How to Find Tenants: Top 5 Websites for Advertising your Rental

In this digital age, services, apps, and websites that save you stress regarding finding tenants have only become more convenient. Capitalizing on the internet in this way is an incredible way of getting your property publicity – gone are the days of classified ads in the newspaper and for rent signs in the windows. One way you can increase your online presence is by creating an online rental listing website with Landlord Studio to advertise your rental property.

The Future Rental Property Advertising

This article outlines the top websites to showcase your vacant property and get as many eyeballs as possible. With Gen Z now in the age range of finding rental properties and being inextricably online, you’ll have the perfect opportunity to amplify your knowledge on how to rent out a house via the web.

1. How To Rent Out A House With Zillow

Coming in at number one is, of course, the most popular rental listing site, Zillow. With its extensive database of more than 135 million listings for renting and buying, many find themselves looking here due to its sheer breadth of property listings. Also, Zillow has a very user-friendly walkthrough system whereby any landlord can learn how to rent out a house via the web.

Boasting a mobile app, landlords have easy access to edit their listings on the go to ensure they’re able to update their listings, communicate with and screen applicants as well as collecting rent payments. In addition, Zillow allows landlords to publish their listings and highlight essential amenities that can be filtered through based on the preferences of a prospective renter, e.g., allowing certain pets to live at the property.

This listing site is well-known for its user-friendly interface. Upon entering a neighborhood or zip code, a renter will be able to see listings and their respective rents on an interactive map within the area they’re looking for.

Cost: Zillow offers landlords their first listing as free, but each subsequent listing will be $9.99 per week. For $29, a renter will have access to applying to a limitless number of rental properties for a month. This fee is inclusive of running their background and credit checks.

2. How To Rent Out A House With Apartments.com

While not as plentiful as Zillow, Apartments.com will still try to maximize a landlord’s listing potential. As renters must pay for each application, a landlord will be assured that a renter is looking at their listing carefully if they are to apply.

Furthermore, the landlord’s life is made simpler with Apartments.com’s helpful mobile app that qualifies renters based on many map overlays to refine searches that are indeed what the renter is looking for. Conversely, such a behemoth of a system requires frequent software updates, which can be bothersome for some.

Cost: Similarly to Zillow, the subscriptions of Apartment.com work in the same 30-day billing period. Applying via the mobile app costs the renter $24.99 plus tax – here, the applicants can apply for up to 10 applications within that month period. As mentioned above, renters take the application process more seriously due to the price and thus make it easier to filter applications for the landlords and how to find tenants.

Related: 11 Alternatives to Cozy For Managing Your Rental Listings

3. How To Rent Out A House With Zumper

Zumper allows landlords to quickly upload listings along with pictures and video tours of the property. Also included are live tours, where applicants can request a walkthrough of the property prior to applying. Similar to the aforementioned services, refinements can be applied to ensure the renter is getting the property they desire, e.g. recent listings, lifestyle, income restrictions, locations, and more.

Zumper uses the platform, Instarent, which is a booking platform that allows for leases to be organized “as quickly as booking a flight”. However, while Zumper is available in both the United States and Canada it isn’t as ubiquitous as the other platforms on this list. The traffic within the website is also smaller than compared to the previous larger companies.

Cost: Much like Apartments.com, Zumper will allow renters to browse free-of-charge but each application comes with a cost. For a landlord to participate on Instarent, a $99 fee is required but the first listing is free.

Lastly, there are different subscriptions also; the basic plan includes all of Instarent's features of listing a property; however, their premium service will provide the landlord with account representative support. In the act of good faith, Zumper promises you a check of $250 if your listing does not get a lease within 45 days.

4. How To Find Tenants with Craigslist

While Craiglist still gathers many leads for leases, there are many drawbacks to having such a popular site. Spamming is common with Craigslist as there is the possibility to post the duplicate listing with no restrictions.

Although Craigslist has addressed this problem, there have been issues where legitimate listings have been snagged as spam and thus are “ghosted” or ignored by the algorithm and fail to show up in search results. Furthermore, the site is also aware of a repeated listing of the same property under different accounts – this can also lead to a “ghosting.”

Cost: Craigslist is well-known for being a free listing site. A landlord is not expected to pay a cent when advertising their unit; however, there is a $10 charge for brokered apartment rentals in the NYC area.

5. How To Find Tenants with Social Media

When thinking about how to rent out a house, you don’t have to just go straight for the big online listing sites. Social media can be a great way to boost your property’s visibility. Sites like Facebook allow you to run ads so you can get in front of as many people as possible as quickly as possible, plus you can share your listing in relevant apartment seeking groups.

If you don’t want to spend money on ads, Facebook Marketplace offers an entirely free solution to create a listing if you don’t want to spend money on using social media as ad platforms. With Facebook Marketplace you can upload a detailed description as well as multiple images.

Considering that almost everybody has a Facebook account, it is a convenient place for people to quickly and easily search for potential restaurant listings in an area.

Plus, with their built-in communication systems handling inquiries is made reasonably simple. However, it’s also less regulated than some of the more tailored platforms such as Zillow, Zumper, or Apartments.com. As such, landlords should be wary of low-quality applicants and potential scams.

Cost: Facebook Marketplace is free to list your property. However, if you do choose to create and run ads to increase interest and leads then you will have to pay for each impression that your ad gets so it can quickly become one of the more expensive options.

Final Words

This article very well could have been pages long considering the number of rental listing sites and apps out there; however, these platforms have all shown their benefits. Your rental property is likely to do well in any of the above if you’re aware of navigating them effectively.

Although all but one of the above included a cost for subscription, it’s vital to be aware of the value for money. Zillow came in at the most expensive at $9.99 per week; however, the exposure your property gets on a popular platform like that may be worth it in the long term.

At Landlord Studio, we have a few surprises in stock that extend further than our current features. So continue to watch this space to see where our integrated software travels shortly.

Learn how you can streamline your rental accounting and management with Landlord Studio →