Advertising a Room Without Overclaiming

A listing is a statement you must be willing to stand in the passage and repeat. ManjeProp publishes rooms from the Properties record. If the record is hopeful, the website is false. Parents who drive from inland notice. So do advertising rules, the Consumer Protection Act where it applies, and the next complaint.

This is how we describe a Durban student room without borrowing glory.

Only facts that are true today

Available means you walked the room and it is empty enough to let. The rent is the rent you will take. The deposit is the deposit in the lease you will offer. The available-from date is a date you can defend.

Do not write “available now” because a booking end date is next week. Do not write “fully renovated” because you painted one wall in 2023. Do not write “five minutes to campus” unless you timed the walk. Do not write “secure” as a badge. Describe the gate, the lighting and the access you actually have.

Wifi “included” means the house pays for a service the occupant can use without buying their own router, on the terms in the lease. If they must buy a SIM, say that.

Photographs that will not embarrass you on Saturday

Shoot the room you will show. Current curtains, current cracks, current light. If a cupboard door is off, either fix it before you publish or show the off door. Cropping is not a renovation.

No tenant interiors while someone still lives there, unless you have clear consent and you still should not. No faces. No keys. No children’s faces, ever. Exteriors are ordinary street views, not a tour of the neighbour’s yard.

Do not reuse a photo of a different house because the paint is similar.

Words that are claims

“New mattress,” “new geyser,” “rewired,” “fibre,” “parking,” “en-suite,” “private bathroom,” “two people allowed” — each of those is checkable in five minutes. If the certificate or the fitting is not there, delete the word.

Rents on manjeprop.co.za are owner-supplied facts. If a figure is still a demo placeholder, the listing is not ready.

Do not invent a waiting list to create urgency. Do not invent a second family arriving at four.

The desk will not save a dishonest advert

Confirming a booking can mark a unit occupied and change the site. An overlap warning can be ignored by a person in a hurry. Neither is a defence when two households arrive.

Scan listings weekly against vacancy. If the room let this morning, take the public card down this morning.

Faults and advertising

An open leak ticket is not a lifestyle feature. Finish the repair, log it, then photograph. Selling around a brown ceiling trains the incoming tenant to ignore the fault form — the opposite of what we need.

If a viewer finds a broken stay, log it. Do not say “we’ll sort it after you pay.” Say whether it will be fixed before occupation, and then fix it.

Affiliates and hardware language

If a care note ever carries a commercial link, the disclosure sits next to the link. A listing for a room is not a hardware catalogue. Do not let a trade rebate choose a lock or a sentence.

What tenants and parents should do

Read past the adjectives. Ask for the lease terms on utilities, occupancy and notice. Walk the house. Time the transport. If the page and the passage disagree, believe the passage and write it on the enquiry form.

If you already live there and the listing photo is being taken while your life is on the desk, you may refuse a photo of your possessions. Vacancy photography waits for empty.

Overclaiming is expensive. Under-describing a true room is only humble. Publish the humble version.

To ask about a current listing, use the enquiry form or +27 60 313 6961. To report something broken in a house you already occupy, use Report a fault.