter, we treat each showing as its own – getting to know tenants and showing your investment.
Mistake #4 — Weak Tenant Screening
When a unit has been empty for five weeks, the temptation to accept the first person with a deposit is real. We understand it. But placing the wrong tenant to end a short vacancy almost always creates a longer, messier one down the road, this time with unpaid rent, damage claims, and an LTB hearing that can take months.
Proper screening isn’t complicated. It’s a credit check, verification of income and employment, references from the previous landlord (not just the current one, who may just want the tenant gone), ID verification, and a consistent process applied to every applicant in line with Ontario’s Human Rights Code. Written records matter. So does the Residential Tenancies Act, which governs what you can and can’t ask.
Skipping any of these steps is one of the costliest first-time landlord vacancy mistakes we see. Let’s chat about what sets us apart in screening and how running hundreds of applications a year for the past 20+ years makes us experts in knowing what to look for and what is a dead giveaway for poor applications.
Mistake #5 — No Proper Move-In Inventory
This one surprises people because it doesn’t seem connected to vacancy. But it is, indirectly, and at a cost. Common mistakes landlords make with property inventories include having no written record, no signed tenant acknowledgment, and no notes on appliance condition, and what’s included.
Fast forward to move-out day. Now there’s a dispute over the scratched floor, the missing blinds, or the oven that “was already broken.” Without documentation, you either absorb the cost, lose at the LTB, or delay your turnover cleaning while you sort it out. Each delay means you have to wait longer for your next tenant.
A proper inventory takes approximately 45 minutes and includes a written list, photos with date and time stamps, and the tenant’s signature on move-in day. That one action covers you for the entire lease. Need help with this? We offer a move-in walk-through inspection and documentation with new tenants we place
Mistake #6 — Bad Timing and DIY Overwhelm
London has clear rental seasons. The best times are spring and late summer, when demand is high, and quality tenants are looking. The last week of December and the first week of January are the slowest. If you list at the wrong time, you’re competing with a smaller pool of tenants, which will extend your vacancy for certain properties. Combined with the time pressure of juggling showings, screenings, leases, and legal compliance on top of your actual job, many investors burn out in their first year. That’s when corners get cut, and those corners cost rent.
How Harrison Carter Group Helps You Avoid These Mistakes
Every mistake on this list is one we’ve seen and one we prevent for landlords every day throughout London, Ontario.
For over two and a half decades, our team has specialized in precisely one thing: residential rentals. We’re not a general brokerage where leasing is a side hustle between home sales. Tenant placement and property management are all we do, which is exactly why investors trust us with their biggest asset.
- Accurate market pricing, backed by weekly reviews and 25 years of local rental data
- Professional listings with high-quality photography, multi-platform syndication, and seven-day showing availability
- Rigorous screening, credit, income, employment verification, landlord references, and ID on every applicant
- Full legal compliance with the Residential Tenancies Act, the Ontario Standard Lease, and OHRC-based screening standards
- Hands-off management covering rent collection, maintenance coordination, inspections, and clear monthly owner reporting
Whether you own one condo downtown or a growing portfolio across the region, our team at Harrison Carter protects your investment as if it were our own.
Conclusion
The pattern behind every long vacancy is almost always the same: a small decision made without the right information. Overpricing by a little. Saving money on photos. Trusting a handshake over a credit check. Individually forgivable, but together, expensive.
The good news is that first-time landlord mistakes are predictable, which means they’re preventable. Whether you tackle them yourself or bring in specialists, the checklist above will save you weeks of lost rent.
If you’d rather skip the learning curve entirely, Harrison Carter is here to help. Call us at 519-473-8300 or send a message through our contact page for a no-pressure rental consultation.
FAQs:
1: What first-time landlord mistakes lead to longer vacancies?
The three most common mistakes are pricing the unit too high, listing the unit with poor photos, and screening tenants too quickly. All three reduce the number of potential tenants and increase vacancy time, sometimes by weeks.
2: How can first-time landlords avoid long vacancy periods?
Set the right price based on recent comparable rentals, hire a photographer, write a comprehensive listing, respond to inquiries within 24 hours, screen all applicants the same way, and list during the peak rental season. If that’s too much, get a rental agent.
3: What pricing mistakes lead to longer rental vacancies?
The most common mistakes are anchoring the rent to your mortgage costs rather than to current market comparables, trusting inflated estimates from neighbours, and refusing to adjust the price after two slow weeks with low inquiry volume.
4: How does bad listing quality affect rental vacancy?
It compounds at every stage. Weak photos lower your click-through rate, vague descriptions reduce showings, and poor presentation signals that the property or the landlord isn’t serious. Every week of bad marketing is lost income you never recover.
