The luxury rental market is still moving, but it’s nowhere near as buoyant as it once was.  There are a few agencies in the area with some inventory that has been around for a little while.

When the usual methods no longer work as well, either because of a slowing market or clients becoming wise to them, it’s time to change tactics.  We need to constantly refine our marketing strategies in order to keep moving inventory and turning properties around.

The Naples luxury rentals market hasn’t suffered as much as that of other parts of the country.  That’s mainly down to the area and the climate rather than anything different on our part, but we accept the help wherever it might come from!

Using home staging to effectively market and rent a property is an old trick, but one that seemed to fall by the wayside when times were better and properties were almost renting themselves.  Now it takes a little more effort to move a property, and home staging becomes viable again.

Home staging is just another term for preparing a home for rental, or sale.  It involves preparing the home itself, but completing repairs and maintenance so everything works, tidying up things like paintwork, interior and exterior and making sure everything is as nice as it can be. 

There is also an element of theater involved in that we try to paint a picture of a lifestyle we want to portray in order to make the property appeal to the target audience.  That might mean renting furniture for an empty property, the judicious use of lifestyle props, artwork, flowers and other indicators of wealth and a perceived way of life.

All these things acts as psychological triggers in the mind of the renter or buyer which can make them feel at home or relate to a property much better than if it wasn’t dressed.  It engages them more and creates a kind of bond between the property and the kind of lifestyle the client wants to lead.

It isn’t really viable to dress a property for each individual client, it’s much easier to dress for the home.  If it’s on a golf resort then it makes sense to dress it to work with that.  Adding high end golf clubs, expensive golf shoes in the dressing room, practice net in a corner of the yard, that kind of thing.  If the property is on the water, then a more nautical or fishing lifestyle is in order.  It doesn’t have to be over the top, but enough to relate the home to the environment and the likely interest of the client.

There will come a time when the Naples luxury rentals market regains its former glory, and buoyancy.  Until then real estate agents will use every trick in the book to keep our properties moving.