Marketing and advertising the property

If you’ve decided to use an agent to market your property they will take care of all the marketing of your property, including ensuring it’s listed on Rightmove, to get you a good tenant as quickly as possible. The agent will also ensure your property has been advertised correctly, ensuring all details are correct and nothing important has been omitted, in line with the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPRs) that were bought in to replace the Property Misdescriptions Act in 2013, and will provide advice on your legal obligations.

What type of tenant are you looking for?

Hopefully, by now, you’ve already thought about the type of tenant that would be best suited to your property, but now is the time to get this written down. It’s important here to be realistic about the type of tenant that your property will appeal to, as much as the type of tenant you would ideally like. For example, a two-bed flat is ideal for flat-sharing friends or a young couple, whereas a three-bed house will most likely attract a family.

It’s also a good idea be clear on any restrictions you might have, such as whether you’re happy for pets to be allowed or not.

To help get you started, here’s our top tenant criteria to take to your agent:

• Is this a student property?
• Is the property for a family or for sharers?
• Are you happy for a tenant to smoke in the property?
• Are you happy for a tenant to have pets in the property?
• Does the property have any age restrictions such as over 60s?
• Personality (a long-standing, trusted lettings agent will know what ‘sort’ of people the landlord wants)

By providing your agent with a clear idea of the type of tenant you’re looking for at the beginning, they will be able to tailor their marketing to suit the type of target tenant and find you the right tenant quickly.

It is worth noting that for obvious reasons you cannot discriminate on gender, race or disability.

Your property on Rightmove

While prospective tenants obviously will want to see what the property looks like, most of all they want to be able to picture themselves living there.

For a rental property, we recommend using around nine photos and a quality floorplan, to bring the property to life and generate the viewings you need to get the tenant you want. Refrain from adding photos of fixtures or fittings, such as taps, unless you and your agent believe they genuinely add something to the listing.

TIP: It’s important that these photos show the property in the best possible light, so always opt for a daytime shoot on a bright day whenever possible.

If your property is currently tenanted, be sure to give your tenants enough prior notice so that they have time for a quick tidy up and can put any valuables out of sight.

With your photos now sorted, your agent will begin work on the descriptive text that will help your property to stand out from the crowd. Though your agent will take care of the hard work for you, if you know the local area well and can provide some information that will help a prospective tenant to imagine living there, do share this with the agent for them to include.

DON’T FORGET: Just like when you sell a property, you will require an energy performance certificate (EPC) to let your property.