Do you manage your own website listing all your rental properties?

Question

Over the past year I have been considering developing a website that lists all my rental properties.  That way when I list vacancies on 3rd party websites I can link to my own hub site that will include a lot more detail and photos of the properties.

If you list your entire portfolio on your own website, does it open yourself up to more fraud since your assets are listed in one place for the world to see.  As it is now, a tenant at a rental I own in one development has no idea I own 2 more in the same development.

Steve L. · Answer

My rentals are all listed via my property management company web site.  Currently, I am the only client of my property management company (the tenants don't know this though).

Once a property goes occupied I take the listing down.

Jerry Puckett · Answer

Word Press is an excellent platform for this very thing. I built a site a while back for a landlord that had the capacity to list or de-list his entire portfolio. Each property had it's own post (made with a custom post type so the listings were uniform)

When a property becomes vacant, he publishes the post. When it becomes occupied, he moves it back to "draft" The vacant properties can be featured various ways throughout the site, or collected onto a single page.

Back to the OP's original concern, built properly, there would really be no way of knowing that the site belongs to you, or contains only your listings.

Tony Licen · Answer

Jeff just manually submit your sitemap every once and a while or do something where the pages are indexed but when you get to the page (non logged in) it has the full page blurry hover box where you need to register or log in.

That is smart Steve L...

Karen Margrave · Answer

My website for my construction company is through Vistaprint. It could easily be adapted to real estate. You can post all the pics you want as stills, slide show etc., do email blasts, blog, do custom forms for prospects, email list sign up.... and it's very inexpensive. I like it because I can edit it as much as I want, change the look of the page, etc.

However; if you're a licensed agent and need the MLS search feature, it doesn't support IDX, which is a huge drawback.

Melissa W · Answer

I have been using Postlets, which is free.  It gives you a page where all your rentals are listed.  You have no control over formatting and things like that.

We are moving to a site that is generated by our property management software.  People can apply online directly from the site, and we can import the info from the accepted application directly into the database.  When the property is vacant again we will already have the photos and listing information to put it back up.

Raquel Bonassisa · Answer

I usually just advertise on those For Rent by Owner sites. [AD REMOVED]

Ryan M. · Answer

Yes, I also list only vacant units with pictures, description, and a application download. It cuts down on our showing time and I refer all candidates to it prior to avoid wasting my or their time.

As far as asset protection, owner info and purchase price is all public knowledge anyway, atleast in Michigan.

Neil Goradia · Answer

I've always worried about doing this personally. Not so much for the reason of having someone sue all my assets, but it just makes me nervous that my tenants could see where my other rentals are. They could go to those homes, disturb tenants, maybe even give bad reviews online if there is one tenant that had a bad experience, etc. Too risky I think.

James Boughtnight · Answer

I list all on my website. It save me a lot of time as I collect the names and e-mail addresses of everyone I speak with and when I have a home 1 year down the road. I send an e-mail blast and a text message blast sending them back to my site.

I also let friends list and if I bring them buyer form the site I get a $500 referral fee.  I am having it rebuilt right now and the new site will be up in a few days.

Ralph Freshour · Answer

@Jeff
>Using a login system for tenants and >prospective renters is doable but I dont know >how effective it would be since it wouldn't be >optimized for search engines with everything >locked down.

I wouldn't worry about the search engines Jeff, you home page is the most important web page on your site for visitors and for the search engines. Your idea of password protecting access to your site is a good one!

Do you manage your own website listing all your rental properties?

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