Zillow is Crushing Craigslist Right Now!!!!

Investor · Morehead City, NC · Member since 2015 · 99 posts · 32 votes

Last night, I posted one of my houses that is coming up for rent on Craigslist and Zillow. I never posted on Zillow before, but figured that I should get with the times and try it out. Zillow has an option to automatically post on Hotpads and Trulia, which I did. So far Zillow is crushing Craigslist 5 to 1 in tenant leads. And Hotpads is in second with 3 to 1. I just thought I'd share. Are you seeing the same numbers in finding tenant leads in your areas?

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Ryan Dossey

Real Estate Broker · Indianapolis, IN · Member since 2014 · 3k+ posts · 2k+ votes

10y

Zillow is just a much cleaner interface for a renter looking for home. They can sort geographically, by price, and it's a much fresher experience. CL to me lately just feels like digging through the newspaper. They really need a re design.

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Jake Thomas
Residential Real Estate Agent · Grand Rapids, MI · Member since 2013 · 803 posts · 689 votes
10y
In my market we have better luck using craigslist for lower less expensive rentals. For the higher end single family properties Zillow/Hotpads shows the highest rate of lead generation. This is what I notice but I still post it on everything. Postlets will post your listing to all of those sites and more I believe.
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Tzvi AusubelPro Member
Rental Property Investor · New York City, NY · Member since 2015 · 244 posts · 66 votes
10y
I've been finding Zillow really helpful in evaluating properties by using the properties that are listed for rent nearby. I don't even bother with Craigslist because it's so antiquated, doesn't have any data analytics, or sales/rental history. Completely agree Zillow the way to go!
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John Suralik
OP
Investor · Morehead City, NC · Member since 2015 · 99 posts · 32 votes
10y
Tzvi Ausubel Yeah, really like how Zillow shows the per square foot price of rentals. I checked other houses in the area and was able to raise the rent for the house by 10% to stay in line with the other remodeled rentals in the area.
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Jassem A.
Investor · PA · Member since 2013 · 1k+ posts · 602 votes
10y
I used Craigslist for a while but it seems that people have discovered Zillow. I think a lot of it has to do with the amount of scam listings a person has to weed through when looking for a rental on Craigslist. Craigslist people have also turned out to be less qualified than those that find my rentals through Zillow/Hotpads/Trulia.
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Russell BrazilBusiness Member
Moderator
Real Estate Agent · Washington, D.C. · Member since 2012 · 17k+ posts · 30k+ votes
10y
In my market, in Washington DC proper and the close in suburbs Craigs List is the dominant player. In the further outlying suburbs Zillow wins.
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John Suralik
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Investor · Morehead City, NC · Member since 2015 · 99 posts · 32 votes
10y
Jassem A. I've already noticed that the emails that I am getting from Zillow seem to be better written and the leads from Zillow are more military and professionals. I don't know why it took me so long to add Zillow to advertising strategy.
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John Suralik
OP
Investor · Morehead City, NC · Member since 2015 · 99 posts · 32 votes
10y
Jake Thomas It would be interesting to see if the same house would get just as much traffic from Zillow as Craigslist if it was even listed for 5% more. I know the market drives rents, but Zillow looks more professional.
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Max T.
Investor · Philadelphia, PA · Member since 2015 · 3k+ posts · 3k+ votes
10y
is zillow free? is postlets free? I've always done craigslist and had pretty good success, no scams or ripoffs
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John Suralik
OP
Investor · Morehead City, NC · Member since 2015 · 99 posts · 32 votes
10y
Max Tanenbaum Yes it is free. I think that is what stopped me from trying Zillow and the others is that I thought it charged to list rentals, and I wasn't sure if you had to be a broker to list.
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Nicole A.Pro Member
Rental Property Investor · Baltimore County Maryland and Tampa Florida · Member since 2013 · 2k+ posts · 2k+ votes
10y
I get pretty good response from both. @Jake Thomas If you go to the Postlets site, it now automatically takes you to Zillow, so Zillow must have taken over.
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Shefali R.
Investor · Montclair, NJ · Member since 2015 · 150 posts · 23 votes
10y
In our market in Newark, New Jersey (University Heights), we see the most responses from Hotpads, second Trulia and third Zillow for our rentals. Craigslist is last. Our rental price range is ~1,600pm to $2,400 pm and interested tenants are mostly professionals, if that is relevant
