Investor · Raleigh, NC · Member since 2015 · 81 posts · 210 votes
Happy New Year BP community.
I just got an email from Zillow rental manager saying that starting in Feb if I have > 1 rental listing I have to pay $9.99 per week for each listing. This is for the Raleigh NC area.
Anyone else seeing this? I wonder if I post in other sites it will cross post to Zillow for free? Zillow is such a popular RE site I would hate to lose it but $10 per week is a bit steep in my opinion.
I think some of you are not looking at this from a business perspective. You are getting hung up on the fact something was free and is now costing money.
Lets say you have a property that rents for $1200 and it is vacant in a month with 30 days. Every day that property sits vacant costs you $40. Every week costs you $280!
So tell me if you could spend $10 and get it rented even one day earlier, would it be worth it? It would from a financial perspective, so why let your emotions control the decision?
Here is the bottom line. Business is not about what something costs, but rather what you get in return. Renters are using Zillow and they are not paying money, so they will keep using it. If you chose to not use Zillow, you will not reach those perspective tenants.
One other advantage of the fee structure is that it give incentive for landlords to take down listings once they are filled. Renters tell me all the time that listings are up there when the property was rented or landlord won't even respond.
@Calvin Lin I also received this same email from Zillow. They did this in other states such as Colorado and Oregon. However, we are still sorting out how this will impact our software programs that syndicates to Zillow's rental network.
The only other way to get your listing on Zillow that i know off is to have it listed on the MLS. That's what I do. That will sync it with Zillow and ton of other sites.
But to be honest, I'm not surprised at all that Zillow did this. It's very common for companies to introduce new product, have it all free until they get good market share, then start monetizing it. So yeah, it stinks.
Jiri B. I am not 100% positive how Zillow handles RENTAL properties for their site however for SFH's (non-commercial) a homeowner can simply create an account, post pictures, write a description, and sell their property - for free. Again, that may be different for a rental property. Zillow does in fact scour the MLS for additional properties that are posted exclusively there much like that of Redfin. Good Luck!
I got this email as well. No way am I paying for their service - it just doesn't create enough value. And sure as hell doesn't create $120/yr in value.
A few months ago I tried listing a rental on Zillow for the first time, and I must say I was amazed at the response. It had been a while (years) since I previously had a vacancy, and the last time I had one I only used Craigslist and yard signs. This time, I thought I'd give Zillow a try since Craigslist is so overrun with fake ads, spam from apartment complexes, and is just so user-unfriendly in general.
If you don't know, Zillow rental ads also post to their other platforms, including Trulia and HotPads. Between all these sites, my ad had over 800 views, well over a hundred calls from interested applicants, dozens of people show up to view the home during just two showings, and resulted in six qualified applications for me to choose from. Ultimately, it took me a total of just FOUR DAYS from the listing of the ad to the signing of the lease with a highly qualified tenant.
I'd say that's worth $9.99 and would happily pay it if I had to (though they're still not charging in my market). Not sure how else you'd get it rented that quick, or with that many applicants to choose from, using any other method.
(As a side note, I track all of my responses and I had the same ad posted on Craigslist during the same period of time and I had a total of ONE response from that ad, and it was from an unqualified applicant. Oh, and a scammer ended up hijacking one of my ads and re-posting it with their own phone number and a much lower rent amount. Guess which site that happened on? Hint: Craigslist.)
Unfortunately, rentals posted on Zillow are not immune to scammers’ tricks. At least two of my rentals that I posted on Zillow were re-posted by scammers on other sites for lower rent. I am in Illinois and also received the $9.99 notice. Although Zillow rental manager has been very convenient to date, I think that $10 per week is a bit steep. I’m interested in knowing what other platforms RE investors recommend using to advertise their rentals.
Using Zillow I was able to rent my first unit to a qualified candidate the first day. Within hours I had over a dozen applications and that evening had the signed lease.
My second unit took 4 days to get a signed lease.
I think it’s worth the small investment as Zillow has become a go-to for many renters. I also received the email but will continue to use it as the small cost is outweighed by their easy to use background verifications (renter friendly as I believe it gives them 30 days of use across multiple applications), their market share of rental sites and the communication tools to get everything started.
