Property marketing & listings: how-to

Step-by-step instructions, roughly in the order you’d do them. For what each option means, see Property marketing & listings. For problems, see Property marketing & listings: troubleshooting.

Find your task

If you’re here because…	Go to
You’re getting a property ready to advertise	Add photos, a video, a virtual tour or floor plans, then Write the headline and descriptions
A room in a shared house needs its own advert text	Write a room description
You want to see the advert as tenants see it	Check your Find a Home listing
You have a Rightmove, Zoopla or OnTheMarket account	Connect a portal account
A room or property needs to go on a portal	Create a portal listing
You’ve changed something and want the portal to match	Update a portal listing
The room has been let or held	Take an advert down
The room is free again	Relist a room
You want listings on your own website	Add the website widget
You don’t want a property on Find a Home	Hide a property from Find a Home

Add photos, a video, a virtual tour or floor plans

Do this when you’re preparing a property for advertising, or the photos are out of date.

Before you start: you need “Advertise rooms and publish to portals” (or “Change properties and rooms” for photos and floor plans). Have photos ready in landscape: COHO crops them to a 4:3 shape.

1. Open the property and go to the Property Marketing panel.
2. For photos, click Add images (or Update images), choose the files, adjust the crop and click Save.
3. For a video, click Add video, paste the YouTube link in Url, add a Title if you like, and click Save.
4. For a virtual tour, click Add virtual tour, paste the Url, choose the Type (MadeSnappy, YourTour or Matterport) and click Save.
5. For floor plans, click Add floor plan (or Update floor plan), choose the files and click Save.

What happens next: the media shows on the property’s Find a Home page. Photos, floor plans and the virtual tour are sent to any live Rightmove, Zoopla or OnTheMarket listings for the property straight away. The video is shown on Find a Home only.

Tip

To add room photos, open the room’s listing (Availabilities > View > Listing details) and use Marketing media > Images, where you’ll see both property images and room images. Room photos appear first on that room’s portal adverts.

To replace the video or virtual tour, click Remove on the current one, then add the new one. Removing a virtual tour or video doesn’t update the portals on its own: click Update listing afterwards (see Update a portal listing).

Write the headline and descriptions

Do this before you list anything. Portals won’t take a listing without a headline.

Before you start: you need “Advertise rooms and publish to portals” or “Change properties and rooms”.

1. Go to Availabilities and click View on any room in the property (for a single let, the listing is on the property’s Availabilities panel).
2. Open Listing details.
3. On Headline description, click the pencil icon, type a short, eye-catching line, and click Update.
4. On Property description, click the pencil icon, write the full description, and click Update.
5. Check Area, Preferred tenants, Details and Property Amenities the same way.

What happens next: every room in the property uses the new text, on Find a Home and on every live portal listing, straight away.

Note

If you see “Complete the property profile to list this property”, click Edit property profile (or Add property details) on the Availabilities panel and fill in the form. It needs a description and at least one picture.

Write a room description

Do this for each room in a shared house, so each advert describes the room itself.

Before you start: you need “Change properties and rooms”.

1. Open the room’s listing: Availabilities > View on the room > Listing details.
2. On Room description, click the pencil icon.
3. Describe the room: size, furniture, en suite, light, storage.
4. Click Update.

What happens next: the description shows on Find a Home and is sent to OnTheMarket for that room’s listing. Rightmove and Zoopla room listings use the property description instead, so keep the property description relevant to every room.

Check your Find a Home listing

1. Make sure the room is available (Change availability on the room’s Availabilities panel).
2. Click View on the room, then open Listing portals.
3. In the COHO box, click View to open the public listing, or Copy viewing form link to share it.

What happens next: the listing opens as tenants see it. Rooms in shared houses also appear in Find a Home search. Single lets don’t appear in search, so share the link instead.

Connect a portal account

Do this once for each portal you have an account with.

Before you start: you need “Connect and configure integrations”, and your branch or feed ID:

• Rightmove: email adfsupport@rightmove.co.uk.
• OnTheMarket: ask OnTheMarket support for your Feed ID. Say you want COHO to send properties and receive leads, and give your branch name and address. Don’t send any keys.
• Zoopla: email members@zoopla.co.uk for your branch ID.