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John Suralik
OP
Investor · Morehead City, NC · Member since 2015 · 99 posts · 32 votes
10y
Shefali Raina That's interesting. Thanks for sharing.
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David Leffel
North Liberty, IN · Member since 2015 · 22 posts · 10 votes
10y
In the south bend area, I have seen Zillow with most responses. Hot pads and trulia are about tied for 2nd. Craigslist is almost not worth posting on, but is easy, so why not I guess.
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Arpad Racz
Mountain View, CA · Member since 2016 · 85 posts · 10 votes
10y
I think Zillow has a Lot of the local traffic nowadays in the San Jose, CA area and their interface offers a lot of info that consumers are after. It seems to be popular with people relocating to Silicon Valley as well.
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Kind regards,
Arpad
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Ryan Dossey
Real Estate Broker · Indianapolis, IN · Member since 2014 · 3k+ posts · 2k+ votes
10y
Zillow is just a much cleaner interface for a renter looking for home. They can sort geographically, by price, and it's a much fresher experience. CL to me lately just feels like digging through the newspaper. They really need a re design.
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John Suralik
OP
Investor · Morehead City, NC · Member since 2015 · 99 posts · 32 votes
10y
Arpad Racz I'm seeing the same thing. I'm getting a lot of military applicants from Zillow who are relocating here.
1 Reply
Yoochul C.
Financial Advisor · Glendora, CA · Member since 2015 · 209 posts · 94 votes
10y
Do you guys know if Zillow/Trulia/Hotpads has integrations with Salesforce or any other CRM out there?
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John Suralik
OP
Investor · Morehead City, NC · Member since 2015 · 99 posts · 32 votes
10y
Yoochul C. I'm not sure. How do you use Salesforce and is it effective? How much does it cost?
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Jerry W.Pro Member
Moderator
Investor · Thermopolis, WY · Member since 2012 · 4k+ posts · 4k+ votes
10y
I have used Postlets which puts them on Zillow and Craigslist. So far Craigslist has had the most response. I have not used either for about 3 months but will try to watch it this spring as leases come due.
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John Suralik
OP
Investor · Morehead City, NC · Member since 2015 · 99 posts · 32 votes
10y
@Ryan Dossey I agree. Craigslist has had the same interface forever. Zillow, Hotpads, Trulia, and the others are making the advertising that property management companies used to do obsolete as well.
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George P.
Property Manager · Livonia, MI · Member since 2011 · 4k+ posts · 1k+ votes
10y
same here. in livonia, garden city, westland, we can rent a house on poslets (now zillow) in matter of days to much more qualified people than Craplist. CL is full of scams, fake ads, same ads, and i do not go there anymore. it reminds me of ebay. remember when it WAS A THING??
we had a rental for $1200 in livonia and when the tenants moved out, we refreshed and rented it for $1,475 in just one hr.
our rents are from just over 1k to $1,500
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Christian Sifuentes
Flipper/Rehabber · Fair Lawn NJ · Member since 2016 · 382 posts · 87 votes
10y
I have had the same experience with Zillow vs Craigslist! Was surprised myself because I heard Craigslist was place to navigate for a lot of real estate information.
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John Suralik
OP
Investor · Morehead City, NC · Member since 2015 · 99 posts · 32 votes
10y
@George P. Yeah, funny example with Ebay. I guess we are seeing Zillazon take over. Last year, I would get swamped with leads from Craigslist, so I was surprised that I'm not getting many leads this time from CL.
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Sean Kuhn
Minooka, IL · Member since 2013 · 353 posts · 85 votes
10y
Same here. I stopped posting in craigslist a year ago. Zillow rocks
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Cheryl Schuck
Real Estate Agent · Parsippany, NJ · Member since 2013 · 186 posts · 71 votes
10y
@Max Tanenbaum For me here in Morris County it depends a lot on the price range and age range of potential tenant. I have found that I get a lot of interest for rentals ranging between $1200-2200 on Craigislist but those people have a tendency to want to rent on their own without a realtor's help for a reason. ie bad credit, not wanting to pay a fee, illegal etc.
Trulia usually blow away zillow and hotpads, but that's hard to say now that Trulia and Zillow are one. Postlets was a place where you could start your listing and post easily to other sites, but that has been bought out by Zillow so you can start your postings there. They are all free to use.
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