A crucial aspect of successfully managing a rental property is being able to find quality tenants for it. Your ability to fill vacancies quickly becomes important in order to avoid a loss of rental income and maximize your returns. Creating a good listing is one of the best ways to generate more demand for your property, which will lead to higher-quality tenants that are willing to pay more, and less turnover. In this piece, we cover some key tips for creating a stellar property listing. Note that many of these strategies are universal to all types of real estate investing, but today we’ll be focusing on how you can attract quality tenants to your long-term rental properties.
#1: Know Your Audience
Being able to identify a target audience will help you focus your marketing efforts and fill vacancies quicker. Think about your ideal tenant, and how you can tailor your listing to attract them specifically. For example, if you’re looking for family-oriented buyers, consider highlighting the safety of the neighborhood and good schools in the surrounding area. Or if your target demographic is students, you can mention how close the property is to nearby colleges and universities.
#2: Craft a Captivating Title and Opening
When drafting up your listing, it’s important to choose a good title that will grab the reader’s attention, as well as an opening statement that encourages them to continue reading. For the title, focus on the property’s best features while keeping in mind your target audience. The opening piece of the listing should also give a good overview of these features while not being too longwinded. This will help you hook readers, and for those interested in certain features, you can always get into more detail about them later in the listing.
#3. Include a Detailed Property Description
Once you do have the reader’s attention, you should find a good place in the listing to get into details about the home’s specifications. Readers will be looking for information about the size and layout of the property including how many bedrooms and bathrooms there are, and which amenities are included with the property. It’s important to convey accurate information here since many readers will be looking for homes with specific features, and may count your property out if you don’t include them in your listing.
#4. Highlight Key Features and Amenities
You will want to put some extra effort into highlighting the best features of the property in your listing. This is your opportunity to showcase the amenities which your property includes that others may not. Some great examples include things like hardwood floors, new or remodeled rooms, and outdoor spaces that are usable by tenants. Be sure to include some good pictures of these features to help draw the reader’s attention, as well as a good description to entice them further.
#5: Make Use of High-Quality Visual Content
Visual content is the single best way to draw the attention of potential tenants browsing listings. Photos of the property are the first thing readers will see, and if they don’t cut it then your listing will just be glossed over. It’s recommended to hire a professional home photographer to get not only high-quality images and videos, but also ones that showcase the right aspects of the property. You will want to make sure both the interior and exterior of the property are featured, along with any of those key features you want to highlight. In the modern day, virtual tours of properties are becoming more popular, and they can really help tenants picture themselves in the property without ever having to see it in person.
#6: Be Sure to Cover the Neighborhood and Surrounding Area
Location is always an important factor with real estate, so you will want to highlight the property’s neighborhood and surrounding area in your listing if possible. Be sure to mention if an area has particularly good schools, or has easy access to parks and other entertainment options. You will also want to mention how close the property is to other amenities like shopping centers and restaurants. This info can be a key factor in swaying tenants who value having that accessibility.
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