News

Importance of professional photography and floorplans

The evolution of the online search for rental properties is fast evolving.  Gone are the days when just a picture or two for a rental property was enough to spark a tenants interest.  These days more than ever prospective tenants are demanding good quality information on any prospective rental.  They want to see lots of quality pictures, taken with a wide angled lens that helps gain perspective of a room and they want to see a floorplan.  Get on realestate.com yourself in the rental section and see how frustrating it is when you can't gain a clear understanding of a property.

Tenants don't want to waste precious time turning up to an open home to discover it is not remotely what they are interested in and data is starting to show that for your rental property to be competitive in todays market, professional photography is worth its weight in gold.  Not only does it attract more inquiry quicker, it gets more feet through the door and has resulted in properties being let faster.  

As an example in the period Sep 2015 to Feb 2016 we let 15 properties in Seaford Meadows with 21 days on market average (pretty darn good compared to the average of all companies at 36 days*... just another reason why you should choose us as your property managers!).

Interestingly though, of those 15 properties 9 had professional photography and their days on market was reduced to 17 days!!  That is 4 days faster and with the average rent of these properties $350, is equivalent to an additional $200 in rent.  Considering professional photography is a once off charge of $90, it has more than paid for itself.

Other benefits of professional photography are;

• you can use them again and again each time you need to market your property
• you can utilse the images if you ever need to market the property for sale
• the cost of the images is tax deductible

These days we are able to rustle up a floorplan for most clients either by searching for past sales information, or obtaining it from the building plans.  In the event this isn't possible, the professionals can come out and create one for $75.  Once again this is a one off, tax deductible expense that is highly recommended.

Next time your investment property is up for lease, consider allowing us to upgrade your images and improve your return.

* Comparison sourced from CoreLogic RP Data Analysis of the suburb Seaford Meadows