Hi, I’d like some advice please. Our tenant is leaving in a few weeks, but she has taken some lovely photos of the property furnished. We will be letting it unfurnished.
I just wondered if we could add some of her furnished photos to the advert, along with our usual unfurnished ones. Would it help potential tenants to visualise how the rooms could look or will it confuse people. Obviously we would make it very clear that it was an unfurnished let.
Anu thoughts ?
do not do it ,you may like it , others may not.
Whenever i have done this the response has been noticeably higher than without. There was no drop in quaity of applicants, in fact the opposite was true. I repeated this test multiple times and reached the same conclusion each time. There was no negtive effect. Maybe others have had a poor experience in doing this.
I made it clear in advert that the property is unfurnished.
whatever you say in the advert, you will get people who will claim they thought it was furnished.
Easily confirmed that it isnt in the first message you send to them, or in an autoresponder.
Don’t do it. Furniture makes a place look smaller and their taste may be different. Nobody is not going to view a place because the photos show no furniture if they really are looking for an unfurnished place. You will get people showing up asking if you can furnish and wasting your time
If you want some less plain photos you can ‘dress’ a place for photos with a plant on the mantelpiece or a toaster /kettle in the kitchen and maybe a picture or two hanging on walls or a rug or other small touches but remove them all for viewings. Or just add to your images using chatgpt. But keep it simple uncluttered and well lit showing lots of natural light and emphasing the spaciousness if you can.
If they can’t imagine what a sofa or a bed will look like then they will be disappointed with anything you provide or don’t provide and probably best avoided. What you want is someone who already has lots of furniture and knows exactly how it will look and comes to the viewing with a measuring tape.
Good luck
I have never had a problem renting out all unfurnished ,showing empty rooms.
Just to add to this, there’s a reason why new builds listed for sale by estate agents are always staged as furnished in all their marketing.
But I only use furnished pics if they show the property in a very high standard and neutral in decor.