Property Management Marketing | Part 1 | The Rise of Zumper & Facebook Marketing

Summary:

Advertising your vacant rental units online has changed, and that’s due to some acquisitions and partnerships that we’re discussing today with James Barrett, CEO and Director of Business Development at Tenant Turner. On this episode of The Property Management Show, we’re taking a look at property management marketing and how the online marketplace has shifted.

Key Takeaways:

* Market consolidation of rental advertising platforms has driven big changes in the industry.

* You need both Zumper/Facebook Marketplace and Zillow to reach the largest pool of tenants.

* Use these two KPI’s to make rental advertising spending decisions: the number of leads you’re getting from each source and which of those leads get signed.

* Property managers should leverage automation and technology wherever possible.

Catch our full Property Management Marketing series:

Property Management Marketing | Part 2 | Building Waitlists & Pre-Marketing

Property Management Marketing | Part 3 | How Owner Marketing Has Changed

Craigslist is Out and Market Consolidations are In

Generally, there’s been a transition away from Craigslist. Back in the day, anyone who ever advertised a home for rent in any market had probably used Craigslist. It was free and easy. When Zillow came along, it was a better alternative, especially once they acquired HotPads and Trulia. New features were available for marketing your properties, and individual landlords joined property managers in spending more time advertising their homes on those platforms.

The latest Craigslist killer is Facebook Marketplace, which has partnered with Zumper and Apartment List. The rental feeds on those sites have been directly integrated onto Facebook Marketplace, which is a huge disrupter in the industry.

Market consolidation has driven a lot of changes. Rent Path is a key player. They own Rentals.com and RentalHouses.com. Recently, they were acquired by CoStar, a huge company that’s further bulking up to compete with Zillow and Zumper. These are the players who will shape the rental advertising industry over the next few years.

Some of these consolidations are financially motivated. CoStar has a lot of money and a large collection of commercial data assets. Taking over a company like Rent Path which was struggling to maintain their competitive edge makes sense.

For more on the state of the rental property market, check out our conversation with Dave Spooner.

Platform Usability: The Costs to Market Rental Properties

What does this mean for usability?

Through market aggregation there are fewer players, which means less competition. Zillow’s inclusion model said that if you were renting out a single-family home or a condo or any residential rental property with no more than 50 units, you didn’t have to pay to advertise on their platform. That was a Utopian time, and it no longer exists.

Zillow realized that to compete with these new consolidations, they’d have to start charging. Each player is looking for dominance and exclusivity. Everyone wants to be the Amazon of rental advertising, and with Facebook getting involved, it’s going to be easy for them to emerge as a major force. They’re a tech company and they already have a lot of eyeballs coming to their site.

Another benefit to the Zumper/Facebook Marketplace partnership is credibility. Facebook Marketplace might seem like a dubious place where people go to...