Investor · Hunterdon County, NJ · Member since 2016 · 42 posts · 5 votes
I've
been using Facebook marketplace to list my apartments for the past 5
years. I only have 3 units and it's been pretty reliable to find good
tenants.
Post pandemic....that approach is a disaster. I've posted my place but the responses are bananas.
The people responding have little to no credit, or are vastly
under qualified with the income requirements. Many of them aren't tech literate enough to do the typical application (I usually have them fill out a pdf and we go over it together).
It's almost like they don't read the ad, or are simply clicking the automatic "Is this still available" button. I've gotten 3500 clicks and nearly 200 inquiries. I have resorted to copy and pasting a response to their initial "is this still available" question. Probably 50% of those never get returned to me. It's a pretty easy way to weed through the non-interested.
Many of them are looking for an in person tour, yet they are not interested enough in responding to the chat conversation THEY INITIATE!
I use apartments.com for tenant payments, but I don't know how they are for tenant screenings or applications.
Has anyone used apartments.com or zillow for tenant applications and screenings? My understanding is that they pay for the application process. I'd like to pre screen tenants before they pay to ensure they aren't wasting their money.
I've had the most success using Zillow. I believe the person applying can pay a fee and have unlimited applications they can submit for a limited amount of time, so you don't really need to worry about them wasting their money on the application if you don't chose them.
Sounds like the OfferUp version of tenant solicitation. A bunch of worthless responses from idiots that must get a dopamine hit from it.
Why do you feel the need to pre-screen tenants so THEY don't waste money. That is exactly what you need to do to eliminate all the stupidness. This is what my PMs do. I don't know in detail what they use and how automated the initial screening is before it lands on their desk, but I know that any heartbeat that wants a human to contact them about an available property must first pony up a non-refundable $35 (might be more now) for an application.
I've had the most success using Zillow. I believe the person applying can pay a fee and have unlimited applications they can submit for a limited amount of time, so you don't really need to worry about them wasting their money on the application if you don't chose them.
I've had the most success using Zillow. I believe the person applying can pay a fee and have unlimited applications they can submit for a limited amount of time, so you don't really need to worry about them wasting their money on the application if you don't chose them.
I agree with Sam; Zillow has worked very well for me for the reasons he states. I have tried Avail, apartments.com but don't care for their user interface.Someone used Facebook Marketplace to use my legitimate rental ad in a scam, copying the picture and offering lower rent. The local police made me aware of what was happening. WIth Zillow I can clearly see who has applied, my emails to them, and and their responses. I only own one rental property, and have gotten my tenants via Zillow. I think if people have to pay to apply, they are really interested, saving you time and aggravation.
That’s funny what you said about placing a FOR RENT sign in front yard. When my husband and I first started renting our first and second homes (20+ years ago), that’s exactly how we did it. A sign in the yard and we placed an ad in local newspaper. Those ads were expensive! But there was no Zillow, Realtor.com or anything else on line, so that’s the way we did it.
I've
been using Facebook marketplace to list my apartments for the past 5
years. I only have 3 units and it's been pretty reliable to find good
tenants.
Post pandemic....that approach is a disaster. I've posted my place but the responses are bananas.
The people responding have little to no credit, or are vastly
under qualified with the income requirements. Many of them aren't tech literate enough to do the typical application (I usually have them fill out a pdf and we go over it together).
It's almost like they don't read the ad, or are simply clicking the automatic "Is this still available" button. I've gotten 3500 clicks and nearly 200 inquiries. I have resorted to copy and pasting a response to their initial "is this still available" question. Probably 50% of those never get returned to me. It's a pretty easy way to weed through the non-interested.
Many of them are looking for an in person tour, yet they are not interested enough in responding to the chat conversation THEY INITIATE!
I use apartments.com for tenant payments, but I don't know how they are for tenant screenings or applications.
