Marketing a Property

Tenant Types & Market Appraisal

Determining your tenant type probably starts with knowing your market. Hopefully, when purchasing an investment property you had already considered who you would likely rent it to. This is because location is a major influence, both in terms of purchasing an investment and for prospective tenants moving home. If you are situated within 0.5 miles of a major hospital, it is likely you will be attracting hospital staff. If your property is situated on the outskirts of an industrial warehouse area, it is likely you are going to attract warehouse operatives. Knowing you target tenant is vital when it comes to marketing your property.

Tenant Types

If you’re not local to the area take a look on google maps and try to determine who the biggest employers are within the vicinity. There are also tools on Zoopla and Rightmove that will tell you where the local schools, transport links etc. are.

Once you have determined your likely tenant profile, you need to consider aspects such as their salary, parking requirements, garden space etc.

Market Appraisal

To ensure you rent your property within a reasonable amount of time and to the right tenant, you need to have an idea of its market value. The easiest and most cost effective way of doing this is to search websites like Rightmove and Zoopla, enter the property postcode and compare the rental values of local properties.

A few tips here. Ensure that values you are using are not older than six to twelve months where possible. The properties you compare must be of a similar size, location and quality of finish. Typically you would collect data from properties you believe to be more desirable and those less desirable, thus confirming your rent should sit somewhere in the middle.

Openrent also have an average rent calculator, this can however be varying in accuracy.

There are some powerful software’s out there that can give you an indication of the market in that area. Zoopla’s Hometrack and Property Data are two that we use, these do come with costs.

Habitans can perform a market appraisal for you (£50). This involves our team visiting your property and collecting some data about it. We will then use this data, our software and our knowledge of the area to provide you with an appropriate rental charge amount.

High Quality Pictures of the Property and Maybe a video?

Your property is more likely to gain interest if the images taken are informative and high quality, ensuring the property is clean and obstructive furniture is moved also helps. If the property is not going to be furnished, then remove furniture before advertising, it can cause confusion if the images show furniture or appliances that aren’t going to be left in the property. For most, a good quality smartphone camera turned landscape will suffice, but consider editing your photos, there are plenty of free software’s that can do this.

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Video Tours & 360 Degree Cameras

If your target tenant profile is likely to be relocating out of area then these extra tools can create a massive advantage. Presenting your property to a prospective tenant in video gives a better idea of size, quality and layout.

We created this video just by using and iPhone and free Windows video editing software:

360 Degree cameras are another great way for someone to virtually walk around your property. The setup fees are more expensive but this really is a fantastic way for prospective tenants to view your property.

Floorplans

Floorplans help applicants visualise the property and are easy to create. There are many websites that provide a platform to create floorplans. We recommend: Floorplanner

The person who carries out your EPC is likely also able to create a set of accurate floorplans, sometimes this is a more cost effective way.

Listing a Property

With over 160 million views a month between them. Zoopla and RightMove will get the most visibility for your properties. Unfortunately, unless you’re an agency and willing to spend £000’s per month on a subscription, you cannot market directly on these platforms.

Fear Not! OpenRent lists your property on both of these sites as well as Gumtree and OpenRent itself for £29.

The listing appears different on each site as can be seen in the pictures below:

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The listings on Zoopla, RightMove and Gumtree will be under OpenRent so if a tenant enquires it will go through their system. You can manage enquiries through your account on OpenRent where the details provided by the prospective tenant will be displayed.

Facebook Marketplace

Facebook Marketplace is trying to compete with Rightmove and Zoopla, in becoming the largest property finding website. The main benefit of using Facebook Marketplace is massive exposure (approx. 14 million people use Facebook Marketplace in the UK) and best of all it’s free to list your property on here! Be warned, form our experience there are more time wasters compared to Rightmove and Zoopla, but if you can filter through them it can be a great free way of filling your properties.