Diavolina, I wouldn’t worry if I was you, I don’t think anyone is crazy enough to squat an advertised property where you are going to come over for a showing. Also, if you closed / locked everything it’s a break-in which is going to be taken care of by the police immediately.

I’m worried about putting a postcode in the description, and wasn’t going to – this is because my property is empty at the moment and I’m worried that someone might go along and somehow get in and squat (even if I have double checked any points of entry are locked!).

I suppose I’m mad in thinking this? I will take no offence!
Thanks in advance

My free adverts never appear on gumtree. Not unless I email gumtree and ask them to look into the matter. I used to think it was because I am in France, and I have a french IP address. But when I was in London last month, I tried posting an advert on Gumtree and it still didn’t appear, even taking into consideration the 4 hour lag.

I’ve never used the paid service, so i can’t comment on that. But i’ve never had a problem with the free service. From what I remember, it can take a few hours for the advert to go live- it doesn’t happen just instantly.

You added some great tips there. MANY thanks. I’ve updated my post to include the postcode tip, along with providing a link to any other useful sources regarding the property.

Can’t believe you viewed 70 properties- I don’t think I would have had the motivation or willpower!

I think you hit the nail on the head when you said “be honest”- it saves so much time for both parties.

Kind regards

One thing I’ve found incredibly helpful in filtering potential properties is the availability of floorplans, or even just good room measurements. I was looking for a 4 bed house, but so many of the places I went to see I walked out of instantly because one of the supposedly double bedrooms was big enough for a double bed and nothing else. Complete waste of time for me, and complete waste of time – and money – for the agents. It might take you half an hour to do a rough floorplan, but if an abortive viewing takes half an hour, you’re saving immediately, plus you have it ready for when you tenants move out.

Remember that you can also put a link in the ad, so if you’ve got a website of your own – or even a flickr account you can put some photos and descriptive text on – it’s worth putting up even more photos, more detailed descriptions, or a floorplan and linking to it.

Another really helpful thing is putting in the full postcode, so that Gumtree can add a google maps map. A remarkable number of people don’t do this. Particularly in London, a couple of streets can make the difference between a lovely area and a crap one, which, again, can result in a lot of wasted time. I’ve even had some landlords try to book a viewing over the phone without giving me the address, telling me they would “confirm on the day”. Needless to say, most of the time, as soon as they’ve confirmed the address I’ve pulled out of the viewing because it’s not a nice area.

Be HONEST; if it’s a bit scruffy, say so, but contextualise it. “Decoration is clean and basic; not top notch, but this is reflected in the rental price”. Plenty of people are happy with basic, but don’t try to pretend a property is something it’s not. Again, there have been so many places where I’ve walked in and left within 30 seconds, because when asked about the level of finish, people have lied. Complete waste of time. I’m not going to change my mind about what I want because you’ve got me through the door. It just annoys me, and makes me less likely to deal with you in the future.

Having seen close to 70 houses over the past three months before finally finding something suitable, this comes from long and bitter experience!