Any recommendations on best way to advertise a room

casualguy

Title says it all really..within boards.ie or other websites..
Advertising shared accommodation..all welcome.
Struggling to get many takers through daft.ie & easyrooms.

casualguy

casualguy wrote: »

Title says it all really..within boards.ie or other websites..
Advertising shared accommodation..all welcome.
Struggling to get many takers through daft.ie & easyrooms.

I find that hard to believe... What's wrong with the room? :pac:

athtrasna

I put a room on daft this time last year. Over 100 replies within 3 days.

So what's wrong? Daft is almost impossible to beat

4ensic15

athtrasna wrote: »

So what's wrong? Daft is almost impossible to beat

Its in Cork!

athtrasna

4ensic15 wrote: »

Its in Cork!

Rental market in Cork is very competitive too. Pricing or condition more likely to be an issue?

Michael D Not Higgins

According to OP's other post, the house is in the sticks.
http://www.daft.ie/cork/house-share/donoughmore/bunkilla-donoughmore-cork-899588/

In fairness OP, most people looking for a houseshare are looking in the city and there's equivalently priced places there.

Graham

It's going to take a while longer to find someone happy to house share outside the cities/towns.

If the previous link to the advert on daft is correct, most of the photographs are dire. They make the house look very dark/miserable. Some of the rooms look unfurnished and/or unfinished and the photographer obviously didn't think to clear the junk off the mantle/kitchen-counter or make the bed.

Stage the house a little, tidy-up, make it look inviting and take some photographs that don't make it look like a cave.

Local Uni/colleges may have somewhere you can list the room too, worth checking out.

casualguy

Ok, thanks for the replies..I'll take everything on board.
In regards to being unfurnished in 2 of the rooms, I cant afford it until someone pays for the first month in advance...no other way around that.
One person did call to the house & was impressed & was also wondering why there wasn't more takers. So it must be my end, so I'll improve the presentation. Unfortunately, she was only just starting to drive & found too far out from Apple, where she works.
The location is ideal for a person working in Apple or EMC/Dell & looking for some privacy & space..I worked previously at EMC & the drive is only 15 mins & Apple around the same.
I'm trying to find a website that is geared more towards these 2 companies in particular.

homerjay2005

Michael D Not Higgins wrote: »

According to OP's other post, the house is in the sticks.
http://www.daft.ie/cork/house-share/donoughmore/bunkilla-donoughmore-cork-899588/

In fairness OP, most people looking for a houseshare are looking in the city and there's equivalently priced places there.

320 a month is insane money for a room in the country side. i know people living out there paying that for an entire house, let alone 1 room.

casualguy

Its their own private living area, its more than just a room to be fair..with only kitchen & utility shared & only myself living there..nobody else extra in the future either...the house next door is been rented out for 1200 a month..so the entire houses you refer to must not be great.

Mrs OBumble

What does the "Serviced Property" in the ad mean?

Ad should have some info about the the owner (age-group at least).

Lose the 12 month minimum - in that location, you'll have to take whoever you get.

Photos look suspicious, too: if there's an OO living there already, why does the house look empty apart from rubbish that someone left behind?

homerjay2005

homerjay2005 wrote: »

320 a month is insane money for a room in the country side. i know people living out there paying that for an entire house, let alone 1 room.

Not that close to the city you don't. Houses anywhere reasonable commuting distance to a city aren't cheap to rent nowadays.

Graham

Price is very reasonable for what's on offer. The problem is the description is crap and the photos look cack.

If the OP had spent more than 30 seconds to tidy the place up, write a proper advert and taken decent photographs I don't think he'd have any problems finding a tenant.

What should the OP be highlighting:

• It's easy commuting distance to xxxxx
• It's a suite of rooms so the new housemate gets his/her own:
• - lounge
• - bathroom
• - bedroom
• - occasional use of a guest bedroom
• Bills split 50/50
• Sky TV for the cost of the additional multi-room subscription.
• Sharing the house with only 1 other person.

Oh and did I mention, replace the awful photographs. The last time I took photographs that looked that miserable it was to send the insurance company after a house-fire.

Added:

Don't include photographs of the empty rooms or get yourself to Ikea and put in an inexpensive couch, coffee table etc.

newacc2015

There is so many things wrong with this ad. First of all, the ad text is ridiculous. Phrase it like an estate agent would. Use proper full sentences and get rid of all the random punctuation marks. It makes the text look like a rant on youtube.

The photos are unforgivable. If you dont have a proper camera ie not a poor quality smart phone one, borrow a camera or buy one. Photos are the most important thing on an Ad. Im not going to drive a hours round trip from Cork City if I dont know what your place looks like

You need to give a description about yourself. I know you say they have a separate bathroom etc, but they are still living with you. If they are twenty something they want to know whether you are twenty something or eighty something. You dont say any of that

I dont see how you can expect someone to move into an semi-unfurnished house that you plan to furnish over the next coming months. I wouldnt move in personally unless I got a decent discount on the rent

pilly

I agree with others to update the photos.

