New York Area House Listing

[Musetta]

ok gang...trying to create a listing for the NY area house (!)

The listing is not "live" yet - the duplicate bedroom photos will be replaced with ones of the dining room and sitting room - hopefully this weekend...it's raining and dreary right now, so waiting for a bit of sun! Rates are not set yet either (going silly here trying to come up with a reasonable rate)

I'd love and thoughts, opinions, tips, etc. asa I plan on spending the weekend tweaking (well...and photographing)

Probably need to cut some...I have a tendancy to be rathere wordy

http://www.holidaylettings.co.uk/homedi ... force=true

Thanks!

[Chianti]

Musetta

I envy the person who will spend their holidays in your house. You've done a cracking job

Only the slightest tweeking, but to be honest your photos hardly need it.

Railway stations don't excite me, there must be something nicer to replace that photo.

The 2nd kitchen photo is too stark. Can you dress it with your own pieces?

In the 1st bedroom photo I would place the book at a slight angle.

The bedroom shot with the tray on the bed, note the bed covering needs straightening.

What about chairs on that super terrace?

The 2 photos of the street are absolutely fantastic, especially the autumn one and your captions are really inviting.

Only read a couple lines of the script, but sounds a little like an estate agent wrote it.

I don't think you are going to have any problems renting your house and wish you the best of luck

Chianti

[catherinedonegal]

musette: first, your house looks gorgeous.

the changes i would suggest are:

pic 4 on the gallery 'the second of 2 sunny ...' . it just looks a bit untidy and unbalanced. is there no bedhead? the pillows are a bit skeewiff.

pic 7 in gallery: don't really think you need a pic of cupboards.

pic 8 in gallery: could be a good idea for a pic but i think the way it is taken with so much black either side is rather unprofessional and off-putting. could you zoom it in a bit/trim and then enlarge. i take it you can't take it face on coz there's houses across the street?

not sure we need a pic of the railway station but if you think it is pretty then perhaps a better, less blued out pic would be good.

i love the 'a walk to the village in autumn' pic - glorious. and likewise the street one.

the pic 'relax outdoors on the deck' is too pixilated and grey looking as is the pic of the house beside it.

sorry if i sound nit picking but i think you have such a fab house in a brilliant location that it would be great to have all the pics up to scratch.

if i ever get to go to ny, your house would be such a dream place to stay!

[Musetta]

Thank you both SO much for the fresh eyes!! I really, really appreciate it!

The house is not yet furnished actually...so making do with what I have because I want to get it up and listed ASAP (so nope, no head-boards yet and no garden furniture yet until I have it delivered! don't want to hold up listing though...will just switch photos out)

had visions of going around and taking tons of photos today...and...wouldn't ya know, it's grey and rainy out!

will play around and see if I can tweak others I have - bit desperate because I don't have many...and, for some reason, once I add them to Holidaylettings, they won't let me delete 'em unless I have another one to replace it! (hence all the kitchen ones - was trying to see what looked best...but I think I will just go with the first one) Train one just ended up there because I had a bedroom one that looked awful on it...and needed to switch it out with something and that's all I had (!) need to find something to replace the one of the cupboards now and will crop the stained glass window one....was trying not to have a vertical one so will see what I can do (yes - there is a house right next door which is why it can't be taken straight on)

Chainti - hahaha too funny that I was sounding like an estate agent was trying to to sound together and professional *laugh* will do some re-writes and try to some more like myself (!)

having a really terrible time with pricing...can't find comparable and, it's funny...have spent so much time lately looking at the Italy market....I'm totally lost in my own neighborhood! Have a possible booking for two weeks *fingers crossed* just from word of mouth...so need to get my act together and come up with some sort of price to quote them tonight.

[Chianti]

Musetta

Your house is pumpkin pie with cream, apple cider, fried chicken with corn fritters, apple pie and ice cream, Little League, High School Prom. It's so traditional, "All American" so I would advertise on that basis, but of course, I'm thinking of the foreign market and your biggest market may be in the US, however, anyone living from the middle of the country to the west coast will still go for that sort of image.

With your house people are renting into that "All American" lifestyle for a short while and I would sell that like crazy, plus the comuting time to New York which you have done.

Just had an idea of a photo, some up market shopping bags next to the bed or in another photo, as if you had just come home from a day of shopping in New York. Or a glammy dress thrown across the bed with shoes on the floor beneath.

I had no idea that once you loaded photos on HL you couldn't delete them, so see why you had the difficulty. To be honest I think you've done the right thing, as those you have now will still bring in enquiries.

Good luck, but don't think it's needed.