Has anyone used apartments.com or zillow for tenant applications and screenings? My understanding is that they pay for the application process. I'd like to pre screen tenants before they pay to ensure they aren't wasting their money.
I like Zillow although I have used Facebook in the past.
@Karla Simmons I do repairs, maintenance, and turnover cleanout for other OOS investors. People stop in to view houses like it's a garage sale and everything is free. It's so frequent I say it's already leased (not always the case) because I'm not getting paid to show property.
To pick from the best pool for facebook do you have fb groups you could market to instead of fb marketplace? Furthermore many of the unqualified are easy to spot from the fb profile. Example if they are flicking the camera off in every pick.
I love FB for checking out potential tenants. And it’s really kind of funny that a lot of them don’t realize that we do that. It’s obvious they don’t realize because of what they will put on their profile. They say they don’t have any pets but their picture clearly shows them with their 3 pit bulls. Lol
I have been using FB ever since Zillow started charging. Now there’s barely any rental listings here on Zillow. I get a ton of responses on FB, and it’s super easy to weed out the trash before responding. I’ll typically get 100 messages in 24 hours. I’ll respond to about 15-20 that have mature FB pages. Winner every time.
To pick from the best pool for facebook do you have fb groups you could market to instead of fb marketplace? Furthermore many of the unqualified are easy to spot from the fb profile. Example if they are flicking the camera off in every pick.
I've had the most success using Zillow. I believe the person applying can pay a fee and have unlimited applications they can submit for a limited amount of time, so you don't really need to worry about them wasting their money on the application if you don't chose them.
I agree with Sam; Zillow has worked very well for me for the reasons he states. I have tried Avail, apartments.com but don't care for their user interface.Someone used Facebook Marketplace to use my legitimate rental ad in a scam, copying the picture and offering lower rent. The local police made me aware of what was happening. WIth Zillow I can clearly see who has applied, my emails to them, and and their responses. I only own one rental property, and have gotten my tenants via Zillow. I think if people have to pay to apply, they are really interested, saving you time and aggravation.
I've had issues with Zillow. They have my property "stored" as a single family, even though it's a multi unit. So, every time I need to list a rental...it shows photos of other apartments, etc. I've gone in and cleaned it up numerous times, but it keeps reverting back to "it's" internal data over my updates. Frustrating to say the least.
I may try avail to see if it can subvert zillows internal settings.
I just leased up one of my units. In the past I used craigslist and Cozy(now apts.com). Between the 2 of those, I never had an issue finding a suitable tenant.
last week I opened my listing, decided to try FB marketplace in addition to CL & apts.com(formerly Cozy)
Craigslist got about the same, maybe slightly less than before.
apts.com got almost no interest. I believe this was due to the fact that it would not let me edit the description, so i couldn't add any flare. just pictures and a bunch of cookie cutter information. No good, apartments.com, fix your system. However I do love their management tools. Works great for my small portfolio (4 doors). Screening, applications, leases & Payments are all incredibly helpful tools for my business.
FB Marketplace blew up my phone with dozens of clicks. I copy and past a generic message, telling everyone to reach back out to me in a few days if they were still looking to schedule an appointment (first screening). about 10 of them actually got back to me but some of them decided not to ask me the address (second screening). I set up 5 showings. Only ONE made it. They applied, then immediately withdrew their application due to personal circumstances (roommate drama).
Sooooo my experience with FB was a big wast of time. Tire kickers and time suckers.
I ended up signing someone off of craigslist! Thank you my old friend.
@Cory Melious I am having the exact same responses from Marketplace . People dont read the ad . Those that do make it to a showing , 4 out of 5 have sob stories and are no where close to the qualifications . I attribute this to the pandemic and the rent relief . People are getting kicked out and are scrambling for a place to live . They ask about whats required and a give them the main ones and thats the last I hear from them . I will wait
Most come from referrals or current tenants upgrading to a larger unit. When I need to market I use Zillow. Zillow allows landlords to set up your property profiles and activate the listing for $9.99 for 7-days. Candidates apply and submit background checks through Zillow interface and landlord has access to the documents for 30 days.
