DC - Strong Market, Ad Response Minimal -- What's going on?

[Aaron Hirsch]

Washington, DC. I've been a landlord for 20 years renting rooms in a few group houses and some small studios. The market for rooms in a group house $700-$900 range and a studio $1,400 is very strong. I even get unsolicited inquiries from friends, etc. However, CraigsList listings no longer produce any responses. I've never seen this in 20 years. I posted on Facebook (and renter subgroups) and got a rush of responses at first, however those have slowed down now too. I have listings on Zillow/Trulia as well. I've never seen a market like this before: Strong rental interest but unable to reach renters. Is anyone else having a problem like this? Where are renters finding rooms in group houses and studios?

[Ron Gallagher]

I just filled two vacant rooms in a group house in Petworth-- I use craigslist, zillow, zumper (although the leads through that website are questionable), and Facebook DC room for rent groups.  I did find the interest to be a little less than normal but I just attributed that to the fact that it is January.  Also, I had crappy pictures for the rooms, so I replaced the light bulbs with bright white 800 lumens flood lights and staged the rooms a little bit and took new, better pics and that seemed to help boost interest enough to get more people to come out to the open house which eventually lead to me getting the two new tenants in place.