Zillow Ends Free Rental Listings. What Now?
Will Zillow's price gouging ever end? Starting in January 2021, rental listings currently syndicated through MLSs will no longer feed directly into Zillow. Instead, agents and brokers wishing to publish a rental listing on the third-party platform will need to do so via Zillow Rental Manager, which is contract-based and starts at $9.99 a week. While the company claims the decision was made to "empower" its partners, in reality, the move is little more than a blatant cash grab. Revenue stemming from its main moneymaker, Zillow Premier Agent, has stagnated in recent years, and Zillow Offers, its direct home-buying platform, continues to lose thousands of dollars per transaction. Switching a free service to a paid one was the easiest way to satisfy pressure from investors.

Finding Rental Furniture for Staging
When selling a home, you want to catch people's attention. You want to stand out so every potential buyer remembers your listing. You want them to envision themselves living in your home for years to come. Creating these experiences for potential buyers makes a home sell faster and many times for a higher price. The most effective way to create these experiences is to use furniture rentals for staging your listing. If the sellers have moved out of the home before it has sold and taken all of their furniture with them, it is highly recommended to invest in furniture rentals.

Renters Who Don't Know They Want to Buy Are Potential Revenue for You
Has anyone ever contacted you about a house that wasn't for sale but was instead listed as (*gasp*) for rent? If your response to that lead was "I don't do rentals," you're missing out on a great source of revenue. I'm not talking about the revenue from the rentals. I'm talking about the sales that those renters will eventually turn into. Some rentals may take years to convert, but others may be ready to buy now and just haven't realized it. You're sitting on a cache of leads that are just waiting to be worked. Here are five tips to help you start monetizing rental leads.

Are Your Prospective Residents Local? Google Data May Surprise You.
Do you know where your future prospects and renters currently live? You may have some notions about the demographics of your target residents — their occupations, their price points, the amenities that appeal to them — but do you know where those target renters are living now? New research shows they may be farther away than you imagined. A recent Google report reveals that a substantial number of people are searching for rentals in a different city or state. Check out these tips to make sure your listings are getting in front of as many potential renters as possible. Search Horizons Are Broad According to the Google report, 57% of people search for rentals within their current city, while 65% search within their current state. In other words: 1 in 3 renters are searching out-of-state, while nearly half are looking at a different city. The average user's search radius expands to 338 miles away from their current location. Renters in "hot markets" are especially likely to broaden their search scope. In the top 10 most in-demand cities, 30 to 50 percent of renters are searching for properties more than 50 miles away.

Infographic: Do's and Don'ts for Promoting Rental Properties
Last week, we suggested that adding rentals to your services would be a huge advantage. Offer property owners your services to find tenants or work with investors to buy property, and then turn around and find tenants to rent that property. Full service agent! If you're looking to effectively promote your rental listings, we've got some pointers. Our sister site, ForRent.com, created an infographic, "How to Create the Perfect Rental Ad." And if you, Mr. or Ms. Real Estate Pro, want to start raking in some more cash this year, you should know these tips, too! Key Features: Include details that are not in property description (garage, private yard, use key landmarks for directions) Do not exaggerate Be specific Always include photos of primary rooms, including kitchen, living room, bathroom, master Clutter free, but a home that looks "lived in" is a PLUS No flash--take photos during the day to assure natural look See more tips here. Click through to the next page to view the infographic.

Bigger Isn’t Always Better
This article comes to us from David Vivero, founder of RentJuice and VP of Rentals at Zillow. When it comes to life as a real estate pro, it's not always the size that counts. While listings with a "For Sale" sign in the yard yield higher commissions, they can take more time and effort to move. Supplementing income from home sales by raking in multiple, smaller commission checks can add up to a lot – and it's becoming easier to do, thanks to a growing renter population and new innovations that are popping up throughout the industry. In the first quarter of 2012, the rental vacancy rate of 8.8 percent was 0.9 percentage points lower than the first quarter of 2011 and 0.6 percentage points lower than last quarter, according to numbers from the Department of Commerce's Census Bureau. Renting is on the rise, and the real estate industry is transforming to help brokers and agents meet the climbing demand. Multiple Listing Services are placing emphasis on rental listings data; companies like Zillow have added rentals to their "For Sale" inventory; and new players are emerging with technology offerings that allow for greater volumes, efficiency and precision.

