Why You Should Never Post A Bathroom Pic and Other Tips For Marketing Your Apartment
Posting your apartment on Leasebreak.com - whether it be a short term rental, leasebreak, or share - will go a long way toward getting it rented. Still, how you market the apartment on Leasebreak.com or elsewhere is really the key. (Note: If you would like to go the “professional” route we can put you in touch with several qualified real estate agents to help you market the apartment — at no cost to you.)
Basically, you want two main parts of a listing to truly stand out: the photos and the description.
Taking Good Photos Of Your Apartment Rental
The good news is that you can take decent-quality photos with your smartphone!
Of course, if you have a traditional digital camera, you want to take advantage of its features, particularly if you have a wide-angle lens. While often ridiculed for making apartments seem overly spacious, wide-angle lenses are great for capturing the expansiveness of a living space, which can’t be adequately captured by an iPhone or normal camera setting.
No matter which kind of camera you use, follow these recommendations to make a good impression on your potential tenants:
- Make sure the first photo displayed is the best. Often this will be the only pic users will see when looking through many listings. You want to catch the user’s eye with a clear, attractive image.
- Always open the shades completely (and turn on all of the lights) to allow as much light in as possible. Also, you don’t want to make it seem as though you are hiding the view, even if the view is not a great one.
- Don’t take photos at night when it is dark. Tenants may not want to look at an apartment that comes across as gloomy.
- Always stand as far back as possible so you can capture as much of the apartment as your camera can take in.
- Try to take the pictures from such an angle that the room’s windows appear in every shot. This lends to the open, spacious feel of your apartment — no one wants to live in a box!
- Never include a photo of a bathroom unless it is truly spectacular. Prospective tenants won’t reject a listing without a bathroom picture, but plenty of tenants will pass on an apartment because of an ugly bathroom. Bathrooms are unusually personal. People react to them very differently. Also, a bathroom picture never does the the space justice, and the pictures seems to always come out worse than the reality.
Writing a Good Description For Your Apartment Rental
Now that the tenants have seen what your apartment looks like, use a well-written description to get them clicking or calling to set up a showing.
- Make it personal. Feel free to use words like “I” or “we” and highlight what you really like about the space. This is an advantage you have over an agent marketing the apartment: you can really make it personable in a way that helps your prospective renters picture themselves in your apartment.
- Hit the highlights in the first sentence. In this 140-character Twitter world, people don’t like to read a lot and often don’t even make it beyond the first sentence. First impressions are everything. Try to make that first sentence REALLY count!
- Feature any renovations, views, or light. These three features are important yet often difficult to convey in the photos, so if your apartment has positive qualities in these areas, make sure to mention it early in the description.
- Pay attention to order. You want to describe the apartment itself first, then the building, and leave the location details for last. Apartment-hunters can and will get info about the building and location from many other places. What is most valuable about your description is the details about the apartment, so put that first.
With great photos and a personable description highlighting the best features of your space, you’ll be off to the best possible start for finding your new tenant for your short term rental, leasebreak, or share. We look forward to having your listing on Leasebreak!
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