@Calvin Lin I used Zillow for the last year or two and loved it. Just last month I had to fill a vacancy and realized this $9.99 a week cost and wondered why this happened? I got the unit rented during the holiday season which is not really easy for me, but really don’t how else to advertise these days. If I had more effective and cheaper options, that would be wonderful, but I do not see these options. Further, most inquiries do not seem to leave phone numbers and just list the generic paragraph how they want to view the unit. Is there a better way to email them or get their phone number? I am still learning with the Zillow site and do not use their background services.
Damn, I just got this too. And will likely pay it, as CL doesn't seem to be very viable anymore. Most of my properties rent within two weeks. @Todd Powell--most people are punching a button on their phones. Asking for more info annoys me, my ads are very informative, tell me what ELSE you want to know? In reality I have a cut and paste response asking that (politely) and asking THEM a few questions, as clearly most can't see or don't read the whole ad. Example: Dear X: "Thanks for your response. We are having an open house on 2/6/2020 from 1-3 p.m. We don't accept smoking or vaping of any kind in or around the property. We require 3 x income minimum. We accept one pet under 30# with additional $300 deposit. Please let me know if you have further questions, by texting me at #######. " If they are at all interested, they text, and then I have THEIR number without asking.
@Calvin Lin - for small landlord’s I think it’ll result in multiple accounts so there’s 1 active per account which is free. It doesn’t take much effort to set up a second email address or google voice.
That being said, Zillow spends a massive amount of advertising money with google and Microsoft to be one of the first places renters click when searching for an apartment. I’ve gotten many renters from Zillow and it would be worth $10/week. When craigslist started charging me $5 to post my formerly free to post ads asking for cash handyman, it was still worth it and I’ve paid it many times.
Facebook marketplace may gain market share, but its user interface isn’t nearly as good imo in terms of map-area searching for an apartment. I get messages from people looking for rentals 45 minutes away. Less Zillow messages are total bogus. They usually come from someone who wants to rent within a few months.
@Calvin Lin I got this email too. And I use Zillow for a lot of my advertising. Something I am going to have to build into the numbers now and definitely more of an incentive to keep vacancies low!!!
@Calvin Lin I typically post new rental listings on Zillow, Cozy, and Facebook Marketplace. I can tell you that the highest response rate, with the most qualified prospective tenants comes from Facebook Marketplace. This platform is free and I will continue to post my rental listings here. Hope this helps anyone looking to avoid being taxed by the man, or Zillow in this case.
Zillow is getting greedy here. $10 per week is steep, especially with so many outlets available (Facebook, Next Door, etc). After the first listing expires the $10 is charged. Reminds me of when ebay got greedy, lost a ton of marketshare and never recovered....
Bummer. However, I will always use Zillow to list my rentals. I’ve listed four properties before with them and it seems like they get rented out with good tenants in a nano second. I will gladly pay $9.99 for this service. Mine all got rented out the first weekend I had them listed. So ten bucks won’t financially kill me I guess.
I think some of you are not looking at this from a business perspective. You are getting hung up on the fact something was free and is now costing money.
Lets say you have a property that rents for $1200 and it is vacant in a month with 30 days. Every day that property sits vacant costs you $40. Every week costs you $280!
So tell me if you could spend $10 and get it rented even one day earlier, would it be worth it? It would from a financial perspective, so why let your emotions control the decision?
Here is the bottom line. Business is not about what something costs, but rather what you get in return. Renters are using Zillow and they are not paying money, so they will keep using it. If you chose to not use Zillow, you will not reach those perspective tenants.
One other advantage of the fee structure is that it give incentive for landlords to take down listings once they are filled. Renters tell me all the time that listings are up there when the property was rented or landlord won't even respond.
A few months ago I tried listing a rental on Zillow for the first time, and I must say I was amazed at the response. It had been a while (years) since I previously had a vacancy, and the last time I had one I only used Craigslist and yard signs. This time, I thought I'd give Zillow a try since Craigslist is so overrun with fake ads, spam from apartment complexes, and is just so user-unfriendly in general.