Chianti

[Musetta]

Musetta
Just had an idea of a photo, some up market shopping bags next to the bed or in another photo, as if you had just come home from a day of shopping in New York. Or a glammy dress
Chianti

oooooo....I like that one a lot (!) great idea..ha! now have to go through my closet and attic and see if I even HAVE any fancy-schmancy bags...probably do form the last visit from my younger sisters-in-law! (also have a nice one of my family making a snowman in the garden...but I think my husband may kill me if I put the photo of him in an ad )

STILL raining!!!! so camera is still sitting here ready to go.

[A-two]

Musetta,
I have sent your link at HL to the family arriving June 4th, transferring to us on the 7th. I think it looks fine for now. They may have already booked hotel in Manhattan by now, and they are flying into JFK, not Newark, but I will let you have any feedback I receive. If they are interested, you will need a rate for 3 nights that competes with mid-range hotel for mum, dad, and 3 girls age 11,14,16. I imagine 2 hotel rooms for 3 nights would be in the region of about $1,500? So it would have to be less than that to justify the extra commute, maybe try for $1,200? I didn't quote a price, but since you have $2,200 for a whole week, they might expect to pay less than $1,200 for shorter stay. Is it worth asking for less to get the ball rolling?

[Ju]

I like that one a lot (!) great idea..ha! now have to go through my closet and attic and see if I even HAVE any fancy-schmancy bags...

No no no - come on girl - use it as an excuse to go shopping to the kind of place where you get fancy-schmancy bags. Its probably tax deductable or something!

[Musetta]

yes, please thank you SO MUCH!!!!!! even if they are not interested, I wouold love to hear any comments

...have another possible 2 week booking in July *fingers crossed* just by word-of-mouth...so looks like I need to get some advertising going this week and try and see if I'm not too terribly late for the summer season.

(was thinking $1100?...or $900? for the 3 night maybe?? what do you guys all think?)

[Chianti]

Musetta

Perfect, so afterwards you can go out and buy those fancy - schmancy bags

What fun


Added

I've just had another look at your pics, that dining room one is very smart and the stained glass window looks great. I'm guessing you just cropped it, whatever, it really looks good.

Chianti

[A-two]

Can you cover everything at $900? My cleaners have dumped a huge increase on me this week, 6 months after I published my rates for this season. End of stay clean just went up from $120 to $200 and linens for 4 bedrooms (3 queens, 2 twins) came in at $91 this week. Add to that complimentaries, propane for gas BBQ, household basics, utilities, and I am now looking at a minimum of $450+ cost regardless of length of stay. I would definitely try and keep it under psychological barrier of $1,000 if you can. If you are allowed to offer less than a full week week stay, price it at maybe somewhere around $325 per night, with 3 night minimum stay. Which would bring it in at $975 for these folks. As I say, the decision may already be made, but let me have the price and what it includes by PM. You never know, they may cancel hotel if your place works better for them and they can save on rates.

p.s. Also, I think it would be good to have available: what is the cost of the commute for 3 days for this family, there and back from Manhattan? What is the cost of cab from Newark? What is the cost of transfer from JFK to the house?

[Musetta]

will discus with my other half and PM you...

as for covering costs...no...but probably won't cover costs at that weekly rate either (would have to book a heck of a lot of weeks)

Housekeeping around here will be about that but I will probably do the laundry myself (but have them do the ironing!) to save a bit. Will go a bit lower than usual for them just to have a bit comming in to help cover furnishings, etc. on top of the normal mortgage, taxes, insurance, utilities, etc. but do want to make sure (in the future) that daily rates are high enough to encourage at least one week bookings to make my life a bit easier

p.s. thanks Chainti yes..trying to get somthing done even with the dull weather - glad they are looking a bit better!

[A-two]

Musetta,
I just added a ps above. We can talk by PM, but I think at this very early stage, you need to think of it as something rather than nothing. As we all know, as soon as you have a bit more lead time, you can raise rates to more realistic levels, but right now........

[declanja]

Hi,

Love you house! It has a real American feel to it. Photos all good in my opinion. My only gripe is with your map. I always like to know where a home is in relation to somewhere I can relate to. In most cases I will zoom out until I see a town/ city I have heard of, or the coast etc. I had to zoom out and out until coming to Newark to get a feel for where you are. Thats a very small complaint. Best of luck!

[Musetta]

do you know how to fix the map size on HLettings? they only gave me that whole region one to "pin" my location - which is hard even though I lve here to pinpoint it on that map (!) I think (will have to go look) then they put a map link under that that takes your more exact location (?) I agree - zooming is a real pain! Thanks so much for taking the time to have a look!


added: ok ...had a look...do't think I can do anything on that site - see now you mean the "interactive map" link - think it's justa HLettings thing...they give you the regional map (which I think it too big) and then you get the local map of the town (which is too small) thanks for pointing it out! something to look into when I biuld a website for it!