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It’s always challenging being a business owner of a boutique real estate agency, to consistently find valuable points of difference over our competitors.
While I am proud to say that there is a good selection of value-added services we provide that most other agencies do not, I’m especially pleased with my latest find – virtual furniture editing.
It’s not an uncommon tool used by sales agents on property listings for sale, but I have found that there doesn’t seem to be many property managers taking advantage of this technological advancement for their rental properties.
My agency focuses on residential property management and we provide an all-encompassing service solution to our clients. For years, we have been styling our vacant rental properties’ kitchens and bathrooms, using a range of homeware stored in a large cupboard in our office.
Our goal has been to transform an empty-looking property into a more appealing vision for professional photography and marketing purposes, and provide a lived-in look for viewings.
It’s been a hugely successful experiment, with many prospective tenants attending our opens commenting on how much better our styling adds to the presentation of a property and how unusual it is that no other agent is doing this.
They also say that it’s far easier to remember our properties for lease and they can picture themselves living in the property because of our styling items and how nicely the property presents.
Having researched photography companies and their virtual furniture packages, I can now offer my landlords a new combined service of styling their kitchen and bathrooms myself, plus the addition of virtual furniture in the photos of empty rooms at a very reasonable rate.
It has proven excellent results in us being able to achieve maximum interest levels and numbers attending our open for inspections, with the subsequent leasing of that property quickly, at the highest rental return possible.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sarah Latham
Sarah has over 20 years’ experience in property management on Sydney's Lower North Shore. She previously managed a large property management department for eight and half years until mid last year when she made the decision to team up with an ex-colleague of hers, Jaala Cusack, and open her own boutique property management business called Latham Cusack Property Services. Based in Cremorne, they manage properties along the Lower North Shore. Their main focus is to offer a more personalised and proactive style of property management – one dedicated to listening to and meeting their clients’ individual needs.
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