5 Rental Property Listing Mistakes to Avoid

How to market a property has changed immensely, but one thing that hasn’t changed is the importance of upkeeping those listings. Despite the importance of real estate listings, there are some common mistakes that many people overlook.

According to the National Association of Realtors, 93% of consumers search online for their main source of information when looking for a home.

Because of the sheer number of prospects utilizing digital resources to conduct a home search, it’s obvious that real estate professionals should prioritize online property listings to streamline the leasing process.

Read below for 5 common mistakes real estate professionals make with their listings and how to avoid them for a fool-proof marketing strategy.

1. Not providing enough information

Property listings serve as the virtual front door to your community. Because of this, your listing should provide all the information necessary for renters to make an informed decision about leasing as well as further inquiring about your property.

Worried you might not be providing correct/enough information about your community? Take a look at the checklist below.

• How to contact your property (address, phone number email)
• Your location on Google Maps
• A form front and center for scheduling a tour
• Digital content, especially images, videos, a virtual tour and floor plans
• Any possible closures or restrictions to your property due to covid

These are the bare minimum of what you should be providing on your listing.

For the best results, remember to always provide as much information as you can so that prospects don’t feel uncomfortable inquiring further, or worse, feel as though they’ve been bait and switched when actually visiting your property.

2. Using outdated content

Many renters have come across a property listing at one point or another and felt like the images used were either old, or low-quality.

One of the biggest mistakes real estate professionals can make - especially during a time where virtual leasing is a necessity - is not updating digital assets to reflect the current state of a community.

In fact, 83% of buyers cited pictures on a property listing as very important.

Moreso, The Wall Street Journal found that buyers spend 60% of their time looking at listing photos, and 20% each on the listing description and agent description.

Basically, images are your most important asset for getting more tours scheduled and leases signed, so quality time and effort should be spent updating them.

In addition to images, floor plans, videos, virtual tours, etc. should all be updated to the proper quality and quantity renters require during their apartment search during this era of virtual leasing.

3. Not managing customer reviews

It is proven that reviews for a property listing can make or break leasing success.

Like most businesses, prospects start by reading what others have said about their experience with your property in order to make an informed and comfortable decision.

However, no matter how hard you try, you won’t always receive 100% positive reviews—which is why you should keep up with customer interactions and act promptly to any negative feedback.

A few best practices for managing reviews are listed below

• Responding to each review (good and bad)
• Requesting tips for how you could improve in the future
• Providing angry consumers with a contact number to speak more personally
• Asking happy consumers for referrals

Regardless of what the review or message is, responding to prospects always looks better than ignoring them. And to renters, constant and open communication goes a long way with trust and loyalty to your business.

4. Not being active on social media

A huge factor in the success of property listings is placement. Without the correct visibility, the content on your listing may not yield the best possible results.

One of the most important platforms real estate professionals should be using right now for virtual leasing strategies is social media outreach.

In fact, due to the ongoing pandemic, 55% of multifamily marketers have invested more into social media marketing to maintain regular business.

The secret, however, is not just to post about your listing—you need to be engaging and interactive with prospects in order to stand out.

A good way to do this is by regularly posting digital assets, relevant resources, local news articles, etc., along with an easily shareable link that potential prospects can use.

And of course, as far as digital assets are concerned, leveraging the content on your listing on social media is guaranteed to turn heads, especially after upgrading your digital tools.

5. Forgetting to regularly optimize listings

In addition to placement, good SEO practices will get your listing the right visibility.

No matter where your property listing is located, i.e. social media, ILS, or any other digital platform, you’ll want to optimize listings to get more eyes on your property, and ultimately, more signed leases.

Below are a few result driven ways to integrate good SEO tactics into your property listings.

• Use keyword phrases
• Alt tags
• Helpful/valuable resources
• Omnichannel marketing
• Updated content

Whether it’s your website, your Google Business listing, or any other listing, it’s important that you regularly optimize your assets so that your content remains helpful and relevant.

Make your listing work for you

Property listings are an extremely valuable asset to have—so putting substantial time and effort into them will bode in your favor.

By regularly tracking analytics as well as updating any out-of-date information. You’ve got a good start to remaining at the top of search results, and even more, streamlining the virtual leasing process to meet occupancy goals during these uncertain times.