Staging and Finding Good Tenants

[Will Mak]

Hi, I just purchased a single family home in Montecito Heights (my first investment property), which is located in east part of LA near Highland Park and near Downtown LA and South Pasadena.  I am looking to find my first tenant.  It is a 3 bedroom 2.5 bath, relatively new construction, and has a great hill view.  I am trying to determine where to best put my money to generate the maximum rent. Would you recommend staging it? I've heard that staging only helps when selling the house, not leasing it.  But I've also heard that staging really attracts higher rents.

Also, do you recommend spending additional money to put it on the MLS, or just keeping it on zillow and trulia? It doesn't occur to me that people generally look at MLS to rent, but interested to hear other opinions from other landlords. Thanks! -Will