How To Use Facebook Rentals Marketplace To Rent Out Your Property Fast

Owning rental real estate means that, at some point, you will need to find tenants. Thankfully, in today’s digital era, finding tenants is easier than ever before, sites like Zillow, Zumper, Trulia, Hotpads can get your rental listing in front of 1,000’s of potential prospective tenants fast and affordably. In recent years, Facebook has expanded their marketplace for rentals, allowing you to run Facebook rental ads and effectively advertise your rental property for free. Facebook marketplace for rentals, can allow you to reach a new demographic of prospective tenants.

In this article, we take a look at how to post an apartment for rent on Facebook. And what you need to know to get the most out of Facebook marketplace for rentals.

Why Advertise Rental Property On Facebook Marketplace.

Facebook is the largest social media network with approximately two and a half billion monthly users. What this means is that almost everybody has a Facebook account, and using Facebook rental marketplace allows you to tap into this user base and effectively leverage Facebook rental ads to advertise your property.

Facebook marketplace then, is an incredibly effective way to buy, sell, and rent things, including rental properties. Considering Facebook rental marketplace is a free resource, and it doesn’t take a huge amount of time or effort to set up your listing, anybody with a unit for rent not using this tool is missing out on a large number of potential renters.

Is Facebook Marketplace a Good Option for Advertising Apartments? 

Absolutely. Utilizing Facebook Marketplace to advertise rental listings is advantageous as it enhances visibility and generates leads without any cost. Additionally, the process of posting a rental listing on Facebook is swift and straightforward, making it an excellent platform for property marketing.

Since its inception in 2016, Facebook Marketplace has garnered widespread usage, with statistics showing that one in three Americans engages with the Marketplace, many of them in the process of looking for rentals. 

Interestingly, Facebook Marketplace is gradually eclipsing Craigslist as the preferred tool for apartment hunting nationwide. While various rental listing websites have gained traction over the years, Craigslist has traditionally held its ground due to its free listings and user-friendly posting interface. However, Facebook's rising popularity, better user experience and accessibility, and increased perception of trustworthiness are shifting the tide.

Find The Best Possible Tenant Fast With Landlord Studio

Create a free listing with Landlord Studio, easily share it on Facebook Marketplace, and syndicate it across top listing sites including Zillow, Trulia, Hotpads, and Zumper with the click of a button. Collect more leads, easily prescreen prospects, manage tenant communications, and run comprehensive tenant screening reports all in one central location. Learn more →

How to List Your Unit for Rent On Facebook Rentals Marketplace

Step 1

Log in to your Facebook account. If you don’t have an account, create one for free.

You'll most likely want to post to the Facebook rental Marketplace trough your personal account. As such you may want to consider using a secondary account that is strictly for managing your rentals and rental listings.

Step 2

Access the Marketplace by clicking on “Marketplace” in the menu or by searching “marketplace” in the search bar.

Step 3

Click “Create a new listing”

Step 4

Then click “Property for Sale or Rent.”

Step 6

Upload photos of your property. Facebook Marketplace allows up to 50 photos.

Make sure your photos are bright, clear, and high-resolution. And include photos of both the unit and the building’s interior and exterior.

Step 7

Fill out the property details with information.

Include the following:

• Informational listing title - for example, "Cozy 2 Bed Aprtment With Balcony and Ocean Views".
• Photos of the property - show every room.
• Whether the home is for sale or for rent
• Property type (single-family home, condo, etc.)
• Number of bedrooms and bathrooms
• Property address (which can be set to public or private)
• Rental rate
• Detailed property description. You will want to include details about the unit itself and the building as well as any nearby amenities and selling points. Make sure the description is concise.
• Square footage
• Lease length and date available
• Detail any additional features, such as pet-friendliness, laundry, parking, and heating or cooling features

Note: You also have the option to add other additional features such as heating or cooling, pet-friendliness, parking, and laundry.

You can also add a link to your unique Landlord Studio rental listing here as well. This will allow you to manage all your leads in the Landlord Studio system, and utilize our prescreening questionnaire.  

Related: How To Write The Perfect Rental Listing To Attract Quality Tenants

Step 8

Choose where to post your listing (you can post to just the Marketplace or also on Facebook groups).

