Marketing in a renter-majority city: tenants, landlords and strata

The three decision-makers

Most service work in a rented or strata home involves some mix of three people. Each wants something different from you.

The tenant: the first searcher

Tenants notice the leak, the broken lock, the pest problem or the scuffed walls at move-out. They search on their phone, often late in the evening, and they want to know two things fast: can you help, and how do they get their landlord to agree?

What wins them:

• A page or section titled plainly, such as "Renting? Here's how it works with us".
• A short explanation of who normally arranges and pays for the work, written carefully and pointing to the official Residential Tenancy Branch pages rather than giving legal opinions.
• An easy way to text you photos, so they can forward your reply to the landlord.

The owner or landlord: the payer

Owners care about price, reliability and paperwork. Many Vancouver landlords own one or two units, sometimes the suite below their own house, and they don't want to manage a contractor closely. They want a clear quote they can approve by text, an invoice with the unit address, and before-and-after photos.

What wins them:

• Clear pricing ranges on your website, even if the final quote varies.
• A promise of written quotes and photo updates, and then keeping it.
• A visible note that you can deal with the tenant directly to arrange access.

The strata council or property manager: the gatekeeper

In condo and apartment buildings, a strata corporation or a property management company often controls access, common areas and approved vendors. The province's strata housing pages explain how strata corporations work. For marketing purposes, what matters is that these buyers hire on trust and paperwork, and once you are on their list, the work can repeat across many units.

What wins them:

• A dedicated page for strata and property managers listing what you provide: proof of insurance, WorkSafeBC coverage details where relevant, references on request, and how you handle scheduling and resident notices.
• Respect for bylaws, elevator bookings and quiet hours, stated plainly.
• One named contact who answers.

How this changes your website

Most small-business websites are written as if every visitor owns a detached house. In much of Vancouver, that is simply not who is reading. A few changes make a large difference:

1. Add a "who pays, who books" section to your main service pages, covering the tenant, owner and manager scenarios in a few lines each.
2. Create one strata and property manager page. This is one of the few cases where a separate page is clearly justified, because the audience and questions are genuinely different.
3. Make texting easy. Tenants and owners often coordinate by text, so a visible text option lets them loop you in.
4. Show building-friendly proof. Photos of drop cloths in a hallway or a tidy job in a small suite say more to this audience than a glossy kitchen shot.
5. Use the words people search with. "Basement suite", "rental unit", "strata", "condo building", "move-out" all show up in Vancouver searches.

Our small-business websites service builds these sections in as standard.

How it changes your Google Business Profile

Your map listing should reflect the same reality:

• Add services that match rental and strata work, such as move-out repairs, suite turnovers or common-area cleaning, where you genuinely offer them.
• Post occasionally about building work, with permission and without identifying anyone's home.
• Answer reviews from landlords and managers in a way that shows reliability and paperwork, since other managers read those replies.

More detail is in our guide to service-area Business Profiles and on the Google Business Profile service page.

Seasonal timing in a rental city

Rental turnover creates its own calendar. End-of-month moves drive demand for cleaners, movers, painters, handypeople and locksmiths. Look back through your own job records to see which months are busiest for you; the pattern is usually clearer than owners expect. Plan posts and any ad budget to land a week or two before those peaks, when landlords are booking turnovers, not on the day itself.

Autumn rain adds another layer. Leaks, damp and drainage problems tend to show up first in older buildings and suites, and tenants are often the ones to spot them.

Common mistakes

• Writing only for owners. The tenant searched first. If your site ignores them, they move on to a competitor that speaks to them.
• Giving legal opinions. Don't tell tenants or landlords who is legally responsible. Point to the official pages and explain how you work.
• Cold-pitching property managers. Generic sales emails rarely work. A well-made strata page, good reviews and a referral from an existing client usually do.
• Ignoring the paperwork. Insurance certificates, clear invoices and photo records are part of the product for this audience.

A short checklist

• ☐ Main service pages include a "renting or strata?" section.
• ☐ One page aimed at strata councils and property managers.
• ☐ Texting is visible and easy on every page.
• ☐ Price ranges published where possible.
• ☐ Profile services include rental and building work you actually do.
• ☐ Posts and ads planned around end-of-month and seasonal peaks.

If you want help putting this into practice, see our services, or read the first-year budget guide to work out what to spend.