Top Tips for Advertising Your Spare Room for Rent
Are you looking to let your spare room go but not sure how to capture the right tenant’s attention? With the competition in rental markets, knowing how to showcase your space can make all the difference. In this guide, we’ll share top tips for advertising your spare room on Room for Rent, focusing on setting the right monthly rental price and creating a compelling listing.
Setting the right price for your property
Pricing your spare room accurately is a crucial first step. The following factors can significantly influence the perceived value of your space:
- Proximity to the city centre
- Close to a University
- Public transport
- Shops
- Facilities
- Condition
- Is the room furnished
Top tip: Research comparable rental rooms in your local area to set a competitive rental price that will attract great tenants.
Understanding local market trends can guide you in setting the right price for your property. Factors such as occupancy rates, rental speed, and seasonal trends will give you insights into the local market dynamics. Broader economic and demographic trends, like changes in employment rates, income levels, and population growth, can also heavily influence rental demand and pricing strategies.
Online tools, property management software, and real estate analytics platforms offer real-time data and predictive insights concerning market trends relevant to room rentals, enabling you to align your pricing with ongoing market shifts.
When appraising your property, don’t forget to evaluate its unique features or potential drawbacks. Additional areas, such as storage, outdoor spaces, and access to gardens, balconies, or terraces, can add appeal and value to your listing. If you’re near local parks and amenities, be sure to mention that to attract people. The most important thing for room renters, apart from the room, is the location for easy commuter links and car parking facilities, especially if outside of London. Other benefits to pique the interest of your target demographic, such as schools, bars, and gyms, help prospects envision the lifestyle of renting your property. And don’t forget to provide clear details about parking availability, including permit zones if necessary.
Online rental valuation tools can quickly and accurately estimate your spare room’s rental value. You can use:
- Zoopla
- Rightmove
- OnTheMarket
- Stessa
These tools can help you determine competitive rental prices for your spare room, ensuring you attract potential tenants without undervaluing your space.
Crafting an appealing listing
Once you’ve determined the right price and deposit for your spare room, the next step is to create an attractive listing. A detailed and honest listing is critical to attracting ideal tenants and setting clear expectations. Your listing should include:
- Monthly rent
- Security deposit
- Location
- Car parking
- Overnight guests allowed
- Availability date
- Lease length
- Facilities
- Square footage
- Utilities
- Pet policy
- Screening process
- Tenant criteria
Writing a compelling property description goes beyond listing basic details like price and location. You need to elaborate on the home’s distinctive features and attributes, creating a vivid picture that entices potential tenants. Choose your adjectives carefully to describe the property accurately and positively, and ensure your grammar and punctuation are flawless.
Remember, your property description should provide additional value to your listing, so avoid repeating basic information visible elsewhere.
Your listing should showcase your property’s unique selling points and include a compelling description. A property’s location, condition, and amenities are critical in assessing its rental value. If your property is in a prime location or has highly desirable amenities, these should be highlighted in your listing.
High-quality photographs and a short video will greatly influence prospective tenants’ interest in your property, so including them in your listing is essential. Potential tenants have come to expect high-quality images in online property listings, and badly taken images can quickly lead to a lack of interest. Your photos should showcase the best features of your property. For example, a large modern garden could be a stand-out feature of your property, so including plenty of photos will draw people in. Accurately convey the layout of the rooms and consider using a wide-angle lens to enhance space perception. Good natural lighting can also enhance the appeal of your photos.
Using Room For Rent to advertise
Now that you’ve crafted an appealing listing, you need to decide where to advertise it. Room for Rent is a trusted property listing platform for several reasons. Room for Rent is a prop-tech company based in London (UK). Our aim is to improve transparency and bridge the gap between landlords and tenants. We help homeowners, estate agents, and student accommodation providers find the right tenants and assist those looking to rent in finding the right property for them.
