Are you embarking on an extended travel adventure and looking to rent your home while you're away? Maybe you've decided to uproot and move somewhere else to begin a totally new adventure and need to sell your home. Whatever the reason, you'll most likely be looking to get results quickly and find a prospective buyer sooner rather than later, especially if your travel is coming up.

To make sure you don't need to remotely deal with the process of renting or selling, you can improve the quality of your listing. Whether you have it listed on Airbnb for short term rentals or are listing your home for sale, how you present your property will undoubtedly affect the response rate. You want your listing to look as professional as possible.

If it's your first time making a listing and you aren't sure where to start, follow these three tips.

Improve your home's kerb appeal

Kerb/Street appeal is a term that refers to the appearance of your home from the street. People who visit or pass by your home get a first impression based on how it looks on the outside, so if you want people to be interested to see more, their first impression needs to be good. Luckily, it's fairly simple to achieve this.

Make sure your front lawn is tidy and the grass is cut. Trim any hedges and remove any fallen sticks, leaves or weeds, so everything looks polished. If you fancy yourself a bit of a green thumb and you've got the space for it, why not plant a small flower garden too? It's also a good idea to check the roof for missing or damaged shingles, as well as peeling paint from walls, windows, and doors, and fix any problems you find. Even just a quick coat of paint to refresh and improve the look of your home from the outside can make all the difference. 

Take professional-looking photos

Your rental or sale listing is an advertisement for your property and you want to present it well to attract potential buyers or renters. If you post a listing that features dark or blurry photos, nobody will want to click on the ad and see more of the property. The most successful ads are the ones with bright, crisp photos that look professional

Before you take your photos, be sure to make your space look as presentable as possible. The idea is to help people imagine themselves living there, and if there's personal clutter or decor everywhere, it makes it more difficult to achieve this. It's most effective to make your space look as neutral as possible. Clear away any clutter, put away personal photos and memorabilia, and take down any eclectic decor. If you're trying to sell, you might even want to paint the walls a neutral colour if they currently are a more vibrant or bold shade.

Write a catchy headline

The pictures are what grab people's attention first, but the headline is what entices people to click on the ad to learn more. If you want to see more results, you should get a bit creative with it. In the body of the listing, you can then go into more detail about the property, like how many bedrooms and bathrooms, the price, and the location details.