Where do you post rentals besides Zillow?

Question

Hi there. Looking to rent the top floor of my duplex. I posted on Zillow. Wanted to know if there are any other recommended websites I can post my rental? I’m trying to avoid using a realtor for now. Thank you!!!

Account Closed · Answer

I love Facebook, but I agree with everyone here that it has a ton of lookie-loos and button pushers.

Once a day I sit down and copy and paste the same response (in English and Spanish) to new messages, and work through questions from anyone responding before.

The secret sauce though is in the "prescreening"... For anyone really interested, I click on their profile and look through their posts. If they are an idiot drug dealing drama-laden argumentative crazy person, they will be very obvious about it on their page. I will still talk to them and let them come to showings, but they are already eliminated.  I do it at this stage because a lot of really hood types use fake Gucci type names on Facebook..   Then, to keep drama down I don't even charge the app fee until "stage 2" of the application process. So far that has worked really well.

This does not scale though. If you have more than 30 units this method gets absolutely crazy.

Adriel Hsu · Answer

The vast majority of my leads come from Facebook.  Not just Facebook Marketplace, but join your local areas facebook groups.  I am in 10 groups (3-4 generic groups "Items For Sale in southeast Texas" or "Homes for rent in Southeast Texas" "Homes for sale/rent in Southeast Texas" etc etc).  You'll be surprised at how many groups there are, each with 10,000-150,000 members.

Joe P. · Answer

Here's where I'm at -- I usually do Zillow for the propagation, Craigslist, and FB Marketplace.

In my limited experience, I tend to get a good mix of replies/showings from Zillow, only a few responses from Craigslist (but always turn into a showing), and a hundred billion "Is this still available?" notes on FB, but never anything more than that.

I also tell people my up front screening requirements (3x income, minimum credit score, absolutely I'll be checking your criminal and credit history) and that weeds out most tire kickers.

Do not be surprised if out of every 100 inquiries, you only show to 5% of them. That means you are properly screening out people who don't need to waste your time.

Matt M. · Answer

@Rosaria Pipitone

Yard sign and Zillow which posts to other sites. Rentals in my area seem to sit longer on the market when listed by a realtor.

Kenny Dahill · Answer

@Rosaria Pipitone You can definitely do this without a realtor!

People find success with Facebook Marketplace as well. Apartments.com is another large one.  They also have a lot of affiliate sites too.

You may want to consider searching for a 'local listing' site as well, some markets have unique preferences.

Calvin Ozanick · Answer

Yeah I would say the marketplace is the best place to go. Otherwise, I search online for "apartments near me" and the top sites are the ones I try to get on.

Kyle Jensen · Answer

We tried Zillow and cozy, but ultimately had the best candidates from Facebook marketplace and a sign in the yard.

Jim K. · Answer

I agree about the crazy. My favorite were shots I got from an applicant's FB friend. They showed my guy clapping for his co-applicant at their wedding, cheering the bride on as she shotgunned a fifth of Jack Daniels. Married and loving it, whoo-hoo!

I tend to rent to medical people, usually nursing staff, well-vetted by our medical system before they get to me. The best results I get actually come from little paper notices on bulletin boards in their break rooms.

Nicholas Zaharevich · Answer

I think it depends on what is used in your area and what you're renting. We used to get a large amount of traffic with Craigslist, but over the years we've seen a shift to the Facebook Marketplace.  I post ours in Rentec, which pushes out to multiple site like Zillow and Rent.com.  I feel we get different types of tenants from each of the sites, so I like to blast on them all at the same time.

Joe P. · Answer

@Rosaria Pipitone even people paid off the books can confirm their income. E.g. they have a place of employment, a boss, someone who can verify for them. I'd take confirmed income over it but you can also request things like recent bank statements to help make good/informed decisions.

I will say that the one tenant who did have "off-the-books" income ended up having to leave the lease due to them losing their job. It was a young couple, she was a receptionist at a doctor office and he was a professional woodworker building furniture for a shop -- his income was the key and it was "off-the-books" but they had money in the account and a boss who verified the income. Problem was after 14 months of living in my old house in Philly, he lost his job and either decided not to work or couldn't find work, even supplemental, and he was the primary breadwinner.

That can happen to someone with a verified job, too. So take this story with a grain of salt -- anyone can lose their job so it's more about finding a tenant who, if they do lose their job, will either have another one soon, can still pay the bills, and will either try very hard to get another job to "keep the lights on" or find supplemental income in the interim, e.g. driving for Uber, freelancing...something.

Where do you post rentals besides Zillow?

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