Listing your first property

A listing does two jobs: it attracts the right applicants and it filters out the wrong ones. Most first listings do only the first, which is why the inbox fills up with people who were never going to qualify. Here is how to prepare one that does both.

Before you write a word

Have these ready. Two of them you are legally required to have, and one of them will otherwise delay your first tenancy by weeks.

• Energy certificate (Energieausweis). You must have a valid one and you must show it at the viewing. Certain figures from it — the certificate type, the energy value, the main heating source, the building’s construction year and the efficiency class — have to appear in the listing itself. Missing them can be treated as an administrative offence.
• Proof of ownership or a written mandate if you manage on someone else’s behalf.
• The last two Nebenkosten statements, so you can set a realistic advance payment rather than guessing.
• Floor plan and exact living area. Get the square metres right — an overstatement of more than 10 % can entitle the tenant to a rent reduction.
• A written contract template you have actually read, not a scan of one from 2004.

Set the price against evidence, not hope

Three inputs, in this order:

1. The local Mietspiegel. Most cities publish a rent index that gives a range per square metre by year of construction, size, location and fittings. This is the reference point courts use, so it is the one that matters.
2. Live comparables. What is actually being asked right now for similar flats within a few streets — and, more usefully, what has recently disappeared from the market rather than sitting on it.
3. Your own numbers. Mortgage, reserves for maintenance, management costs, and the vacancy you can absorb.

Where a Mietpreisbremse applies, a new rent may generally not exceed the local comparative rent by more than 10 %. If you rely on an exception — a new build, a comprehensive modernisation, or a previous rent that was already higher — you have to disclose that to the tenant in text form before the contract is signed. Do it in the listing and you will save yourself a conversation.

Pricing slightly under the top of the range is usually the cheaper decision. One month of vacancy costs more than a 3 % rent difference does over a year.

Photos

Photos decide whether anyone reads the text. Six good ones beat twenty mediocre ones.

• Shoot in daylight, on a bright day, with every light on and every blind up.
• Empty the frame. No bins, no cables, no drying rack, no closed toilet lid in shot.
• Stand in a corner and shoot across the room. Hold the camera at chest height and keep vertical lines vertical.
• Cover every room, plus the bathroom, the kitchen, the view from a window, the building entrance and any balcony, cellar or bike store.
• Include the floor plan as an image. It answers more questions than any photo.
• Do not retouch away defects. Everyone sees the flat eventually.

Write the description as a filter

Lead with the facts that make people self-select, then the appeal:

• Cold rent, Nebenkosten advance, resulting warm rent, and the deposit — all stated plainly.
• Size, rooms, floor, lift or no lift, available from when.
• Heating type and the energy figures you are required to publish.
• What is included: kitchen, cellar, parking, garden, bike storage.
• House rules that will matter: pets, smoking, whether a WBS is required.
• Then two or three sentences on the flat and the street — concrete, not adjectival. “Six minutes to the U-Bahn, bakery on the corner, quiet courtyard side” is worth more than “charming and unique”.

Say what is not perfect. A ground-floor flat facing a busy road will find its tenant faster if you say so than if six people discover it at the viewing.

Screening applicants fairly

You may ask about the things that bear on whether the rent will be paid and the flat looked after:

• Income and employment, and proof of both.
• A credit report (SCHUFA).
• Confirmation of no outstanding rent from the previous landlord.
• How many people will live there, and whether there are pets.

You may not select on origin, ethnicity, religion, disability, age, sexual identity or sex. Questions about pregnancy, family planning, political affiliation or membership of a tenants’ association are not permissible, and an answer given to such a question cannot later be used against the tenant. Beyond the legal position, a documented, consistent process is your best defence if a rejected applicant complains.

Handle the documents accordingly: collect them only from serious candidates, keep them only as long as you need them, and delete the rest once the flat is let.

Publishing in FlatApp

In the cockpit, a listing takes about ninety seconds: address and size, photos, cold rent and Nebenkosten, must-haves, and availability date. From there the flat appears to renters whose filters it matches, and their enquiries arrive as threads attached to that property — not as loose emails you have to file yourself.

Once a tenant signs, the same property record carries the lease, the payment schedule and the documents, so the listing you wrote on day one is still the anchor two years later.

Listing checklist

1. Valid energy certificate in hand, required figures included in the listing text.
2. Living area verified; floor plan available.
3. Rent set against the Mietspiegel and live comparables; any Mietpreisbremse exception disclosed.
4. Nebenkosten advance based on the last two statements.
5. Six or more bright, decluttered photos plus the floor plan.
6. Description states costs, facts, house rules, and the honest drawbacks.
7. Screening criteria written down in advance and applied to everyone.
8. Applicant documents collected late, stored briefly, deleted after letting.

This guide explains common practice in the German rental market and is meant as orientation, not legal advice. For a decision that costs you money, check your own contract and, if in doubt, ask a lawyer or a local tenants’ association (Mieterverein).