Key Takeaways
- Use High-Quality Photos to Attract Attention – Clear, well-lit, and thoughtfully composed images significantly boost your listing’s appeal. Ensure the property is clean, decluttered, and photographed with good lighting to highlight its best features.
- Pair Photos with a Compelling, Informative Description – A strong headline and detailed summary help attract the right tenants. Mention rent, size, location, key amenities, pet/smoking policies, and any unique features clearly and concisely.
- Post on the Right Platforms – List your rental on popular online platforms like Zillow, Zumper, and Redfin, but don’t neglect offline methods such as yard signs and local bulletin boards. Track ad performance and adjust strategy as needed.
- Consider Hiring a Property Manager – A professional property manager can streamline the advertising process, maximize visibility, and handle tenant screening—saving you time and helping fill vacancies faster with qualified tenants.
Whether you’re a newbie- or seasoned landlord, knowing how to properly advertise your rental property is key. Just putting up a yard sign and dishing out flyers to the local community may not suffice.
A successful rental advertising strategy ensures a vacancy is filled quickly with a great tenant. A great tenant will pay rent on time, care for their rented premises, notify you of issues, and abide by all terms of the lease.
In today’s blog, we’ll walk you through proven tips on how to advertise your Chapel Hill, NC, rental property successfully.
Have High-Quality Photos
When it comes to a rental listing, quality photos are king. And yes, pictures are worth a thousand words. But here is the thing: the photos for your rental listing must be of high quality.
Quality pictures can help make your rental listing stand out, attracting a large prospective tenant pool. It’s also important to note that prospective tenants will spend most of their time scrolling through photos.
To take quality photos, keep the following tips in mind:
- Clear any trash that may be lying around. Depersonalize the space. Give the home a thorough cleaning. Spruce up the curb appeal. Just do everything necessary to make the home look its best.
- Lighting is key in ensuring photos stand out. As such, before you can begin the photo session, make sure that the lighting is optimal. This is to ensure the photos have clarity and crispness.
- Ideally, every photo you use in your rental listing should capture two walls. If you capture three, you risk closing up a room. The best position to take photos in a room is always going to be at the corner.
- In other words, know what areas you are going to photograph during the session. Preferably, your shot list should include every bedroom, bathroom, dining areas, kitchen, living room, and family space.
Match the Photos with an Interesting Description
After snapping some high-quality photos, the next step should be to write a great ad copy. The description should not only be accurate, but also engaging and interesting.
A rental ad description usually breaks into two sections: the headline and the summary description.
The headline is what prospective tenants will see first when they click through to your rental listing. Make sure it is as detailed yet concise as possible. Ideally, a rental headline should provide prospective tenants with certain important details crucial for quick decision-making.
That is: the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, rental price, property type, location, and an attractive property feature. Here’s an example: $2,500-3 Bed-2 Bath Apartment in Chapel Hill with Resort-Style Amenities.
With such information in the headline, prospective tenants will have most details they need for quick decision making. This will ensure that you’re able to attract the right type of tenant to your property.
Next, write a detailed description of what prospective tenants should expect. This will help you tie the headline with the photos. You can use this section to let prospective tenants know about crucial details like:
- The available amenities or any unique features the property comes with.
- What the neighborhood is like.
- Your pet policy.
- Your smoking policy.
- The amenities that will be in the tenant’s name.
The reason for providing such details to prospective tenants is to ensure you only bring in tenants that align with your requirements. It wouldn’t make sense, for instance, not to mention your pet policy when you know so well some will have them.
Distribute the Ad
It’s one thing to have a listing and another thing to make sure it’s seen by the ideal audience. Your rental listing will only be effective if it’s seen by a large prospective tenant pool of tenants.
Now, before you begin syndicating the ad, consider where people are likely to find it. After all, if prospective renters can’t find the ad, they will also likely never find out about your Chapel Hill rental property.
So, what kind of sites would your ideal tenants be visiting when looking for a vacant rental? Popular rental listing sites include Zumper, Zillow, HotPads, and Redfin.
Not everyone, however, will be looking online for a rental property. For this cadre of prospective tenants, use offline platforms. Examples include yard signs, flyers and posters, and community bulletin boards.
After the ads have started running, make sure to check on their performance every now and then. Adjust accordingly if need be. You may also want to bump up a listing by spending some extra money to reach a larger audience. This can especially be important in competitive rental markets.
Hire a Property Manager
Are you just getting started as a landlord? Or, are you a seasoned landlord with an increasing portfolio size? Maybe you are an out-of-state investor. Regardless of your situation, hiring a property manager can be the best decision you could make for your bottom line.
A good property manager will help market your property to a large prospective tenant pool for quick filling of a vacancy. They will have years of experience in the industry in that regard.
Conclusion
There you have it. Using these proven tips to advertise your Chapel Hill rental property can ensure you get as many leads as possible for your vacant unit. Consequently, you may be able to rent it out much quicker and to the best tenant.
For expert help in any aspect of property management, look no further than Louise Beck Properties. With over 22 years in the industry, you can’t go wrong by choosing us! Get in touch to learn more!
