The 6 most typical mistakes made by home seekers
During the last 10 years we have seen many home seekers come and go. In these 10 years we have seen what has worked for the home seekers and what has not worked when it comes to finding a home.
To help you with your search, we want to share our experiences, so you can avoid doing the same errors as other users has made and still is making. Because these are classic errors still happening everyday.
The 6 most typical mistakes made by home seekers
Weak application
The most typical error we see is a weak application send to the landlords. It is in the application you have to show who you are and why you would be a good choice for roommate.
We often see users writing simple messages such as "Hi, is the room still vacant?" or "Hi, I am interested. Can I come and see the room?".
With such a message, only very few would receive an answer from the landlords. The message is simply too impersonal and lacks information.
A good application should be personal and should therefore include information about yourself so the landlords can create an impression of who you are and why you perhaps is the obvious choice for roommate.
2. Standard application
The copy/paste message is yet a classic.
It can take a lot of time to write a good message, so why not just copy the one you have just written and use it for all applications?
But this is a no go.
When you write to the landlords it is not enough writing about yourself, you have to show that you are truly interested in this specific accommodation.
It is far too easy to see when a message is a standard message and the landlords hate standard messages. They want to see that you have read their ad and taken the time to write a personal message. You can do this by referring to something stated in the ad that can't be used in a standard message.
3. Lack of profile picture and text
Would you invite a stranger in to your home without knowing how the person looks? Probably not. And therefore it is a big mistaske if you don't have uploaded a profile picture. When you have send your message to the landlords they want to set a face on the person behind the message. Without a picture it can be harder to relate to you and the landlords will most likely choose another person with a picture.
Have you not filled out your profile text as well, you should start writing it now. Because even though much of the information you would write on your profile is the same you would write in your application, it is important for the sake of the profile's generel impression. A complete profile with both picture and text will make you seem more serious about your search.
4. Contacting only a few
We often see that users only contact very few landlords. After contacting 1-3 landlords they stop searching and just wait for a reply. However with a housing market where the demand is larger than the supply you can't expect to find a home contacting so few. It might take many applications before you find the right home. So when you already have paid for the membership, you can might as well also use it to the full and write to as many landlords as possible to increase your chances of finding a home faster.
5. A narrow search
Who doesn't want to live in the middle of Copenhagen for 3000 DKK a month? Well, everybody does! Therefore it is also the ads with a central address and a low rent, which receive the most applications and therefore also the hardest homes to rent.
Everybody wants as low a rent as possible, so it is not that strange that it is the ads with the lowest rent most people contact. And there's nothing wrong with this, because you can be lucky and be the one chosen for the room. For most people this is however not the case, and therefore it is a big mistake to only apply for the rooms with lowest rent or with the most central location. Naturally you have to be able to pay the rent and you also have to be able to pay for food after the rent has been paid. But by applying for rooms only 500 DKK or 1000 DKK higher than your initial wish, many more options will be possible- options many other might not apply for as they keep applying for the cheapest homes. Remember you can apply for housing benefits so your rent in the end will be lower.
6. Focus on only new ads
New ads are coming in everyday and the faster you contact the landlord, the bigger are your chances of getting the room. This is at least the mindset of many home seekers and therefore most people focus on new ads. This is again a mistake. We see many landlords who are more willing to wait for the right tenant rather than finding a tenant right away. So many ads are still active after a week or two - or maybe longer, but the amount of applications has decreased radically due to the primary focus on new ads. Avoid making the same mistake and make sure to not rule out ads based on their insertion date.
Updated on: 27/03/2020