Best ways to find a renter?
Hello,
I was wondering what the best portals are to advertise a property for a private investor (landlord/owner) are.
Thanks.
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Find out what online platform is the most widely used in your area and advertize there. It often differs by area. In one area I use kijiji and used(cityname), another area we used a completely different website.
Most people are using zillow, zumper, trulia, apartments.com, facebook, and craigslist.
If you sign up with a property management service like TenantCloud.com, you can click a button to advertise your unit and it gets pushed out to multiple sites at once.
I use Zillow, Facebook, and Apartments.com. By far the best quality leads are from Zillow and I get quite a few. Your first listing is free and then there is a charge after that but it is where I have found all my tenants so I really can't afford not to use it. Facebook is mostly for laughs but I post there anyway. I get a ton of responses that they are interested and reply back with my phone for a showing. Most don't call or don't qualify but at least I can get some laughs when checking their profile and many weed themself out. I've never had a response from Apartments.com but it's free so worth a shot. Although Facebook and Apartments.com haven't yielded anything yet it is all about casting a wide net. Search for rentals in your area and see where the adds are, that is where you want to be.
- Property Manager
- Royal Oak, MI
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Craigslist and Zillow. To this day I don't think I've ever signed anyone from Zillow. My credit requirement is 750. Probably the smartest is to use every site you can. I don't know why but it seems many craigslist applicants use the email to send an an essay about what they're looking for. I like that when I see it. I'm wary when applicants say nothing. Craigslist can be weird, but I think I'm pretty good at filtering the BS. I think Craigslist should charge a small fee, it would get rid of the scam listings.
I used to use multiple different sites, but the only thing I use these days is Facebook Marketplace.
There are so many free listings sites out there so it's worth advertising in more than one place. Facebook (although you may have to deal with some time-wasters) is a quick and free way to get your listing in front of as many eyes as possible, so take advantage of that too!