From the desk:Listing Content / Social Media

$200 to write and shoot my first rental listing. Does that actually matter on a $1,300 apartment?

First rental, closing in three weeks, two bed one bath in a decent part of town. Asking $1,300.

A woman who does listing content for a couple of local agents offered me a package for $200. She'd shoot the unit and write the description. My plan up to now was to take photos on my phone after I clean and write four lines about it myself.

I've read a lot about screening and almost nothing about listings, so I don't know if this is where money helps or where money is wasted. $200 is about five days of rent. If nice photos get me a tenant a week earlier it pays for itself, and I have no idea whether that's how it works. What would I even be handing her, an empty apartment?

Answer

2jessreyes12AU1APRO8

Empty is fine, and honestly easier to shoot than furnished. What matters more than the camera is light and timing, so ask her to come mid morning or mid afternoon on a bright day, with every blind open and every lamp on. If she doesn't ask you about the light before she books a time, that's a signal.

On whether it's worth it at $1,300, the thing photos buy you is the click. Rental sites are a scroll, and your first image is competing with 40 others in the same rent band. A dark phone photo of a hallway loses that fight even if the apartment is better. So what wins the click is a bright first photo showing a room people care about, which is usually the kitchen or the main living space. A gorgeous apartment still loses with a dark lead image.

The writing I'd worry about less. Four honest lines from you that say what's actually good, plus the things people will ask anyway like parking, laundry, pets, and who pays which utility, beats a paragraph of adjectives. Tenants email about the details that are missing, and they scroll past the ones that read like a brochure.

What I'd do at $200 on a first unit: pay her, get the photos, and ask her to send you the raw files as well as the edits so you own them for the next turnover. Then write the description yourself and ask her to fix it. You'll learn how to do it, and photos of an empty clean unit will be usable for years if nothing changes.

$200 to write and shoot my first rental listing. Does that actually matter on a $1,300 apartment?

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