Click on the Publish option when done. Marketplace puts it in front of everyone within a certain mile radius of the property and is searchable within the Marketplace itself.

Step 9

After you publish, you can opt to boost the listing. When boosting a rental listing, you can either select your budget with Facebook’s recommended campaign duration or choose a custom option.

How to set up a custom campaign:

1. Click "Select custom budget and duration."
2. In the Duration section, click (+plus) or (-minus) to select the number of days you want the ad to run.
3. In the Total Budget section, use the slider to set your budget. Or, click the pencil icon to type in a number. The budget you set will be the amount of money you pay in total for the ad campaign.
4. Optionally, you can also edit the audience for your ad. This lets you define the location that you want to target with your boosted listing.

What to Expect When you Advertise a Property on Facebook Marketplace for Rentals

When you advertise a rental property on Facebook Marketplace you will allow prospective tenants interested in your listing to be contact you directly through the Facebook messenger application. Generally, tenants will be able to choose from one of the blanket messages such as, “Is this still available?”, to begin a conversation, or they can type up their own unique message.

It’s a good idea for you to have a templated response to that primary inquiry, which should include sending tenants through your pre-screening questions and organizing a viewing with them.

The easiest way to set up pre-screening questions is with a free Landlord Studio account - though you can also use a service like Google Forms. This will allow you to check that the applicants meet your minimum criteria before you go on to organize and show the property or run a background tenant screening check. It will alsop help weed out any time-wasters.

With Facebook Marketplace for rentals you will likely get a large number of applicants and so pre-screening your tenants is an important factor to effectively and efficiently manage your time to select the most qualified tenant.

Of course, listing to Facebook Marketplace won’t instantly rent your unit for you. But, it will put your rental in front of a broad target audience which will increase your chances of finding a tenant faster than if you simply list your rental on traditional platforms.

What to Consider When Creating Your Listing on Facebook Marketplace for Rentals.

Facebook rentals marketplace, allows you to create a description, upload photos, and set your own listing title.

Your description should be detailed, concise, and interesting. Details to include:

• Number of bedrooms,
• Number of bathrooms,
• Rental price,
• Details of the area.
• Attractive local amenities,
• And any unique property features.

Additionally, make sure to set a realistic rent price, which is in line with like properties in the area. Setting a rent too high will put off prospective tenants and you’ll get less inquiry, setting it too low and you’re leaving money on the table. To determine how much rent you should be charging you can use tools like Rentometer or Rent Range to do a market analysis. Additionally, look at other listings currently up on sites like Zillow or on Facebook rentals marketplace. This will allow you to observe the median rent for similar properties to yours in the area and you can set your rent price in line with those.

Facebook Marketplace Rules For Listings

Before listing any apartments or rentals on Facebook Marketplace, make sure you understand and comply with the platform's guidelines. Failure to adhere to these rules may lead to your listing being rejected or removed post-publication.

Here are two crucial policies to follow:

1. Ensure consistency between your listing description and accompanying photos.
2. Avoid discriminatory content or any violation of tenant screening laws, as such listings can be reported and subsequently taken down by Facebook.

Creating A Listing With Landlord Studio

We've mentioned in a couple of places in this article about using Landlord Studio as a central location to collect leads, prescreen tenants, and manage tenant applications. And there are a couple of reasons why.

Learn more about how Landlord Studio rental listings can help you fill vacancies fast with the best possible tenants here →

Firstly, it allows you to collect and manage leads in a centralized location. This is especially important if you're using multiple listing platforms. With dozens of inquiries coming in a day from multiple different locations and apps, it can be easy to lose track of who you've replied to, who has filled out their prescreener, and who is looking like a good prospect.

Secondly, it will allow you to use our prescreening questionnaire. This questionnaire allows you to set up to ten questions (all questions are phrased in accordance with state and federal laws), so you can quickly and easily identify the top opportunities.

Finally, you can easily syndicate your listing to the top rental listing sites. With the click of a button your listing can be shared to Zillow, Zumper, Trulia, Hotpads. Increasing your listing reach and your chances of finding a great tenant fast.

Creating a listing with Landlord Studio is easy. Create a free account, enter your property details, and then navigate to the listings tab to create a new listing. Add photos, enter property details, and copy and paste your description in and you're ready to go!

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