Creating good rental listings
How to create good rental listings
Having a good, well described and detailed
rental listing will save you a ton of time. The more information you can put in your listing the more information the
tenant will have upfront. This will save you time in not having to answer the same questions over and over, but also in the amount of wasted showings.
What should you have in the listing?
A good description and headline
Always have a good and detailed description with an eye-catching headline. The headline is what the tenant sees first!
Detailed listings
The place you advertise should have
detailed rental listings in which you can select close to everything you would imagine. You should be able to select things
like rent, size, smoking allowed, what’s included in the rent and anything else you might need. If you cannot choose this in your current advertising medium consider looking elsewhere. Online
rental listings are typically the way to go since they offer far more detailed rental listings than other mediums.
Pictures
Always add pictures. If you can’t add pictures to your listing then you should look elsewhere. The age old proverb: “A picture is worth a thousand words” is always important to remember.
Statistical data
A few websites offer statistical data on their listings. This will typically be a graph that will show you the amount of clicks/views your listings has gotten. This is great for testing your rent level and
your general listings. Unfortunately very few sites offer this statistical data. Rentmore.ca offers it through their
Featured Rental Listings.
Questions in the listing
A recommended practice is to put 4-5 questions in your
rental listing. Put in the listing that answering these questions is required. You’ll use these questions
as an initial screening.
Suggested questions:
- Current employment, with position and salary.
- Previous landlord references, and how long the tenant stayed there.
- How long the tenant is planning on staying in the apartment.
- Anything else that might be useful.
1 & 2 are
by far the most important ones, but 2 & 3 can also provide you with knowledgeable answers.
Some tenants will have issues in replying to these questions, especially their salary requirement. The reason for this requirement is twofold:
- You as a landlord need to ensure that the tenant can pay the rent...no matter what some say, IT IS your right to know this!
- It will be an indicator of their character. If someone complains, and doesn't want to give you this information you're almost guaranteed that they will complain, and cause other problems when they become tenants. An important note is that everyone is entitled to a fair chance a vacancy so you cannot deny them a showing.
This is not legal advice. Always ensure that you follow applicable Tenancy and Bylaw Regulations.
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