How To Write An Effective Rental Property Listing

Composing a well-written property listing can make all of the difference in your efforts to attract prospective tenants and ultimately rent your property. The benefits of having more interest and demand for a property are numerous. Aside from helping you secure a higher rental price in a shorter period of time, having more prospective renters can also give you a qualitative advantage by providing you with more options to choose from when considering who will be occupying your investment property.

What Should A Well Written Property Listing Do?

Your property will most likely be competing with dozens if not hundreds of other rental properties in the area. Therefore, it is important to stand out from the crowd.The benefits of having a well written apartment listing are obvious, but how does one actually write a compelling listing?  Not to worry, the following points will have you attracting renters in no time!

Grab The Attention of Your Future Tenants

It is important to capture the attention of your prospective renters right off the bat and nurture that attention throughout your post. For starters, you need an informative, attention grabbing headline. This can be especially important on a sites such as Craigslist where you are often competing against other headlines in a simple listing format.

At a minimum, your headline should contain a few fundamental characteristics including:

• Monthly Rent (i.e. $1500 per month)
• Number of Bedrooms & Baths (i.e. 2 Bed + 1 Bath)
• Type of Property (i.e. Apartment)
• General Location (i.e. Center City)

In addition to the basic information you will want to add at least one attractive descriptor such as “Spacious”, as well as a feature that differentiates your property from the competition. Depending on your target demographic, some examples of features that you could mention include new renovations, exposed brick or even free utilities. A good example headline for a property could be:

“Spacious 2 Bed / 1 Bath Apartment In Center City With Exposed Brick – $1500”

Again, the headline will depend on your property and your target demographic. For college students, the free utilities could be more important while a new family may be interested in a newly renovated kitchen.

Provide Useful Information In Your Description

The description should be complete, while also being short and sweet. This is where you will elaborate on the details that you mentioned in your awesome headline and include additional information about your property. A good property description could be anywhere from 4-8 sentences, but should not be much longer. Keep in mind that the goal of the description is to provide enough juicy information about the property to spark interest in your potential tenants and prompt them to check out your property in person.

At all costs avoid using abbreviations and other shortened phrases or otherwise industry specific terminology, especially when referencing search specific features of the property. For example, spell out bedroom as opposed to stating “2/br”, Many property owners seeking qualified tenants have been unexpectedly surprised to out that terms or expressions that seem to state obvious facts are in not understood by advertising recipients. Moreover, not all search features of listing sites will recognize an abbreviation from the full text of the word.

An example of a good description for our headline from earlier could be something like:

“This spacious 2 bedroom 1 bathroom apartment located in the heart of Center City features exposed brick, finished hardwood floors and beautiful skyline views. A short walking distance to Main Street attractions and conveniently located near city-wide public transportation, this property is perfect of the young couple or new family!

Main features:

• Finished Hardwood Flooring
• Large Kitchen & Living Room Area
• High-speed WiFi and Electricity Included
• Washer and Dryer Located In Building
• 24/7 Maintenance by Xcel Property Management
• $1500 per month (plus utilities)

Take advantage of the opportunity to live in a beautiful apartment in the ideal location. Call James at 484-384-XXXX to schedule an appointment today!”

Entice Prospects With Photographs Of Your Property

People like pictures. A poorly written listing can be supported by a few fantastic photos. However, the most beautifully written listing with no pictures could end up costing you several prospective tenants. Ideally, you’ll have the holy grail; a well written property listing with fantastic photographs.

What type of photos?

Generally speaking, the more pictures the better. If possible, you should include a photo of every major room. However, if you are limited to only a few photographs to accompany your description you can be safe to include the main bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and one other room or area. Additionally, you should include a photo of whatever differentiating feature or features you’ve highlighted in your headline and description. The point is your photos should allow browsers to get a good idea of what the main areas of your property look like.

Don’t Be Everything To Everyone

Remember, the goal is not to be everything to everyone. No matter how beautiful the newly renovated kitchen looks in your 1 bedroom apartment, a family of six will not be renting your property. Instead of catching everyone’s attention, your goal is to be as informative as possible about your property so the people looking for a property like yours, will find you. By being as descriptive as possible, while highlighting key features, you will help the right tenants find your listing and ultimately contact you.

A well written property listing is not some complex formula. Its all about providing useful information to searchers, while highlighting your property’s key features. By following the tips above, you will have renters knocking at your door in no time!