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?
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.
Investor · Maryville, IL · Member since 2016 · 129 posts · 81 votes
10y
Hi @John Suralik - used Zillow on my last rental, it did the cross posting, and got me responses immediately. I like the app interface it provides for managing the listing - slightly less clunky than CL.
Additionally, I used (I hope I can say this, but mods remove if not appropriate) rentometer.com to spitball my price range, and I got the top end right away...it was spot on.
Real Estate Broker · Drexel Hill, PA · Member since 2014 · 82 posts · 21 votes
10y
I am in the Philadelphia, PA market and I get the same number of results from both, but I tend to get higher quality tenants (higher income and better credit scores) from Zillow.
Yoochul C. I'm not sure. How do you use Salesforce and is it effective? How much does it cost?
You can get a developer account for free with Salesforce. It is really beneficial when dealing with alot of leads but it may be expensive if you're going to be using it to the full potential.
We just posted a duplex and the majority of responses came from Zillow and Hotpads by a factor of 10 to 1 for Zillow. The young professionals in the Pittsburgh market seem to prefer Zillow to Craigslist.
Real Estate Agent · New Orleans, LA · Member since 2016 · 19 posts · 4 votes
10y
The only thing I would caution against is using the "Zestimate" to value your property on Zillow. It's not accurate enough. They even have a disclaimer that it is only about 85% accurate. Other than that, Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com are very much where people begin their search, so go for it!
Investor · Morehead City, NC · Member since 2015 · 99 posts · 32 votes
10y
Mark OGara I realized today that posting on Zillow and the like gave my three house show the legitimacy and professionalism of Zillow instead of the "I might not comeback Hun from this open house" of CL.
Shaw McCavit Over 20 in 24 hrs. That's impressive! Nice work. I didn't get that many, but I have around 12 emails now and in my small market, I'm pretty happy!
Real Estate Agent · Southington, CT · Member since 2008 · 5k+ posts · 3k+ votes
10y
In Connecitcut we find that rentals under $800 get more traction from Craigslist and above $800 the Zillow rental sites usually take over. Overall from what we are seeing the past year the leads we get from Zillow are not as numerous as Craigslist but they are far better in terms of quality of tenant candidate.
We post all rentals regardless of price though on Zillow and Craigslist. You never know where that qualified lead is going to come from!
Investor · Morehead City, NC · Member since 2015 · 99 posts · 32 votes
10y
@Michael Noto It's interesting that you are getting more leads from Craigslist with rentals under $800. I guess it makes sense though that tenants looking for a deal or lower cost rentals would look in Craigslist.
Investor · Columbus, OH · Member since 2014 · 124 posts · 67 votes
10y
Postlets is no more, by the way. Zillow took them over. If you had listings on Postlets they were supposed to be transferred to Zillow, assuming you login to Zillow with the same username/password you used on Postlets. I freaked out momentarily thinking they lost all my ads from Postlets but realized I logged in with the wrong account (I used to have BOTH a Postlets and Zillow account).
Rental Property Investor · Milltown, NJ · Member since 2014 · 131 posts · 130 votes
10y
In my area it seems that I get the same amount of responses from both Zillow and craigslist but the quality of tenant is actually higher from Zillow which ever landlord loves.
They may allow you to use a google voice number. It may be possible to set up that number to reply with a text to email you or with a voicemail to email instead.
Lender · Tyngsboro, MA · Member since 2009 · 3k+ posts · 2k+ votes
10y
Why even choose? Postlets became Zillow Rental Manager. Start there, craft your ad, and it posts to Zillow, Trulia, Hotpads, etc and gives you copy and paste coding to post on CL. Do them all.
Rental Property Investor · West End, NC · Member since 2016 · 98 posts · 32 votes
10y
Same experience here. Higher quality applicants find my listings on Zillow. I stopped using craigslist, and will only consider working with a prop manager who uses Zillow.