Rental is getting plenty of showings but no applications

[Anthony Marini]

Good morning!

My wife and I recently purchased a new home and are planning on making our current home a rental property.  I have listed the property on Zillow/Trulia/Hotpads as well as Craigslist.  We have what I would consider a decent listing with 21 pictures, detailed information, and we allow pets.  I posted the listings 10 days ago and have been getting numerous emails and calls and have done about 12 showings.  However, none of the showings have resulted in an application to rent the place.

We currently live in the home and are planning to move out next month. We were hoping to get a lease signed so that we have someone move in after we move out and do some repairs.  We also need a signed lease agreement in order for our lender to approve the loan.

If anyone has any suggestions on ways that I can improve the listing or the house in order to make it easier to find a renter please let me know!

Things I am considering:

• Painting all of the colored rooms a neutral color.
• Re-wording the ads to make them more appealing or to include more information.
• Lowering the rent by $50.
• Raising the rent by $200 or so but including gas/water/electricity.
• Getting a storage unit for a month to hold everything but the bare necessities so that the home is more bare until we can move.

Here is the listing. Thanks in advance for all of your help!

[Peter Stewart]

In the agent business one of the rules I go by is if we have 10 showings and no offers, the property is overpriced. There may be nothing wrong with the unit except the price. People are obviously coming to see it, so it's not grossly overpriced and/or doesn't look bad in the pictures. You may be off just enough to keep people from applying.

Are you getting any in-person feedback on the unit? Are you following up with people and asking why they didn't submit an application? 

Based on what I see in the listing and what you've said, I would suggest improving both the pictures and the price. I would do at least $50 less - anything less than that won't make an impact. 

I agree with Katie that removing some of the personal items from the rooms before taking pictures is a great idea. Declutter and depersonalize is what I have all my sellers focus on when prepping their homes for market. For example, you have a picture with a closet door open and a laundry basket on the floor. All that needs to be cleaned up. Close the door, put away the clothes, hide the basket, etc. You can put it all back after taking photos. Do some light staging as well (maybe some flowers on a table, nice soap dispenser and trendy towel in the bathroom, etc). 

Speaking of photos, I always recommend professional photography. You should be able to find someone to take high quality pics for pretty cheap ($50?). They will have much higher quality pictures with better lighting, angles, etc.