Also simplify the ad a bit, no need to list all the details about bill etc. Anyone who comes to view will ask these questions. Do just mention that there's free broadband as that's a necessity for a lot of people.

Have you thought about a local paper also?

curioush

Getting the photos & ad on the website sorted today based on recommendations here. Will see if that makes a difference first. Trying to get a loan to cover the costs of required furniture as well.

casualguy

I have updated the ad with 1 remaining photo of the house exterior to be added later tonight.
If any of the previous posters have time to review the ad, that would be great.
Thanks.

Graham

casualguy wrote: »

I have updated the ad with 1 remaining photo of the house exterior to be added later tonight.
If any of the previous posters have time to review the ad, that would be great.
Thanks.

Nice work, that's a massive improvement on the previous ad.

The 'tidiness & cleanliness' comment may put some people off but if it's particularly important to you that may not be a bad thing, it may just take a little longer to find someone of the same mindset.

pilly

casualguy wrote: »

I have updated the ad with 1 remaining photo of the house exterior to be added later tonight.
If any of the previous posters have time to review the ad, that would be great.
Thanks.

Excellent improvement, looks a lot better.

Graham

I see there's a couple of new photos recently added and you're prepared to accept couples.

I probably wouldn't change the ad but if you do find a couple I'd suggest the bills are split 3 ways rather than 50/50.

Miaireland

As others have said that Daft is the way to go. If you know people working in EMC and Apple I would suggest asking them to put a card up on the staff notice board with details of the room. Might be worth putting it up in the Student Centre in UCC seeking Post Grad students.

casualguy

Daft has the option of couple friendly and it then appears as couples accepted or not on the ad.
What I'm trying to get across is that whoever stays can have a boyfriend or girlfriend stay over, but if it was over 3 nights a week, I would insist on extra rent and as Graham pointed out, split the bills extra.
Maybe I'm not clear enough on "occasional use of guest bedroom", it's meant to include what I said on the previous line, occasional guest may be better.
But I also don't want to increase the clutter on the ad.
I think "couples not accepted" looks like I'm against boyfriend/girlfriend, which I'm not. Pity daft can't remove this option. I emailed them & they said they can't.
Any suggestions welcome.
Since I redid the ad, there has been a lot of views, but only one caller so far. The general response since I originally put up the ad, is that its too far from the city. Early days yet though, google map doesn't help either, it takes me 15-20mins to get to the city at my ease, it states 30-35mins.
@Miaireland I have got a person from EMC today to put up the ad. I renewed my house insurance today and they informed me I'm only covered for paying guests that are professionals, no students (understandable).

dory

Looks good. One thing - is there a wardrobe in the room? I can only see two chest of drawers. As a professional a place with no proper wardrobe is a definite no no. Have to have somewhere for my formal wear.

Graham

dory wrote: »

As a professional a place with no proper wardrobe is a definite no no. Have to have somewhere for my formal wear.

There's a dress code for mods now?

casualguy

Clothes rail will be added soon..slopes of the roof won't allow a wardrobe.
I would consider a professional as a person who has a full time job, not necessarily an office /formal job..just my view.

athtrasna

Thread temporarily closed for consultation

Michael D Not Higgins

Thread re-opened

casualguy

Off topic a bit, anyone know of a furniture store that sells coffee tables & TV units on the cheap side if possible in Cork.

Graham

Adverts/Donedeal, just be careful what you're buying.

ongarboy

Owner
- 34 yr old male, easy going, reasonable, respectful of a person's space & privacy
- Open to suggestions of making your stay more comfortable
- First months rent will go towards extra furniture and improvements
- No students/non-smokers

Does the part in bold mean you don't want students or non smokers??

casualguy

My insurance won't cover students as paying guests & I don't smoke.
In my experience of previous friends staying over and my only previous tenant, when I said to smoke outside, they always smoked inside when I wasn't there. if its lashing rain or snowing outside, what do you think a person is going to do? I also think it leaves an odour, which is difficult to remove.
May come across as discriminating, but that's my experience so far.

Graham

casualguy wrote: »

My insurance won't cover students as paying guests & I don't smoke.
In my experience of previous friends staying over and my only previous tenant, when I said to smoke outside, they always smoked inside when I wasn't there. if its lashing rain or snowing outside, what do you think a person is going to do? I also think it leaves an odour, which is difficult to remove.
May come across as discriminating, but that's my experience so far.

I think it's the wording that OngarBoy was referring to, it's a bit ambiguous:

ongarboy wrote: »

No students/non-smokers

You could read that as

No Students
No non-smokers

or

No Students
Non-Smokers

casualguy

True..

Graham

Maybe something along the lines of Double room in a non-smoking house.

casualguy

Switched to double room..if there's no non-smokers out there, so be it.

casualguy

Looks like I have someone moving in under a license agreement. Any advice on this particular type of agreement & anything that should be particularly stated in it? Any other advice would be appreciated as well.