So you’re looking to become a real estate investor, and you’ve been trying to rent out your single family home for the past 3 months, and you haven’t gotten a single phone call yet!
You don’t understand how it could be that no one is interested in your amazing “Apartment for rent in New Jersey. Really awesome place. No pets allowed. Monthly rent is 1,000$. Close to the park”.
Sure, some people were a little intrigued by your ad. However, they must’ve also gotten a bit scared as well. Your rental ad just wasn’t good enough. It’s that simple. It failed to provide all the necessary information. It failed to find a target audience. It simply failed.
So, how do you make it NOT fail?
How do you make attractive rental ads that are guaranteed to attract the attention of people even if they weren’t looking for a rental property?
Related: 6 Ways to Get Your Investment Property Rented
The most obviously crucial part of rental ads is the property description
As a landlord, you should know that your rental ads should be as descriptive as possible, but without being overly descriptive. What this means is that future tenants are not interested in knowing that you think the place is awesome, they want to be able to judge by themselves by knowing the essentials:
- Location
- Number of bedrooms
- Number of bathrooms
- Approximate size of the place
- Utilities
- Pet policy
- Parking
- Monthly rent
- Date of availability
- Contact information
Those are some of the most important indicators that should be displayed in your rental ads descriptions. Those are the factors that tenants usually take into consideration when making the decision of whether to rent a place or not.
However, your description should also be simple and descriptive with no exaggeration. Saying “Spacious apartment with a beautiful green garden” is far more effective than saying “HUGE apartment with the most beautiful garden that you will ever see in your life”.
More description…
There are other specifics that you could add to your rental ads descriptions, such as a price range (If you’re flexible with the price), the amount of security deposit required (Example: a month’s rent), and the length of the lease (Use months not years. 18 months sounds less constricting than 1.5 years).
Also, when it comes to utilities, you should list the utilities that are included in the monthly rent instead of the utilities that aren’t. People prefer to hear about the expenses that they don’t have to worry about (the ones included in the rent), and not the extra expenses that they will have to pay for.
You should briefly mention the best features of the rental property in the description when possible. If there will be a computer available in the income property, for example, it’s probably a good idea to mention it as it would attract more tenants.
You should also include some information about the screening process for the tenants if it applies. Make sure to make it clear for anyone reading your rental ads that the screening process is applied to all tenant applications not to make yourself seem discriminating.
Mention any important or attractive specifics about the building. If it’s a roof-top condo with an attractive view, make sure to say that. However, if it’s a 5th floor apartment and the building has no elevator, you might not want to mention that in the description.
Now that you’ve taken your time to write a good description for your rental ads, it’s time to add the jelly to the peanut butter (In this case, the peanut butter is the description, and the jelly is the next point).
Related: Road to Renting: Rental Property Marketing
PHOTOS
It cannot be emphasized enough how important it is to add quality photos of the property to your rental ads.
But don’t just go around taking pictures left and right of your apartment right after a house-party weekend, while the place is trashed and dirty, and everything is looking out of place, all while using your bad-quality phone camera with the flash on.
The first thing that people look at when they see rental ads is the photos. So make sure not to make their eyes sore. If you can afford it, hire a professional photographer to take the best possible photos of your rental property. A professional will know which angles to shoot from, under what lighting, and on which pieces of furniture to focus.
If not, then it’s time to take the best photos you’ve ever taken without you being on them.
Make sure that the place is clean, tidy, and that a minimal amount of personal belongings appear on the photos. If you’re limited on the number of photos to display on your rental ads, then make sure to photograph the most important sections of the house:
- The kitchen
- The bathroom
- The bedroom
- The living room
If you’re not limited to a specific number of photos, then make sure to restrict yourself not to add TOO many photos as it will get redundant.
Good quality photos will highlight the best features of your place. Just make sure that your property is clean, and the furniture is well arranged to make the place look hospitable and cozy.
Lastly, another tool that you could use to enhance your rental ads and make them more successful is SEO (search engine optimization). Learn a few SEO tricks here and there, and you’ll find that your rental ads are getting more attention and responses and that your occupancy rate is higher than ever before by allowing people to find your property more easily while using search engines.
Related: Social Media for Real Estate: A Key to Success
Conclusion
In order to have successful rental ads, you need to appeal to your audience to get as many tenant applicants as possible. Make sure that your rental ads descriptions cover all the information that you need, and that the photos that you use clearly show the beauty and best features of your property. It is also very important that your rental ads do not exaggerate and deliver a realistic picture of your rental property, as this will generate more free advertising for your place by word of mouth.
Tenants who leave your property happy will often recommend the place to others, and these can be the best rental ads that there are. People’s opinions spread like an infection (a good kind of infection, if they are good). Thus, if you manage to establish a good reputation among tenants on social media and guests on Airbnb by staying true to your rental ads, this will bring more interested tenants to your property, increasing the demand, which gives you the opportunity to raise your rent without having to worry about your property losing its attraction.
Also, make sure to visit Mashvisor for more real estate investing related content. Mashvisor offers you a real estate investment tool that is unlike any other: a tool which allows you to find the perfect investment property in the perfect neighborhood, with all the data needed to make your investment strategy.
