Testing market demand for rentals

[Ty Zaczkowski]

I have recently been searching around in smaller cities near my current resident city to find better cash flowing deals. I think I have found a potentially very good candidate about an hour away from me where home prices are much cheaper but rents are very comparable or even more. I searched on zillow, Craigslist, and apartments to find available units and in a town of roughly 15000 people could only find 3 available 3bed unit, 1 of which was 55+. My question is, is there anything wrong with posting a "fake" listing to see how much demand there may be? I know it would be a bummer for anyone actually looking for a place to live and it turning out to not be real but other than that, I wasn't sure if there are any other problems with this strategy. I wouldn't be taking anybody's info obviously or spamming in any kind of way. Just counting responses. Thanks everyone!

[Ryan Mullin]

I agree with Jaron.   just because 100 people want to apply doesnt mean that any would qualify or pay rent.   But If you are going to run a test ad I would use FB Market place because you can see peoples profiles and make a judegement call on if you think they might be a qualified applicant.  A lot of people list there jobs on there profile..  a lot of other people take photos smoking weed, being drunk, pitbulls, guns ,etc...    just my 2 cents.