Anyone use Facebook to rent their units?

Question

In my county a woman has started a Facebook group that is specifically geared toward renting. Both renters and landlords post their needs or what they have for rent and the feedback has been great. Over the last year that's all I've used to rent my houses. It also allows me to get a good grasp of the market in my area. She doesn't monetize it and only does it to keep a finger on the pulse of the market as she owns around 40 doors and manages them herself.

Does anyone else have any experience with this?

Kimberly H. · Answer

I do not, the people there can't seem to click the link to the listing on Zillow. Instead they want to ask me questions about the house. I think anyone serious knows what rental websites to look at.

Kim Younkin · Answer

We have the same experience as @Lois Ginter and @John Andruszka. People in the two local FB forums I post in always want me to post pictures in the forum after I've pasted a link to our rentals page which has all the information they need. Or they are looking for a lenient landlord who doesn't have renter qualifications, or will relax them. Like the others, most apps from from CL and Zillow/etc.

John A. · Answer

I advertise on Facebook, Craigslist, Zillow, Cozy, etc...  The Facebook responses are usually from people without jobs who have time to surf Facebook all day.  I haven't yet placed a tenant off of Facebook.  Most applications come from Craigslist and rental sites like Zillow and Trulia.

Lois Ginter · Answer

I was using two local FB groups.  In my area, the people looking for housing on FB tend to be the more desperate type.  Lots of requests to "work with deposit",  and need to move right away.  If they do have the move in money, they usually have some other issue that disqualifies them.   The few showings I did do from FB contacts, all of them lied about either employment or rental history.

John Boy · Answer

Yes, we have FB biz page and use local Real estate group pages to post vacancies. We get the best responses from Zilliow rental manager because it post on several rental sites for free :)

Julie Thevenow · Answer

yes, I use Facebook to advertise my rentals along with my fb business page. I get lots of responses.

Tammy Vitale · Answer

I used Facebook for one of my rentals - she is going on her 4th year in the house.

Adrian Chu · Answer

Many college/university-based networks on Facebook have groups called "Housing."

If your target market are students, this may be a good option.. but you do need to be affiliated with that college/university (student, staff, alum, faculty, etc) to post on those groups.  They verify you based on having an email address belonging to that university.

Good luck!

Kellen Bradford · Answer

I don't own any rentals just yet, but can say I always see people posting comments under a buy, sell, trade group on Facebook saying they're looking to rent.