If you don't know, Zillow rental ads also post to their other platforms, including Trulia and HotPads. Between all these sites, my ad had over 800 views, well over a hundred calls from interested applicants, dozens of people show up to view the home during just two showings, and resulted in six qualified applications for me to choose from. Ultimately, it took me a total of just FOUR DAYS from the listing of the ad to the signing of the lease with a highly qualified tenant.
I'd say that's worth $9.99 and would happily pay it if I had to (though they're still not charging in my market). Not sure how else you'd get it rented that quick, or with that many applicants to choose from, using any other method.
(As a side note, I track all of my responses and I had the same ad posted on Craigslist during the same period of time and I had a total of ONE response from that ad, and it was from an unqualified applicant. Oh, and a scammer ended up hijacking one of my ads and re-posting it with their own phone number and a much lower rent amount. Guess which site that happened on? Hint: Craigslist.)
I used to post my listings with multiple platforms, zillow, cozy.co, craigslist, facebook marketplace, and yard signs. On my most recent rental I listed exclusively with Zillow and received a huge response.
Now do I believe that it is worth $9.99 per week? No. I personally wouldn't mind paying $9.99 per month to list an unlimited number of rentals, but that is a very high cost per week when you are a small part-time landlord like me. If you are a large property management company with dozens or hundreds of units, it's no big deal.
I know this isn't happening in my market yet, but I see it as a sign of things to come. Those states are test markets, and soon it will be nationwide.
This is fantastic news! I wish they did it in NY. One huge advantage to this is that it will clean up Zillow postings that are overdue/expired or already rented out. Serious listings only!
@Natalie Schanne if someone is willing to go through the hassle of managing two accounts so be it! That just legitimizes their listings even more!
I utilized a listing agent to see how effective they are. It took them more days to rent out the unit than it would have taken me and it cost me 1 months rent (agent fee)! Zillow would have been cheaper just by filling the vacancy sooner! This isn't even including the fact that I get 1 months rent in my pocket
$40/month is too steep. I'll be glad to take my business elsewhere. Facebook Marketplace is going to pickup a lot of former Zillow clients... For people saying it is cost of doing business, I hope you rent your apartment within a week.
If it produces tenants and $10 a week is too much for you to stomach then you ought to get out of the business now.
I remember a thing called "the classifieds" in a thing called newspapers- where you would pay for a short little blurb. You had to leave your phone number and begin a mind-numbing screening process that ate into your day. And the tenant had no real idea of what your rental looked like besides the short little "pay per word" blurb.
No thank you very much! Full color spread which pinpoints my units and allows me weed through potential inquiries without picking up the phone.
$10 is cheap in my market, where the majority of my tenants come from Zillow. Facebook has been a dead-end for me, and besides that the community group of my market already links to my units when I put them up.
I can't believe people get into this game with such a small profit margin.
If it produces tenants and $10 a week is too much for you to stomach then you ought to get out of the business now.
I remember a thing called "the classifieds" in a thing called newspapers- where you would pay for a short little blurb. You had to leave your phone number and begin a mind-numbing screening process that ate into your day. And the tenant had no real idea of what your rental looked like besides the short little "pay per word" blurb.
No thank you very much! Full color spread which pinpoints my units and allows me weed through potential inquiries without picking up the phone.
$10 is cheap in my market, where the majority of my tenants come from Zillow. Facebook has been a dead-end for me, and besides that the community group of my market already links to my units when I put them up.
I can't believe people get into this game with such a small profit margin.
Back in the day people would still not pay for classified ads but instead put out yard signs, rent through word of mouth, and even list with a realtor.
Landlords will respond as they always respond, by raising rents, charging higher application fees, etc. Landlords will pass any additional costs on to the renter.
@Anthony Gayden - yes, believe it or not they did list them in the classifieds.
List it with a realtor? Really? So you would give up a months rent (in my market) to spite Zillow $10?
Many of us use every available free means- but as you pointed out- in many markets, Zillow is going to bring you the tenants. To get that type of service/result and still expect it to be free is silly.