Whitepaper: How and Why to Retain Tenants
When you talk about cost-effective strategies for property managers and owners, tenant retention should be at the top of your list. If you keep your tenants happy, you'll keep receiving those uninterrupted rent checks in the mail (avoiding the time and expense of turnover). Today, we'll summarize the RentJuice whitepaper that details the ins and outs of tenant retention. You can download the full whitepaper for free from the rental experts at RentJuice. What's the Big Deal Tenant retention can improve your business by: Saving time and money. Each occupied unit means a regular stream of rent payments to your account, as well as less money and time spent on marketing and turnover maintenance. Increasing profit. According to RentJuice, "The Journal of Property Management revealed that on average, a retained resident is worth almost $900 each year on top of rent payments. Each time a resident moves out, a unit is vacant for an average of 1.5 months. If the tenant retains their lease, the property saves $1,350 as well as the additional costs that would go to marketing the vacancy." LTV and CAC Let's define two of the most important terms related to the economics of tenant retention – LTV and CAC. Then, we'll look at what they mean when combined. LTV: Lifetime Value of a Tenant. The LTV is the profit you'll make over the course of the entire time a tenant will be renting with you. The most important thing to understand about LTV is that it increases with each month a tenant stays with you.

5 Tips for Better Video Tours
Last week, we worked with RentJuice to bring you some helpful hints for better real estate photos. This week, we’re bringing you 5 of their tips for video tours. Although RentJuice is the rental marketing expert, their tips are certainly helpful for those of us selling properties. For all of the tips, download their excellent whitepaper “The Essential Guide to Apartment Video Tours.”   1) Choose the right equipment. First of all, Smartphones are not proper equipment for video tours. Just to make this absolutely clear, I’d like to reiterate: do not use your Smartphone to film your video tour. Instead, RentJuice recommends: Choose a mid-level quality camera or higher. Choose a camera with HD. Choose a camera with built-in stabilization. Use a wide-angle lens. Use a microphone. Use a tripod.   2) Stage your property. Before you start filming your video tour, make sure the property is clean and tidy! This isn’t just removing a layer of dust or spills on the kitchen floor – it means organizing clutter. Although keeping furniture in a shot can help potential buyers/renters visualize themselves in the space, be sure that the furniture is tasteful, minimal, and strategically arranged.   3) Give a complete tour. First, get in front of the camera yourself so that people know whose voice they’re hearing. Then, continue with proper “flow” - beginning with the exterior of the house and moving to the interior. Move through the house in an organized way, filming all of the major rooms. Give priority to major areas like the kitchen, dining room, living room and master bedroom.   In their whitepaper, RentJuice has several other excellent tips for filming your tour – including where to hold the camera when walking through a hallway. For full details, download the whitepaper.

3 Tips for Writing Better Rental Listings
  In their last whitepaper, the rental experts at RentJuice shared their tips for starting a rental division. In their most recent whitepaper, they explain how to write better rental listings. We’ll share 3 of their top tips here; for the full scoop, you can download the whitepaper.   Tip #1: Share as much information as possible. The more information you’re able to include in your listing, the more likely people are to follow-up. Of course, not all information is created equal – some facts are more important than others. For instance, you want to be sure to include: The price (not a deceptively low price or a price range; the REAL price) The "laundry list" of features. That means all the features that you do have, and the important ones that you don't. It's the best way to prevent wasting their time and your own. Amenities such as washer and dryer, air conditioning, pool, parking, etc. The amount of living space and the floor plan, if possible.