Listing my property

Before listing your property it is worth taking a minute or two to think about your listing. You want to attract as many good quality tenants as you can so it's best to put as few barriers in front of prospective tenants as possible.

Here are a few hints to help you:

• It is a good idea to advertise your property as soon as you know it is becoming available perhaps upto 6-8 weeks in advance if possible.
• We recomend asking for 1 weeks rent in advance and 3 or 4 weeks bond. You may well want to ask for more but remember the more you ask for the less attractive the deal is to the tenant. If you ask for no bond good luck!
• 95%+ of the enquiries we receive are for unfurnished properties. If your property is furnished would you be prepared to empty it if necessary?
• By stating 'no pets' you are potentially shutting the door on many good quality tenants. Cats rarely cause problems however dogs on the other hand can be a different story. BUT before you write them off remember there are dogs and dogs! Some are smaller than cats, many live outdoors and despite their reputation most are well behaved. Would you say no to the perfect tenant because they had a well behaved dog that lived outside?
• In our experience most landlords are anti-smoking. If you fall into this camp you may wish to allow smoking outside. Inevitably some tenants my abuse this but remember if your tenancy agreement says no smoking inside you have every right to use the bond to pay to sanatise or make good your property.
• If your property is clearly well suited to children but you state it's unsuitable you are likely to reduce the number of enquiries by at least half. There are few single people or couples out there that want 3 or 4 bedroom properties! Remember not all children are out of control scallywags and even if they do any damage the bond is there to take care of it. Please also be aware it is illegal to discriminate against children.

We hope that helps.