An attractive, well advertised student property opens up two key benefits which all landlords hope for: a pool of renters to choose from, and guaranteed tenants.
With an eye-catching advert, you'll entice more users to visit your property on StudentTenant.com, and ultimately, submit a viewing request. As you receive more viewing requests, you'll not only guarantee tenants, you'll also be able to hand-pick the best tenants for you.
Below, we've put together a comprehensive guide to advertising your student property effectively. We'll go through how to take great photos, utilising a floor plan, and how to write an impressive description.
1. A picture is worth a thousand words
When it comes to maximising property advert views, a great selection of photos is a top priority.
Advertising your property is exactly the same as advertising a car. Let’s say you’re in the market for a new car. You have a good idea which car you want, you add some filters to your search criteria and thirty car ads show up. Now, as you’re scrolling through the car adverts, you see a photo and a small description per car advert. Whether you click to view the car advert in detail entirely depends on how good that advert stands out from the rest. If there are poor images, or even worse no images, are you going to open up the advert for more information or skip past it? Well, in student lettings, it’s exactly the same.
A strong initial impression is what every landlord should be aiming for. If you don’t have high quality images of all your rooms, you should only upload the good ones. Don’t make the mistake of sharing a photographs of cluttered or messy bedrooms.
So what can you do to make your property photos stand out?
• High quality images - make sure that your images are taken on a good camera and they’re not blurry.
• Clear photos of every room - Try and fit the whole room into one photo where possible. If you take a photo from the top corner of each room, you should fit in everything in a single image.
• Tidy rooms - The most important thing is to take photos of tidy rooms. If your tenants are living in the property when taking photos, ask them to tidy up before you take any photos.
• Bright lighting - Bright and vibrant photo will make your advert stand out, so try and take photos during the day.
• Open the curtains - Make sure that the curtains and blinds are open and the interior lights inside are on.
• Photos of every room and outside - Try and take at least one photo per room. You should take photos of the main rooms: kitchen, dining room, lounge, and every bedroom. We also recommend taking a photo of the front and rear of the property.
Please note: If you don't have an image on your property advert, we will not be able to list it on any of our external portals: Rightmove, Zoopla, StuRents, OnTheMarket, Facebook Marketplace.
Property advert image comparison
Below we’ve outlined three ways your property could be advertised on StudentTenant.com. Which property advert stands out most to you?
• An advert without any photos
• A property advert with poor quality images, low lighting conditions and a messy room
• An advert with high quality images, tidy and vibrant lighting
2. Utilise a floor plan
A floor plan is a fantastic tool to promote your student property. Floor plans show renters any details which are difficult to get across in photos or descriptions. They'll get a better unstanding of storage space, room sizes, and room locations.
Below we’ve outlined three ways your property could be advertised on StudentTenant.com. Which property advert stands out most to you?
• An advert without any photos
• A property advert with poor quality images, low lighting conditions and a messy room
• An advert with high quality images, tidy and vibrant lighting
3. Write a compelling description
A description is the first impression a renter will get of your property - make sure it’s a good one. There is an art to writing an effective property advert. It's crucial to get the wording right, otherwise, you won’t receive any viewing requests. The purpose of a description isn't to describe every detail of the property, it's to get users to book a viewing.
Start with short and snappy key points
The opening line of a property advert should be a compelling, engaging introduction to the property. It needs to be very clear what benefits the property offers, whilst remaining short and eye-catching.
What are you offering which is better than every other property being advertised? Focus on what your potential tenants want to hear:
• Are you offering half rent in July/August?
• Does your property have double bedrooms?
• Are bills included in the rent?
Introduction
Usually, we recommend that our landlords hyphenate some key points to build a short sentence. Here’s an example of what you could write:
FIVE DOUBLE BED STUDENT PROPERTY - BILL INCLUDED - HALF RENT IN JULY/AUGUST.
Main description
The majority of the information you will be providing renters wil be through the description. It's important that you think about, and outline, key features in the property description. Below, there are two examples of how you could write a description for the same property.
Bad description:
"Five bedroom student property in Hales Place. The property has a kitchen/dining area. Two bedrooms have ensuite bathrooms. Also comes fully furnished."
Good description:
"Large five double bedroom student property in the popular student area of Hales Place. This wonderful property benefits from a large kitchen/dining area with two fridges, two ensuite bedrooms and one bathroom suite, and a beautifully maintained rear garden which is ideal for summer BBQs.
The property boasts one medium and two large sized bedrooms on the first floor, and one large and one small double bedroom on the second floor. Each room is fully furnished with double beds, desk and chair, wardrobe and bedside table."
Final touches to your description
Once you've finished writing your description, you must do the following to fine-tune your advert:
• Display correct information - Double check to make sure that you have added the correct details. The information that you display on your advert can affect the number of views on your property advert, and more importantly, securing property bookings. It is strongly recommended that you check the advert before clicking the submit button.
• Spell check - Read over what you’ve written and check that it reads well, and accurately represents your student property.