When it comes to short-term housing, you rely on your property listing to tell potential renters what your luxury apartment has to offer and entice them to get in touch with you. Your description is essentially your first and last line of defense against competitors. Unfortunately, many property owners make simple mistakes that cost them big in the long run. Avoiding these five common property listing mistakes will help ensure that your description does what you want, and doesn’t drive off potential renters.
Bad Photos
One of the most common problems with short-term housing listings is the use of bad photos. Low quality, low-resolution, poorly lit pictures do nothing to show off the comfort, quality or style of your property. In fact, a bad picture can make a great property look ugly, old, small or outdated, and actually encourage potential luxury apartment renters to look elsewhere. How do you avoid this issue? First, make sure you’re using a good quality camera. Put down the smartphone and invest in a decent digital camera. Second, make sure you’re taking pictures from the right angle and in the right light. Third, consider staging your rooms rather than photographing them empty. If necessary, hire a pro to handle it for you.
Typos in Your Listing
While your photos will give potential short-term housing renters a visual representation of your property, you still need to have a text description. It will contain essential information about the property, your rental conditions, the surrounding area and more. The problem here is the potential for typos. A single typo can render that luxurious two-bedroom apartment into a squalid “two-broom” property. Not only do typos confuse potential renters, but they make your listing seem unprofessional, and luxury renters will avoid your listing. Write your description and then put it away for a while. Then, go back over it again and comb through it for typos, inaccuracies, misspellings and other errors.
Incomplete Details
Your listing details should provide potential short-term housing renters with all the information they need to 1) realize that your property is ideal for their needs, and 2) convince them to email or call you to make arrangements for their stay. However, your listing can’t do that if your details are incomplete. Make sure you have all the basics (number of bedrooms and baths, square footage, etc.), but also list any other selling points possible to help create a complete picture of your property. This could include destinations in the area within walking distance, whether the apartment comes with additional services or amenities like a gaming system or free Wi-Fi, and much more.
Pricing
You want to get as much as possible for your property, and that’s natural. The more you earn from each short-term rental, the better you’re able to weather the untenanted periods in between, and the more you can offset your other bills, or the more wealth you can save. However, if your property is overpriced, you can bet that tenants are going to look elsewhere. Before you set any pricing for your property, do your due diligence and research similar properties in the same area. Set your pricing based on the market, not on sentiment, or what you think you should be able to get for it. Not only will that make renters more likely to sign on the dotted line, but it can help shorten the duration between rentals, decreasing your expenses and building your wealth.
Confusing Terms
The terms you set for your short-term rental spell out the rules you expect your tenant to abide by during their time on the property. However, confusing terms can make potential renters seek less unclear rental agreements, even if it means sacrificing a little luxury, location or amenities. Make sure that your terms are clear and unclouded, and that they tell your renters what’s expected of them (and of you) in an unambiguous way. Chances are good that hiring a professional to create your rental terms will help with both clarity and accuracy, while ensuring that everything’s on the up and up, legally speaking.
These are five of the most common mistakes made when listing a property, but there are many others that you can fall prey to, and that will make your short-term housing rental less attractive to potential tenants. It’s essential that your property listing be concise, professional, complete and easily understandable. It should also highlight all the pertinent strengths of the property, from the location to the amenities and features included. A good description is your single most powerful selling tool, so use it to your advantage.
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