Listing Style Counts- Check the Landlord Attitude!

I read a lot of rental listings between Craigslist and our two rental sites, CalderCityRentals.com and RentingMetroDetroit.com. I find many listings to be utterly ineffective. These listings are often vague, request inappropriately personal information as a condition of seeing the property, or my favorite, have pictures of toilets as the major selling point of the rental.

On those not so rare occasions when I put on my mystery apartment hunter hat and exchange email to learn more about the  listing skills, I find a comment that touches on the poor listing skills almost always gets a touchy response, even if the comment was a light joke.  If I continue the exchange I usually get an insult as the owner self congratulates him or herself chasing me away. As a tenant I have dismissed owners with this attitude, as the owner of these sites I am blown away by the number of owners who expect good results from bad listings.

Attitude in a market where owners are competing with literally hundreds of other owners to find the best tenant.  In both our markets, Craigslist is strong. In Grand Rapids we find an average of 80 listings a day, and in Detroit there are as many as 400 listings each and every day. There are a lot of folks trying to rent their places, and you want to stand out and attract the great tenants, not chase then away with sloppily written listings and presenting a poor attitude toward prospective tenants expecting professional owners. Remember the best tenants have options, they will simply pass you by for the more respectful  presentation and response.

Today there are hundreds of people looking for the best tenants. They are providing great images, terrific thought out descriptions, and they know lifestyle details about their rentals. They know the best tenant is more sophisticated than ever and requires more than a shot of the toilet to prompt them to call you. The World Wide Web can cut you out without your even knowing it. The last thing you want to do is convince people on the web not to call because of a poor presentation.

Skilled tenant predators take advantage of your poor presentation and you won’t catch them until the rent starts coming in late or stops coming at all. You’ll growl about this class of people called tenants and self righteously believe your expression of prejudice is correct not knowing it was your own actions that lead the scammer to directly to you. Why would anyone with steady work and good credit choose an owner who does not respect them as they hand over thousands of dollars a year? Listings with a grainy image of a toilet, a winter scene in August, or a blurry picture of the side of the garage does not bring you the best people, it chases them away. Yes, as our mother told us, first impressions matter, and on the web you'll not know who took one look at a bad listing, snorted with laughter, and moved on, after all you are one of hundreds.

So what can you do? Really take some time and think about what you want to say. Ask a few people to look at the description you're planning to post and get some critical feedback. Use new pictures and, when possible, get in the habit of taking pictures when tenants first move in so you have great shots of real living space with real furniture; just be sure to note the rental is unfurnished. Find out about local schools, recreation facilities and other lifestyle options in the area. Do you know good daycare providers in the area? Are there any good restaurants near by? Is there public transportation or cultural venues within a few minutes?

Entice your tenants, and you'll win the better tenants. If you don’t someone else will and you’ll be left in the District Court trying to figure out why all you have to show for your effort is successfully at finding the bottom of the barrel.