1. From your dashboard, click Menu > Availabilities, then the settings cog.
2. In Availabilities Settings, open Rightmove credentials, OnTheMarket credentials or Zoopla credentials.
3. Click Add new (Zoopla: New branch).
4. Enter a Name you’ll recognise and the Feed/Branch Id (Zoopla: ID / Reference).
5. Click Save (Zoopla: Add).

What happens next: the portal’s box on each listing shows CONNECTED, and leads from that portal come into Leads every hour.

Create a portal listing

Do this when a room or property is available and you want it on Rightmove, Zoopla or OnTheMarket.

Before you start: you need “Advertise rooms and publish to portals”, a connected account, the room marked available, and a Headline description. For Zoopla, also a property description and a property type.

1. Go to Availabilities and click View on the room (or the property for a single let).
2. Open Listing portals. Choose the Room listing or Property listing tab.
3. On the portal’s box, click Create room listing (or Create property listing).
4. Choose the branch.
5. Rightmove and OnTheMarket only: tick List as house / flat share if you want the advert in Rightmove’s House share search (or OnTheMarket’s Shared accommodation search), and the override box if you want House share shown as the property type.
6. Click Send to Rightmove, Send to Zoopla or Send to OnTheMarket.

What happens next: the button changes to Manage room listing and View opens the advert on the portal. Portals can take a while to show a new advert.

Caution

A property listing for a shared house adds up the rent and deposits of every active room. To advertise rooms separately, create a room listing for each room instead.

Update a portal listing

Do this after removing a video or virtual tour, or when the available date has changed.

1. Open the listing (Availabilities > View > Listing portals).
2. Click Manage room listing (or property) on the portal’s box.
3. Click Update listing.

What happens next: COHO sends the current details again. Edits to the property, room, photos and descriptions are sent automatically, so you only need this for the cases above.

Take an advert down

Do this as soon as a room is let or held.

Before you start: you need “Change properties and rooms” to change availability, and “Advertise rooms and publish to portals” to remove portal listings.

1. Open the room’s Availabilities panel, click Change availability, choose Unavailable, pick a reason and save. (Or tick Set room as unavailable when you start the onboarding or add the tenancy.)
2. Find a Home updates straight away. Rightmove and OnTheMarket room listings come down within about an hour.
3. For Zoopla, and for any property listing (including every single let): open Listing portals, click Manage … listing, then Remove listing and confirm.

What happens next: Rightmove and OnTheMarket listings go when removed. Zoopla says the listing “will be removed from Zoopla within a day”.

Relist a room

Do this when a room comes free again.

1. Mark the room available (Change availability > Available, with the date).
2. Find a Home lists it straight away.
3. For Rightmove and OnTheMarket room listings that were removed, open Listing portals and click Create room listing again.
4. For a listing that’s still live (Zoopla, or a property listing you didn’t remove), click Manage … listing > Update listing so the portal gets the new available date.

Add the website widget

Do this to show your available rooms or properties on your own website.

1. Click Menu > Properties, then Website widget.
2. Choose Properties or Rooms, whether to show only available ones, and whether to show the price.
3. If you want, choose particular properties, a tenant type or a listing type.
4. Copy the HTML snippet and paste it into your website exactly as it is.

What happens next: your website shows the listings and keeps them current. Clicking one opens its Find a Home page, where people can enquire or request a viewing. To collect enquiries on your own site instead, see Create an enquiry form.

Hide a property from Find a Home

Do this when you don’t want a property advertised on COHO’s marketplace, for example because you let it privately.

1. Open the property and go to its Tenant Find service settings.
2. Turn on Hide this property on Find a home. To hide current tenants’ profiles only, turn on Hide housemates information on public listing instead.
3. Save.

What happens next: the property drops out of Find a Home search. Anyone with the link can still open the page. To stop the page entirely, turn the Tenant Find service Off (this also hides the Viewings, Availabilities and Leads panels for the property).