Where are tenants searching for their next rental?

Where are tenants searching for their next rental?

Upad have teamed up with Rightmove in a series of videos sharing best practice and top tips for making the most out of your online ad.

In our next video, James speaks to Sam Mitchell, Head of Lettings at Rightmove, to find out where tenants are searching for their next rental.

Where are tenants searching?

Upad research shows 92% of tenants search online for their next rental, primarily on Rightmove but also other property sites such as Zoopla and Prime Location. Tenants can search in a certain area and add criteria such as price brackets, type of property and number of beds. Sam explains that many tenants set up a search alert on Rightmove for properties in their area that match the criteria they’ve set up. Millions of tenants are registered for this alert because with a fast moving rental market, tenants want ways to try and get ahead of the queue and find their perfect property quickly.

Advertising online

When a property is first advertised on Rightmove, an email is sent out to those registered for the search alert. Sam points out that 50% of the interest an advert will receive will be in the first week of advertising, so it’s important to get your ad right first time. Make sure the property is effectively marketed in the first crucial week. Don’t wait to add photos of the property, finish your description or set an unrealistic rent price. You could miss the rush of initial tenants who receive your property details in their inbox and your advert will start to fall down the listing pages.

Stick to the basics of making sure your property is well presented, decluttered and get professional photos taken. Sam advises that because properties are listed as most recent, you can use marketing tools such as Featured Listing to keep your ad at the top of the search pages, or with a Premium Listing to make sure it stands out with more photos and a highlighted box.

Research shows that Featured Listings can increase tenant interest by 128%. If you’d like to add a Featured Listing to your advert, contact your Account Manager on 0333 240 1220.