Zillow Blog a few days ago cited Fannie Mae, reporting that the single-family home rental was the fastest-growing sector of the rental market from 2005 to 2010—and it's still growing.
People may be giving Google a little too much credit these days. We also tend to make faster decisions in this information driven age, so many people searching for a rental will expect quick, tailored results from Google, and they will go with what Google pulls up first in the non-paid organic results. In searching, renters may neglect listings which come up too far down the list. If you want your rental business to get visibility on Google, rental professionals need to channel energy into search engine optimization (SEO), which helps get websites higher in Google search results. We focus on this when selling homes and have many ways to do it. Even though we’re talking about a rental, we do know of a service which you may way to check out.
There is a site which allows for great SEO and syndicates to multiple sites—postlets.com. It is free, and many people outside of real estate are unfamiliar with it, even in savvyCorvallis, so knowing your rental listing will be funneled into Google and other major search engines. Postlets describes their service as “a free tool that makes advertising properties across a variety of sites quick. Easily send a listing to several online real estate sites, upload to classified sites (including Craigslist) with generated HTML code, and take advantage of social media marketing all at one time on one site.”
We would recommend landlord.com as well, as it has quite a bit of do-it-yourself information and forms which could be useful to you. There is a daily email with tidbits of information you can sign up for and message boards with others chatting about the same questions going through your head. Some of the services are free, and others require a subscription.
As we observe and research what is happening in the housing market, we often find that we are in a position to give good advice, even to the independent thinker. Knowing where to find information is always key, and in this case because of the overlap between the rental market and the real estate market, it seems natural to share this information given what we are seeing with the rental market. Because of the conversations we have with investors on a regular basis we stay current and are able to answer some questions and point you in the right direction.
One last tip: get a little video of the property, even if it is bare land. The sounds, views and special features could make your property stand out and get rented sooner. Most phones have a camcorder app on them, and Youtube is free; just upload and get a link which can then go in your Postlet. If you really want to get fancy, buy a domain name which is simple and memorable for the yard/land and using your admin feature for your domain name, point it to the video. If all of this makes no sense to you, a domain is just a web address, and you can buy one at godaddy.com or other providers for about $9/year. If you use .info it will be cheaper, and that would probably be more accurate than .com. Usually, .info domains are about $4/year.
To sum up our advice to new landlords, use postlets.com and landlord.com. Consider advertising on Youtube using video and buying a domain name to lead possible renters directly to the video with a memorable website address. With property values being reduced, now is a great time to take the leap and buy your first investment property. How cool would it be to have someone else make your house payment while your investment grows?
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