Take Pictures While you Can!!

If you have a long term buy and hold property, chances are you will have turnover….actually you can guarantee that you will have turnover.

For this reason, it is a good idea to take pictures while you can (ie. Right after you complete any renovations, painting, etc). 

There are several benefits to doing this:

-          You can continue to use those pictures over and over again whenever you have vacancy! 

-          No more tidying up to take pictures or asking your tenants to clean up after themselves prior to picture taking!

-          Gives you a chance to ‘stage’ the unit slightly to give your pictures that extra “wow” factor!

 Here are some pictures that I have taken of my basement apartment when I renovated last summer. It turned out very nicely and the pictures look quite nice!

Another tip is to save your Kijiji ads on your computer.  Either the “screen shot” of the ad, or just a word document that has the written information. This is a huge time saver, especially if your ads are as detailed as mine, as they can be used again and again.  And each time you make an improvement or think of something else you can just update the ad.

To everyone, the proof is in the pudding.  I recycled my Kijiji ad and used these pictures for this year’s student turnover and had a dozen hits on my ad in the first day, resulting in 5 showings for this week!  I don’t think I’ll have much trouble renting it this year J

Anyone else use this technique?