Ready to get a tenant into your listing? You don’t want to risk your property going stale, suffering a price reduction, or having to stay vacant for a while. But, how do you make your listing stand out amongst all the other apartments up for grabs? Check out how these tips to marketing your listing so it stands out and generates interest today!

9 Tips to Marketing Your Listing

Where should you advertise?

The Internet

There are various web and social media outlets that a landlord can choose to list their rental property. For example,  CraigsList, Trulia, and Rental Beast are popular sites to upload your listings, and it’s common to list your rental on multiple sites–no need to choose one. However, social media is a great way to generate leads, and Facebook Business, Twitter, and even Instagram are also common places to list a rental property. Another lesser known option is to create a website for the listing. Services such as GoDaddy offer various website packages, including the option of purchasing a specific URL. Remember, since updates aren’t automatic, you’ll need to go in routinely to note any changes in price. Also, when your listing gets rented, remember to take it off every site you’ve listed it on.

Paper Methods

Not all of your marketing activities need to take place online. Some other methods of advertising can be just as effective as online searches. Try:

• Putting an advertisement in your local paper
• Creating flyers and asking local businesses to display them

How Should You Advertise?

Check out ways that you can make a listing that pops.

1. Get Yourself a Photographer (Or A Decent Camera)

Photos are the first contact a potential has with your landlord; most people are very visual, so make sure that they’re looking at flattering photos of your apartment. While some landlords may consider hiring a professional real estate photographer frivolous, it’s money well spent. In addition to having the proper equipment (wide angle lens, powerful lighting, high resolution cameras, etc.), professional real estate photographers have a trained eye to present your property in its best light. If a professional photographer is out of your budget, you’ve still got options. Avoid using a smart phone, and purchase a point and shoot camera and a tripod. Be wary of windows (they can let in too much light), and experiment with a couple of different angle to find your rental’s most flattering angles. A picture tells a thousand words! So, put in the extra mile for your photography–It’s time and money well-spent.

2. Great Description

The description is a key area for marketing your listing. You have limited time to express what’s great about your apartment, so it’s important to make a quick, and good impression. Here’s a tip: Imagine you are proving a script to a radio announcer who will advertise your property to the listening audience in a thirty second spot over the air. Your objective is to capture the audience’s attention with the most important details about the property. Always make sure to include basic information (number of bathrooms, number of baths, square feet), use enticing words (spacious, light-filled, updated), focus on the apartments and its attractive amenities (gym, yard, parking space), and give a few descriptors of the neighborhood (steps away from nightlife, a suburban sanctuary). You want to walk a delicate line–Stay away from bland, but, make sure you’re using accessible, direct language that conveys

3. Show Off the Amenities Your Building Has

Let’s talk more about the description. Think: what’s so great about your property? What would you like someone who will rent it to know? Do you have elevator access? A gym on the premises? Put that all in the description! It’s helpful, here, to also think about who will be renting your apartment. For example, a studio or one-bedroom might attract working professionals, many of whom use public transportation and would be interested in knowing about your property’s access to buses and trains. Young renters would like to know if it has excellent proximity to cafes and entertainment. If your apartment is three bedrooms, or a single family home, a family would like to know about its proximity to nearby schools.

4. Don’t Forget About Curb Appeal

Think about paying up to ensure that your rental’s exterior looks appealing to potential clients. Clean up facades, mow your lawn, and fix any broken fencing—make an effort to ensure that your apartment building looks appealing. Internet traffic is an important source of potential tenants; however, apartments, especially those in urban areas get a fair amount of foot traffic, and it’s not unusual for a prospective tenant to drive or walk by the property in question before they make a decision. So, make sure the first real-life contact a prospective tenant has with your apartment is positive.

5. Videos

Videos are increasingly a popular means of marketing your listing! Go beyond just photos and film a video of your space. Again, getting professional help is a great idea, but if this isn’t an opinion, work with a dolly and tripod (to get an even video) or practice walk-throughs a few times.

6. Get Some Staging If Unit Is Vacant

Putting some furniture into a space will allow the renter to imagine their own life in that apartment. Not a natural born interior designer? You can pay up to hire a service or take the DIY route. If you opt for the later, try to keep the staging minimalist and maximize open space. No need to spend large amounts of money on fancy furniture—a few key pieces that show the renter how they can use the face (table and chairs in the dining room, couch in the living room, and bed and dresser in the bathroom) will be enough to get your point across (and will make your apartment look larger!)

7. Not Into The DIY- Route? Get An Agent

Does all of this sound like an absolute nightmare to you? You’re not alone. Lost of landlords opt to hire an agent to help them market their listings. If you hire a real estate agent, the responsibility of marketing your vacancy will fall on them. Landlords often opt to list on their own mainly to avoid paying a broker fee. However, what you might not recognize is the “opportunity cost.” What is your time worth compared to having a real estate professional help market and rent their property?

8. Remember: Keep the tenant in the loop

As always, remember that if your apartment is occupied, you need to keep your tenant in the loop. Let them know when you will be coming in to take photos of the apartment, and ask them if they wouldn’t mind cleaning up a little. Your current tenants cooperation during the open house and showing process will be important. Lay the ground work by keeping them informed of how your marketing efforts might affect them.

9. Market With Rental Beast
Change the way you manage your rentals with Rental Beast’s comprehensive set of free tools, all built to help you find and retain quality clients and optimize your rent roll. Sign up today, and gain access to:

• No-fee listing with Rental Beast. List with Rental Beast, and let Rental Beast handle the marketing. Rental Beast syndicates listings syndication to popular search portals!
• Free tenant screening: See credit, criminal, and background checks, employment and housing history in a single view, for free!
• No-cost online rent payments: have rent deposited directly into your bank account!

Learn more at Rental Beast for Landlords

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