How to Write Effective New Rental Listings

According to CoreLogic, new listings have surged 28.2% nationally in October, which is equal to more than 45,000 new properties added to the market. Therefore, with competition in listings at a high, it is now more important than ever to make your rental listing stand out. An effective new rental listing is short, informative and to the point. If your listing is not attractive and user-friendly, then it doesn’t matter how appealing your property is, prospective tenants will not be interested enough to enquire. With this in mind, this article will delve into everything you need to know and the information you must include in a new rental listing.

1. Know your property and your audience

First and foremost before you write your description, conduct thorough research of your current tenants and prospective tenants. Ask yourself: who are they? what are their age brackets? are they a single household or do they have family living with them? do they have pets?

Subsequently, gaining an understanding of your audience assists you in determining where to post your listing. If they are from the younger demographic, odds are they will be searching on their mobile devices, specifically Facebook or real estate mobile applications. Conversely, the older demographic is more inclined to head to a real estate agent or search on trusted property portals.

Without a doubt, having a solid understanding of your property will allow you to identify and leverage its appealing points. It may become difficult to keep up with the details of a property if you manage multiple properties. Therefore, before putting up a listing, give yourself the chance to do a walkthrough of the property or review old listings.

2. Write an eye-catching headline

Your headline should get straight to the point. Don’t include fluff or jargon. If your headline doesn’t immediately show your prospective tenant what they’re looking for, the effort you put into your description will be pointless. The headline doesn’t need to be overly creative, but with tenants browsing dozens of listings at a time, you want to stand out. It is often beneficial for your headline to include the price, bedroom/bathroom count and location. This allows prospective tenants to establish whether the property meets their requirements from the outset. An example of a headline with all these aspects is “Pet Friendly 2 Bedroom Home with backyard near Paddington for $1,590”.

3. Be descriptive in your rental listings

Your headline should get straight to the point. Show don’t tell your audience how ideal your property is. Undoubtedly you need to supply prospective tenants with basic information. However, you can amplify these with imagery to allow your reader to visualise themself living there. For instance, instead of writing “the kitchen is big”. It would be more effective to say, “the open-plan kitchen is spacious and flows seamlessly into the dining area”. This sort of description shows your readers how big the kitchen is without expressly telling them it is big.

In your listing description, you want to start with the best feature. Let your potential tenants know how your property is unique and what the standout point is. An example of this is:

  • Prime Location
  • City Skyline Views
  • Bay Windows
  • High Ceilings
  • Spacious Kitchen
  • Upscale and Urban
  • Contemporary Kitchen
  • Convenient location to schools and shops
  • Open Concept Floor Plan

Moreover, throughout your listings do not use ALL CAPS or multiple exclamation points. These are likely to appear tacky and spammy, therefore drawing tenants away from your ad. Instead, if you want to draw attention, as mentioned earlier, you should focus on describing your best feature.

4. Upload appealing photos

Using high definition and appealing photos in most cases will be the make or break for the prospective tenant. After tenants search for a property with their desired price, suburb and number of bedrooms, the photos will be the next highest contributing criterion to whether they enquire further. Great photos can help you put your best foot forward in your new rental listings. Here are a few quick tips to remember:

  • Take multiple pictures from many angles for each area of the property. To portray a feeling of spaciousness, try to take interior photos at the shoulder or head height.
  • Upload clear images – this means images with good lighting, that are not dark or blurry. If possible don’t use flash, instead use as much natural lighting as possible. Tip: use a tripod to prevent blurry photos.
  • Do not include people in your photos, keep the focus on the property.
  • Never upload a new listing without images or only photos of some areas in the property. This will give the impression that you are hiding something wrong with the property.

The images below are a good comparison of bad and good photos to upload. The right image is more appealing as it is a wider angle therefore, you are able to see more of the kitchen. Furthermore, there is more natural lighting making the room look more appealing and spacious.

5. Update your new rental listings regularly

When searching for a rental property, tenants are usually required to select a rental period move-in and move-out date. Therefore, the last thing you want is to have to respond to tenant requests where their preferred dates are unavailable. Similarly, you should make it a habit to take down listings that are no longer available.

6. Provide your contact information

Lastly, don’t forget to include a call-to-action at the end of your property listing. For example, have a contact form or a button that says “Contact Us Today”. Alternatively, leave your mobile number and email address for the prospective tenant to enquire further.

A useful tip if you don’t want your personal email or phone number on the listing is to create a separate email account for your rental listings. This is also a good way to ensure you don’t have any tenant requests lost in your personal emails.

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