A good listing doesn't bring more applicants, it brings better ones. Fewer pointless calls, fewer no-shows, faster decisions. Writing a rental listing takes half an hour, but that half hour decides whether you have a good tenant two weeks from now or are still sitting by your phone.
Photos
- In daylight, of a clean, tidy flat.
- At least one of every room, in landscape.
- Make the first picture your best room, not the stairwell.
A few more small things that make a big difference:
- Clean and tidy before you shoot. Dishes on the counter and clothes on a chair make the flat look cheaper.
- Shoot from the corner of the room, holding your phone level. The room looks bigger and better proportioned.
- Turn the lights on and open the curtains. Dark photos put most applicants off.
- The bathroom and kitchen matter just as much as the living room. Tenants look at these most closely.
- A photo of the neighbourhood or the balcony says a lot that text can't.
Don't overdo it. Wide-angle, heavily edited photos lead to disappointment at the viewing, and the applicant turns around on the spot.
Exact numbers
State the rent, expected utilities and the deposit. If you're not sure what to ask, check Budapest rental prices.
Clear numbers filter best. Anyone who can see that the total monthly cost and the move-in amount don't fit their budget won't apply. That saves you time too.
It's worth listing:
- the rent, and whether it includes the common charges (közös költség),
- the expected monthly utilities in summer and winter,
- the deposit,
- the earliest move-in date,
- the minimum rental period, if there is one.
A short, honest description
Three or four sentences: size, rooms, floor, heating, transport. If something's missing, for example there's no lift, say so. That way there are no surprises at the viewing.
The description shouldn't read like ad copy. Words like "stunning", "unique" and "dream home" say nothing. "4 minutes to the metro", "quiet room facing the courtyard" and "new washing machine" do.
A good example:
Furnished two-room, 52 m² flat on the 3rd floor, with a lift. Gas boiler heating; average winter utilities are HUF 35,000. Tram 3 minutes, metro 10 minutes on foot. Pets by arrangement. Available from November 1 at the earliest, for at least one year.
Say what you need from applicants
If you state up front what information you'll ask for, good applicants come prepared. What's acceptable is covered in our article on tenant screening.
It also helps to say who you're looking for, for example "one or two adults", "non-smoking", "long term". You're not excluding people, you're helping applicants decide whether the flat suits them. Keep equal treatment rules in mind here too: you can't choose based on a protected characteristic such as ethnic origin or religion.
How to handle applicants
After a good listing, messages arrive fast. A few rules keep the process under control:
- Reply within a day, with a short, standard message.
- Group your viewings, for example several slots in one afternoon. That way you don't make five trips.
- Ask for documents after the viewing, and only from serious applicants.
- Decide quickly. Good tenants are looking at other flats too. Wait a week and they're gone.
We wrote about organising viewings here, and about comparing applicants fairly here.
FAQ
How many photos does a good listing need?
Roughly 8–15. At least one of every room, and two or three of the important ones.
Should I state the price or say "negotiable"?
State it. "Negotiable" puts off many applicants and prompts pointless calls from the rest.
When should I advertise?
One or two months before the current contract ends. That keeps the gap between the current tenant moving out and the new one moving in as short as possible.
Rentkey
A listing published from Rentkey gets its own link that you can share anywhere, and applicants apply with their Rentkey Passport. That way you get a summary of every applicant in the same format.
