Helping our landlords find new tenants starts with making sure their property advert attracts the right tenant online. In fact a ‘pool’ of the right tenants to choose from is the aim of the game.
First up… to attract a tenant one has to think like a tenant and understand what they are looking for and how they go about house hunting.
In short, tenants look for location, the right price, number of rooms, term length, deposit required and from there on in everything else is really, a ‘nice to have’. However, don’t discount this last point because, depending on the supply in your area, the ‘nice to haves’ may make all the difference!
Potential tenants search predominantly on the bigger portals like Rightmove and/or Zoopla to look for a place to live. They want to find a place quickly, may want a choice from a few properties on offer and want some commitment from the landlord once a property is identified and offered on.
Do your research
Take your property postcode and pop it onto Rightmove under properties to rent, filling out the number of bedrooms you have and press ‘update results’. If nothing shows then stretch out the radius to ¼ of mile and keep going until you have at least 4 or 5 properties to look at.
The more properties you have within a smaller radius the more competition you have. Once you understand your competition only then can you start to compete with your property advert.
Four key ways to compete….
1) The Asking Price
The majority of tenants will search using 3 criteria:
a. Location
b. Number of bedrooms
c. Budget
You have little influence over the first 2 criteria however the 3rd is a game changer.
On Rightmove and Zoopla the results of this above search will show properties from the most recently listed (as a default). From here tenants are likely to search by number of rooms they need and the budget they are willing to look between.
The key trick (which many agents miss) is to (where possible) keep your asking price right where the two price bands meet as your property will appear in two sets of searches. Hence the more exposure your advert has the more likely you will get more enquiries.
2) The Photos
Good visual representation is extremely important to tenants. It saves tenants time and when they are looking at your property with better photos at the same price as the competition, you can be sure they will be coming to your advert first!
- Quick Photo tips:
- Take Landscape photos
- Stand with the light behind you where possible.
- Have at least one outside shot and if it is sunny day, make a bee line to your property to get that blue sky in the background.
- Kitchen, living room and the bedroom are where tenants will spend the majority of their time so show them good photos of those areas.
- It is not quantity but quality that counts.
- Having 4 really good shots rather than 12 that are average to poor is a better tact.
- Tight cramped stairways and hallways are a put off.
3) The Property Summary – The attention grabber!
This is the description the potential renter sees in their search results. It sole purpose is to get you to read more and click through to the full advert.
When writing the summary, think of the following points:
- What kind of tenant are you looking for? If families… focus on local schools and parks, if professional city workers then focus on transport links. Don’t fall into the trap of
- What makes your property stand out from the crowd? Does it have generous sized rooms? Has it been recently been redecorated? Are you avoiding the standard estate agent clichés?
- Are you trying to cram too much in? Remember every interested tenant will click through to the full description where you’ll have plenty of space to get all those details in.4
4) The Full Description
Once a tenant clicks through, you have the opportunity to wax lyrical about your rental.
- Include everything that you feel may be relevant. Remember the type of tenants you’d prefer and prioritise the information most relevant to them.
- Don’t forget about the smaller details a tenant may really value. I.e. is it connected for satellite, cable and fibre broadband? Does it have a power shower? Does it have friendly neighbours?
- Use the Key Features section. Don’t just highlight the property’s features, but key points about the local area and amenities. We also recommend you highlight that the landlord is dealing directly with enquiries. When we asked tenant this was an advantage for over 70% of them.
- People find bullet points easier to read. People reading on their mobile or tablet mobile on a train are likely only to read bullet points before requesting details or moving on. This makes the key features section critical, but also means you consider using bullet points in the full description.
We have helped over 4800 landlords find tenants across the UK by advertising property online. To review our property advertising packages, take a look here. If you would like to speak to a member of our Landlord Team, give us a call on 0333 577 8888!
