Expert Advice: How to Make Your Property Attractive to Find a Tenant?
Kinnisvara24 CEO Urmas Uibomäe shares tips on how to find a tenant quickly and secure a higher rental price by making an apartment or house desirable and creating an attractive listing.
When finding a tenant, it is crucial to create the best possible first impression of the rental property. To do this, you should create an attractive and trustworthy rental listing and give the interested party the feeling during a viewing that it would be nice to live here. This creates the basis for asking a price higher than the market average and finding a suitable tenant more quickly.
Before putting the property on the rental market, you should make it livable. This does not require expensive renovations and purchasing luxurious furnishings. The rental space should be in order and clean, equipped with a kitchenette, functioning toilet, washing facilities, and necessary furniture.
First, do a thorough deep cleaning and assess the condition of the rental space. A fresh sanitary renovation will help significantly in finding a tenant. Fix dripping faucets, wall cracks, and paint over stained walls. In a sun-faded bathroom, you might consider painting the wall and floor tiles. Check that smoke detectors, door locks, and household appliances are working and light bulbs are on.
When planning interior design, avoid overly bright or dark color tones, as these may not appeal to many people. Make sure furniture is intact and clean. For example, you can find very affordable replacement furniture on Facebook Marketplace. To create coziness, buy cushions for the sofa, hang some photos or paintings on the wall, and put a vase of flowers on the table. Small details play a major role in creating a sense of home.
The rental listing should be specific and have good photos
Creating an effective rental listing takes more time but is well worth it. The listing must contain important information that answers questions related to the appearance, amenities, location, public transport connections, and utility bills. Well-written text briefly describes the offered possibilities, is specific, and clearly states what the tenant is allowed to do (having a roommate, having a pet) or what the owner does not want. The opening paragraph of the listing should prominently highlight the main advantage of the living space, such as freshly renovated, city center/university within a 15-minute walk, low utility bills, located in a quiet area, etc.
The listing must not contain false information, as its discovery would cause you to lose the tenant's trust from the start. Compare your offered apartment or house with similar rental spaces in the same area and base your price on what competitors are offering.
In order to stand out with your listing among other offerings, attractive photos that highlight interesting details are crucial. Dull and boring pictures deter interested parties. If necessary, get professional help from someone who knows how to photograph rooms and the house with the right focus and appropriate lighting. The rooms being photographed must be tidy and arranged. Flowers in a vase, cushions, or small decorative items create coziness in the photo and appeal to the tenant who loves cleanliness and order.
The gallery should definitely include photos of the kitchen, bathroom, and exterior views of the building, and preferably also household appliances. The interested party should get a good overview of what the apartment or house offers based on the photos. For the opening photo of the listing, choose a picture that stands out positively from what competitors have highlighted. A video of the living space provides a very good overview and has been increasingly added to listings.
Preparations for the viewing
In order to turn an interested party into a tenant, you must make several preparations before their viewing. The most important thing is to clean the dwelling properly, sweep dust, and make surfaces shine. Pick up clothes left lying around, wash dirty dishes, take out the trash, wipe fingerprints off mirrors, etc.
Before your guest arrives, air out the rooms so the air is fresh. Using very strongly scented air fresheners and cleaning products is annoying to many people. Make sure there is enough daylight in the rooms and put some flowers in a vase.
Keep in mind that just as you evaluate the tenant, they also evaluate you. Therefore, you must make a good impression of yourself as a trustworthy and pleasant person.
