HOW TO ADVERTISE YOUR RENTAL PROPERTY

When you’re competing with a high number of landlords (especially during peak season, from Spring to Fall), advertising your rental property can be a challenge. Potential tenants might only spend a few seconds looking at your listing before moving on to the next one. With such a short attention span, it’s important to be on your game to capture the attention of your potential tenants.

To simplify, it all boils down to: the headline, the rental rate, a short description and the photos. These are the major factors that will influence your rental property listing. The goal is to have your rental property out-shine the competition, and attract more tenants. Let’s take a look at each of them, starting with:

THE HEADLINE

A lot of rental property owners usually take the headline for granted, thinking it doesn’t really add much to the listing. If your headline doesn’t grab a potential tenant’s attention, by immediately promoting main items of interest, they will most likely not even bother looking at the rest of your advertisement. It doesn’t need to be fancy or creative at all. All you need it to let people know that they’ve found what they’re looking for, and they should check the rest of the listing.

The Formula

A tenant is looking for a specific number of bedrooms, bathrooms, price range, and location. At this stage, it’s important to understand those specifics. As much as possible, avoid using vague phrases such as, “Not far from downtown” or “Near the highway”. Vague statements, alone, do not tell anything of your property. You want to high-light your property’s features. Instead of overly used vague phrases, try, “Located one mile from highway X” or “Ten-minute drive from town square”. Being specific allows you to describe your property and its surrounding location with a quick, and easy headline.

Another thing to keep note of are abbreviations. They should always be kept to a minimum. Take a look at this for example:

3/2 WIC in MBR. 2500 SF

Translation? This means that it’s a 3 bedroom / 2 bathroom house, with a walk-in closet (WIC) in the master bedroom (MBR), 2,500 square foot (SF) property. These are common terms for a realtor; however, the average tenant does not understand these terms. Not only does slapping a ton of abbreviations to your headline look overwhelming, but they also appear impersonal.

THE RENTAL RATE

Property owners always want the highest amount of rent possible. However, the logical and best approach is to be on the upper end of rental rates that are comparable, but not above the highest rent rate. This will attract enough tenants, so you can choose the best qualified, and try to sign them to a 24 month lease.

THE SHORT DESCRIPTION

Emphasis on SHORT. This part of your listing is what makes you stand out from your competition. In other words, this makes your property unique. What does it feel like living in one of your rental properties? If it’s well-written and contains compelling language, it’s a huge selling point. When drafting your short description, there’s a balance between your rental property’s features and information. It’s all business on one side (such as the rental price, number of bedrooms, type of property, date available), and a little bit of creativity on the other (such as amenities and the like).

The Formula

A rental property provides tenants an opportunity to upgrade their life. The rental property description is a way for you to market a lifestyle you can provide. It’s safe to assume that tenants have read a lot of listings before yours. With that being said, avoid generic phrases like “great amenities” or “convenient location”. Highlight popular features if you have them. For example, one of our properties is described as a beautiful brick bungalow in a well-maintained block. Your description should paint a picture of what it’s like to live in the property.

Try to keep your description 2-3 sentences long. This is more than enough to highlight your property. A long description could make a potential tenant skip your listing, because they do not want to read a long description. Remember, in a competitive market, potential tenants are going through several listings, and you want them to stop and read yours. Short, informative sentences are all you need.

Also, be cautious when it comes to your restrictions. It’s justifiable to add them to your description - it’s your property after all. The last thing you’d want is to deter any tenants from your property. Your restrictions such as “No pets allowed” or “No groups of more than 5” should be kept at the end of the description rather than the beginning.

THE PHOTOS

As the saying goes, pictures are worth a thousand words. With a number of listings available for tenants to choose from, you have to back up your headline and description with compelling photos. Having good photos will bring your house to life.

The Formula

Sticking with a single photo is not enough. Include photos of all the major areas of your rental property, such as bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen, and the living space. If your property has special amenities such as a finished basement, or garage space, make sure to include those as well.

Show your property in its best light - and we mean this literally. Nothing’s worse than a dark and grainy picture. A simple camera photo can work wonders as long as it’s clean and orderly. Make it a point to snap a photo of an area of the household at an angle which highlights their best appearance. You’ll also want to make sure you clean, and prep the rooms/areas you are photographing, to ensure they look their best.

To sum it up, keep it simple, well-informed and always highlight your top selling points. These are some of the things we take very seriously for our clients. Our homeowners, who let us manage their properties, will always be in safe hands, because we put all efforts into properly advertising their property. That way tenant applications will keep coming in, making sure that the property never goes vacant. Since an extended vacancy period means no cash flow coming in, it is important to have a professional helping to market and advertise your rental home.