Zillow Rental Manager (advertising and rent payment management)

General Landlording & Rental Properties
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Zillow Rental Manager (advertising and rent payment management)

Robert Stamper
Member since 2018 · 43 posts · 16 votes

Hi, 

Has anyone used Zillow Rental Manager to manage rent payments and applications?   We just listed a property on Zillow.   From what I can tell, the first listing is free and subsequent listings are $9.99 per week.   That might seem expensive, but if I were looking for a rental, that is where I would start.   That seems like a reasonable fee to me for a rental listing that hopefully lasts no more than a couple of weeks.   Others may disagree.   

What about accepting applications through Zillow.  We use Cozy and they charge the renter $40.00 which makes some potential worry that they are throwing money out the window when they apply to many apartments/homes for rent.  Zillow appears to charge the renter $30.00 once then they can apply to unlimited rentals for the next $30 days.  That seems better from the tenant perspective.   Has anyone used this service?

What about managing rental payments on Zillow?   I'm considering Buildium.  That costs $47/month and is probably worth it.   It appears that the Zillow service is free to the landlord and they make their money on non ach transactions with the tenant (credit/debit cards).  

What does everyone use for advertising rentals?  What does everyone use for managing tenant payments?

Thanks!

Robby



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  • Account Closed
    San Jose, CA · Member since 2015 · 4k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    6y

    There was recently a thread about Zillow raising the fees.  You might be able to search to find it, if you don't get answers you're looking for here.  I only ever used Craigslist and the local college off-campus housing listing website.  That was about 6 years ago now, so I know people are using other options these days.

    I think facebook marketplace was mentioned in the thread I'm referring to as being a really good option.

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  • Kelly N.
    Investor · SE, MI · Member since 2013 · 1k+ posts · 461 votes
    6y

    Hi Robby,

    I found your post while searching to see if anyone is using Zillow to collect rent, and thought I'd chime in my 2c.

    I list my properties for rent on my website, then craigslist and zillow (which sends them on to hotpads and trulia), and it's free. 

    I have a couple of pending applications now so I decided to try their screening program, which charges the applicant $29, and they can 'use' the application for 30 days at other properties listed on zillow.  I had been charging $45, then paying a screening company $29.45 for the criminal/credit/ eviction portion.  I'll still verify employment and talk to past and current landlords, but I I am hoping using their app will generate some more applicants instead of asking them to pay a separate fee to apply for one of my apartments.  I'll let you know what I think.

    I use Quickbooks for invoicing rent, and the desktop version just increased ACH transfers from $1 to $3 per transaction.  Since they don't seem to be improving their service at all, I am shopping around for alternative payment methods and was hoping to find someone who had been using zillow.

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  • Kevin PolitePro Member
    Investor · Decatur Atlanta, GA · Member since 2011 · 612 posts · 232 votes
    6y

    Zillow is starting to charge $9.99/week, but adding it city by city. Yes, it was free, but now in Atlanta at least they starting charging here in a February. It’s great to hear they allow tenants to use that application for one month. I heard from another investor that it’s not as thorough as the others, but  like to see more opinions. Cozy.co is free to a collect rent, but takes 5-7 days to deposit to your account. E-rentpayment was great, but had a hiccup a cou-Le of years ago where rents that were paid were taken. 

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  • Kelly N.
    Investor · SE, MI · Member since 2013 · 1k+ posts · 461 votes
    6y

    Interesting, thanks Kevin for the info.  Is it $9.99/week per listing, or per company?  

    I had two applicants that were fairly well known to me- they were referrals from some of our awesome long term tenants.  They were applying for one of my apartments, but hadn't paid the background check fee yet, so I had them go through Zillow's application process instead.  I had to list the apartment and invite them to apply, and I am fairly happy with the results.  Two things are lacking compared to when I use rentecdirect.com (charges $29.45 directly to me)- there is no formal notification that they haven't been evicted, or had someone file on them for eviction.  The applicant just indicates that they hadn't had any evictions and I don't see anywhere that it is formally checked, so I searched the local court records and found they had no eviction records as they indicated.  The other thing I don't like is that I would not be given their SSN, just the last 4 digits.  My plan is to ask for this information prior to signing a lease with a tenant going forward (I already have the SSNs for these ladies since it was on my application that they had already turned in).  I only imagine needing the SSN if I end up filing for an eviction or judgement against the tenant, and someday want to turn it over to collections.  You don't HAVE to have an SSN for that, but it'd be better to have it.  I've only had to do that once, and only because I stupidly didn't follow my own screening guidelines and rented to a tenant with an eviction in her past and a sob story to go with it ;)

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  • Kevin PolitePro Member
    Investor · Decatur Atlanta, GA · Member since 2011 · 612 posts · 232 votes
    6y

    @Kelly N. thanks for the update. It is per listing not per company. I knew soon or later they'd monetize that service and I get the best applicants from them as I don't do craigslist anymore after getting ghosted twice were crooks copy your ad with a much lower price and try to get the deposit from that person. Because I'm an agent and all the rules on privacy I don't ask for SS# number anymore. Too much liability if you're hacked or something. 

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