5 ways to improve your rental listing
Jordan, Senior Property Advisor, offers some 5 useful tips to help you improve your rental listing...
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes.
If you’re a seasoned landlord, you may be aware of how competitive the rental market can be as potential tenants weigh up the pros and cons of various properties before deciding on which property is right for them. Over a prolonged duration, most landlords are likely to see several tenants come and go for different reasons, and the goal is to minimise that void period between one tenant moving out and another tenant moving in. If you’re lucky, you may find days or even mere hours between a changeover of tenants - if you’re less lucky, you could see the void period drag on for weeks or even months and wonder what it is you need to do to attract a tenant.
Fortunately, there are things a landlord can do to maximise their rental property listing and appeal to more prospective tenants.
Below we highlight 5 ways a property investor can boost the presentation and appeal of their available rental home to achieve just that!
1. Improve the first impression
It’s true, first impressions count. They no doubt counted to some degree - even as a buy to let investment - when you purchased the property, and they certainly count when tenants are viewing their shortlist of different rental properties. Think about the first thing(s) a viewer will notice when they arrive at the property and take their first step through the door. It is shoddy paintwork and a broken doorbell, or a well-kept front lawn leading into a clean and neutral hallway with a lovely homely scent from a diffuser? These first impressions can set the tone for the entire viewing, so it is important things get off to a good start.
Read: Is your home’s kerb appeal letting you down?
2. Decoration and good lighting
You want viewing renters to easily picture themselves living in the property, so keep the decoration very impersonal and simple. This allows them to imagine putting their own touch on the place - how rooms will appear with their own furniture and other items. Neutral tones are always a safe choice, and ensure there is no clutter or unnecessary things taking up space or distracting from key features. Lighting is also important, whether it’s natural light bursting through the windows, or carefully places lamps and other forms of lighting to add to the mood of the space. The key is to ensure the property is styled and lit to suit the sort of renters you’re looking for.
3. Accentuate the best features
Every property will have something - or several things, in many cases - that are worth shouting about. It could be interesting architecture within the property, a balcony from the master bedroom that’s perfect for summer al fresco breakfasts, the location, or far more storage space than most of the other properties in the area. Take the things that help your property in particular stand out from the rest, ensure your letting agent is fully aware of them, and really make them key features when marketing the home.
4. Draw renters in by setting the scene
We touched on keeping things neutral so that viewers can imagine themselves living in the space, and this can be taken a step further by staging certain areas of the home to give them a better example of exactly how it would feel to live there. With more and more people working from home, you set up a desk in an ideal spare room to appeal to the work-from-home crowd, if the kitchen has a large island set the scene with a large bowl of fruit and a vase of flowers to make it seem extra inviting, or draw attention to a feature fireplace by folding some blankets in a basket next to it. These are just a few examples to take advantage of those certain features and spaces in your property, but each will be different so have a look around yours and see what sort of simple scenes you can set.
Read: How to minimise void periods and maximise profits
5. Quality photography to show off the home
Every prospective tenant is going to view images of the property while browsing available properties, so displaying the home through the use of great real estate photography is incredibly important. It’s helpful to have photos that are crisp and clear from a modern digital camera rather than ones that have been taken with an old outdated mobile phone or compact camera, but it’s also important to capture the right features and rooms at the right angle. It’s not about trying to trick renters into thinking rooms are larger or better than they actually are, but about portraying the spaces so that renters can see all that they have to offer in good lighting and from a realistic perspective. Think about the features the photographs promote, look for things in the background that could put renters off (wheelie bins full of rubbish in the garden, or toys piled up in the corner of the living room, for example), and even consider details such as the order of the photos when a renter is browsing through to ensure the listing flows.
Here at CPS Homes our dedicated lettings team prides itself on offering top class services with a friendly approach along with expertise of the local market. To find out more about how we can assist with your journey as a landlord, don’t hesitate to get in touch by calling 02920 668585, e-mailing enquiries@cpshomes.co.uk or by popping in branch to see us. From finding the perfect tenant or buy-to-let to managing the property for you, our team are here to help.