We are proud to challenge the market by offering listings for FREE, allowing landlords to advertise their rooms in HMOs for 60 days with unlimited revisions. Our platform allows landlords to upload up to several photos per room, 1 video and a floor plan for each listing. You can also upload images of common areas just once, and they will be attached for you along with all the images of various rooms in the house, ensuring absolute clarity and transparency for tenants. We also provide instant messaging and a free video call service to help tenants find the right housemates and to assist landlords in negotiating a move with ease. As soon as the tenant contacts you, we send you an SMS so you do not miss out on tenants.
The website is very user friendly and very feature rich meeting the needs of a busy HMO landlord like me.
Amit Bhargava
At Room for Rent:
- Cost-Effective: You can post listings for FREE per room, saving on estate agent fees.
- Ease of Use: The platform allows you to create multiple listings in a single workflow and edit them at no extra cost.
- Visibility: Optional add-ons are available to make your listing stand out, such as labelling your ad as ‘Urgent’ or refreshing it to appear at the top of the results.
- Safe and Easy Video Viewings: The platform supports video calls with potential tenants directly within its system.
- Optimum Accuracy: Hyper-localised searching powered by Google to help tenants understand the local area and transport links without needing to contact the landlord.
To simplify your property and listing and maximise your rental income, it’s quick to get started.
Screening potential tenants
Verifying references and conducting background checks are crucial parts of the screening process. Tenant references provide detailed information about potential tenants through a structured process involving checks and verifications, with results typically available from professional services within 2-3 days. The referencing process may include:
- Credit assessments
- Employment verification
- Criminal conviction checks
- Bank statements
- Proof of address
- Proof of identity
- Previous landlord references
Contacting previous landlords to confirm a tenant’s rental history, including whether they have rented previously, reliability in rent payment, and property upkeep, is critical. Conducting Right to Rent checks to ensure compliance with immigration laws is also critical. Reference checks can incur costs, so pre-screen tenants based on minimum criteria to manage expenses effectively.
Interviewing prospective tenants allows you to assess their compatibility with your lifestyle and any existing occupants. During the interview, convey professionalism and friendliness to establish a positive and open dialogue. Active listening is crucial to understanding the prospective tenant’s situation and needs. Be clear about the living situation and expectations during the interview to ensure the tenant understands what’s on offer and what to expect.
Ask prospective tenants about their lifestyle, such as work schedule, hobbies, and social habits, to ensure their routine is compatible with yours. Inquire about the tenant’s rental history and reasons for moving to identify any potential red flags. Ensure all questions comply with fair housing laws, avoiding discrimination based on race, religion, national origin, sex, disability, or family status.
Summary
We hope you found these top tips useful. Advertising your property to rent involves a series of steps, from setting the right price and crafting an appealing listing to screening potential tenants and understanding legal requirements.
Join the Room for Rent Community Embrace, the no-cost opportunity to advertise your room for rent. Sign up today for free and become part of a thriving community of landlords benefiting from our comprehensive, cost-effective platform.
FAQs
How do I advertise a room for rent on Room for Rent?
Sign up for a Room for Rent account and start easily listing your room with detailed descriptions and photos.
What are the costs associated with advertising my property?
Listing your property on Room for Rent is free, with no hidden charges or fees.
What kind of properties can I list on Room for Rent?
Single rooms, apartments, shared houses, and HMOs.
What information should I include in my rental listings?
Provide detailed information on the room size, available amenities, rent amount, deposit requirement, and any specific rules. This will help potential renters make informed decisions.
How can I make my rental listing stand out?
When advertising your property, be sure to use high-quality images and a short video, provide a detailed and honest description, and emphasise any unique features. This will attract more potential tenants and increase your chances of finding the right renter for your property.
Can I manage multiple rental listings at once?
With Room for Rent, you can easily manage multiple rental listings from your dashboard, allowing you to keep track of all your properties and monthly rent without any hassle.
We’d love to hear from you if you have a room to rent and want to take advantage of our service.