Am I allowed to change rental listing price?

[Mason Walker]

Hi everyone, I’m in desperate need of advice. I listed a a house for rent a couple days ago and received an overwhelming response. I’m talking a dozen applications and 3x as many contacts in just over 2 days. Half of those applicants are highly qualified and ready and eager to sign the lease. However looking at the market, I’ve realized I have listed the house much, much lower than comparable properties and I suspect this is why I have been flooded with so many prospective tenants.

The property is listed about $300 below market and I want to take down the listing and relist it for maybe $275 higher. My question is, can I legally do this? The applicants have all applied through Zillow so I didn’t take a penny from anyone. I have shown the property to the 6 highly qualified applicants over the weekend.  I realize this may anger most or all of them but I would be taking a loss of $3300 by renting the house to one of them at this far below market price. I’ve tried to do as much research as possible regarding my problem and some say I can charge whatever I like as long as the lease hasn’t been signed but others said I must honor the advertised price. Which is it?

I really don’t want to be sued over this so if anyone knows for sure if it would be legally ok for me to take the listing down and relist it at a higher price, I would really appreciate your input! Thank you!!