How To List Your Property

When getting ready to list your rental property, you’ll want to consider your target market. Who are you trying to attract with your listing? Are you targeting families, students, or young professionals? Once you know your target market, you can tailor your listing to appeal to them.

You’ll also want to make sure that your rental listing is visible. Where are you going to list it? Will you use online listings sites, such as RightMove or Gumtree? Or will you use traditional methods, such as print ads or signage?

As you can see, there is much more to listing a property than you’d think. An effective listing strategy will help you acquire reliable and trustworthy tenants.

The Importance of a Good Property Listing

A generic, bland listing will cast a wide net over every prospective tenant in your region. You’ll end up wading through hundreds of messages and applications.

You might end up accepting a poor tenant just because you’re overwhelmed and want the process over. Plus, the longer your property is vacant, the more it will cost.

Crafting an effective and targeted listing combined with effective screening will net you an excellent reliable tenant. High-quality tenants are the type you can trust to take care of your property for years to come and will reduce your overall expenses.

Choosing the Right Price

It’s essential to choose the right price point for your property. Too high, and there will be little interest. Too low, and you’ll have hundreds of messages, wasting your time. Check here for an in-depth discussion on choosing the right price for your market.

How Much Does it Cost to List a Property?

The cost to list property can vary across different platforms. Using a listing agent can cost you as much as one month’s rent while doing it yourself will save you a few bucks.

Some platforms are free, and others will charge a small fee to list. It’s up to you to research the market and know the audiences of each platform. Once you know how much each platform charges and the types of people who use these platforms, you can choose which ones are best for you.

A combination of features, price points, and market reach will often decide the right spot for your listing.

Use Established and Trusted Platforms

It’s vital to use established and trusted platforms. You gain access to Rightmove and Zoopla through Sharehouse’s Trusted Partner Network. These options have been vetted, so you know you can trust their services. Using service providers in the Trusted Partner Network comes with a fixed, low-cost price.

Don’t ignore the benefits of social media. There are over 45 million active users of social media in England, so it’s an untapped pool of prospective tenants. Sharing your listing on social channels or posting directly on these platforms is a great way to expand your marketing reach.

How to Write a Good Advert for Your Property

The three essential factors in writing a good advert for your property are a catchy title, bullet points highlighting amenities, and targeting your audience.

A Catchy Headline for Your Advert

Along with your photos, your headline is what grabs attention and leads a prospective tenant to click on your listing. Your headline might be more important than the photos depending on the platform.

You can use bold, a different font, or all caps to emphasize the best things about your listing. This will encourage people to click and check out the rest of your listing.

Here are a few examples of effective headlines:

2 Bedroom Flat Walking Distance to Train

1 Bed ALL BILLS INCLUDED

Create a Bullet Point List of Amenities

Using bullet points at the top of your listing can highlight the best features of your property. Prospective tenants look at dozens of adverts, and if there’s nothing that grabs them in the first 10 seconds, they’ll click off and keep searching.

Does your listing include top-end appliances? A back garden? A downstairs toilet? These are the things you want to highlight here.

Target Your Desired Tenant

To help you target your audience, think about what’s important to them. Walking distance to the school will be a great point if you rent to students. Similarly, if you rent to young families, close-by parks or similar attractions are a great feature to include.

Professional Photos and Home Staging

Great-looking photos are just as important to your listing as a catchy title. Once you have a superior set of pictures for your property, you can use them each time you list, so long as there are no substantial changes. It might be worth hiring a professional if you don’t have access to a digital camera. It’s a one-time expense that will benefit you each time you have to list your property.

Here are three tips for taking great photos of your property.

Stage The Home

Staging your rental doesn’t have to mean you go crazy by renting new furniture or redecorating. However, it’s essential to remove any personal items or clutter. You want the pictures to be clean and tidy. To get ideas, you can look at listing photos for home sales. Many of these have been professionally staged.

Lighting is Important

Try to take your photos in good light, inside and out. Not too sunny or too cloudy. A picture taken on a stormy day can leave your home looking dark and gloomy to prospective tenants. You want your photos to feel warm and welcoming.

If you’re taking photos of a feature, try to snap those photos when the feature is in use. A lit fireplace is much more appealing than an unlit or dusty fireplace.

Wide Angles at Eye Level

It’s best to capture as much of a room or feature as possible in one shot. Standing in one corner should allow you to capture most of the room. The exception to this is exterior shots.

The exterior of your house is best captured as the sun begins to set. When taking a picture of the outside, keep the shot narrow enough so the neighbors yard or home isn’t visible. Turning on interior and exterior lights will give your property a warm and inviting feeling of coming home.