How to list your property so it lets sooner (and better)
Photos, price and description decide in seconds whether your listing gets enquiries or silence. A practical guide for landlords.
A rental listing competes on a screen full of almost identical listings. The ones that let soonest are not usually the prettiest flats: they are the best presented. This is what makes the difference.
Photos decide the first click
- Natural light: open the blinds and shoot during the day. It is free and it is the single biggest improvement available.
- Tidy up and depersonalise before shooting: a clear worktop pays off more than any filter.
- One landscape photo of each room, from the corner that shows the most space, plus one of the entrance and the street.
The description: honest and specific
Write what a tenant needs to know to decide on a viewing: which way it faces, the floor and whether there is a lift, heating, what the price includes, nearby transport. And be honest about the drawbacks — a fifth floor with no lift always gets discovered, and better in the listing than in a wasted viewing.
The price: market, not wishful
Look at what is actually being advertised in your area with similar features. A slightly keen price generates several quick enquiries and lets you pick a good tenant; an inflated one leaves the listing dead for weeks and ends up being reduced anyway — with the cost of every empty month, which is rarely recovered.
Reply quickly
A candidate interest expires within days. Answering within hours, knowing what paperwork you will ask for and offering a viewing soon is half the job. You did the other half by listing it well.
On Totukeli listing your property is free and without small print, and every listed property joins the sponsored-home programme: brand benefits for your tenant that make your listing more attractive, with nothing for you to manage.
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