Once you fill the slot you deactivate the listing, your profile stays on Zillow for the next time you need to activate the listing
If needed you can also collect rents through Zillow.
The copy and paste is a good idea I use this "Thank you for your interest in the property, due to the high demand we are only providing tours to candidates who filled out an application and meet the requirements. I'll send you an application invite via Zillow, hope to hear from you soon!"
I check my messages in the morning, lunch, and end of day. That's to send out my cut and paste and review applications. 15m tops, per day.
Don't get spun up on people who don't follow directions or respond. Focus on the good canodates.
I use Facebook and zillow. Craigslist only if no decent applicants a few weeks after listing, which hasn't happened recently.
I auto respond with a link to a Google docs form to fill out, having them self declare on the requirements that I place in the ad. The Google doc automatically tells them they don't qualify if they fill in data that don't meet the min. requirements, which majority don't meet. Good candidates get a call to arrange a tour. I would say 50% of the people that get this far are interested in submitting a real application with background check (and fee)
I auto respond with a link to a Google docs form to fill out, having them self declare on the requirements that I place in the ad. The Google doc automatically tells them they don't qualify if they fill in data that don't meet the min. requirements, which majority don't meet.
This is amazing! How did you come across this process? Did you develop it on your own?
I'd love to get something like this working for me, so I can send it to all the facebook requests. I feel like this would certainly help weed out the serious renters from the casual clickers!
apartments.com, zumper.com, realtor.com, zillow.com....I prefer to set up my tenants via avail.co (Realtor.com) and verify financials theclosingdocs.com. I will never use craiglist or facebook.
I auto respond with a link to a Google docs form to fill out, having them self declare on the requirements that I place in the ad. The Google doc automatically tells them they don't qualify if they fill in data that don't meet the min. requirements, which majority don't meet.
This is amazing! How did you come across this process? Did you develop it on your own?
I'd love to get something like this working for me, so I can send it to all the facebook requests. I feel like this would certainly help weed out the serious renters from the casual clickers!
Basic process came from a Bigger Pockets thread about this several years ago. Don't remember from who the idea came from. Had never heard of Google docs before then.
When I first started posting my single family rental to get prospects I was all in on Zillow for many of the reasons mentioned. However, being in New York State, since the new laws they passed in 2019, I ended up NOT relying on them for the core of my process.
1. Last I checked they did not make the application process flexible enough to account for some of the NYS laws that prevent you from asking certain things. Not being able to check for prior evictions and not being able to charge more than $20 per application in New York made the Zillow process out of compliance with New York (maybe they have fixed that since I last checked)
2. Centralizing around Zillow then means you don't have a central way to gather prospects from other useful sources.
I have had very good luck using Avail.co as the core of my listing / prospect management process. It's rental listing tool makes it very easy to post not just to the Zillow network of sites but also the Realtor.com network of sites. You can then setup an account directly with Zillow to promote your listing further for a certain upcharge per day. While Zillow has remained my number 1 source for leads it does not make up the majority of them. A bunch came from realtor.com and apartments.com. I do separately post to Craigslist, Nextdoor and Facebook groups. I have gotten some leads from Craigslist but for the most part the best leads have not come from these additional sources.
Besides being able to easily edit and re-post a change to your listing via the Avail Listing Manager to multiple sites, what I really like about Avail is that it centralizes messaging from all the places it posts to. All inquiries and messages come into a central dashboard and you can manage them in one place. You can also add leads that may have come to you directly (ie. due to local signs or flyers or from places that aren't integrated like Craigslist) and log all communications with those leads in one place. Having the ability to archive a lead so you don't have to pay attention to it anymore is also helpful as the above process yielded quite a few leads for me.
I second the idea about Google Form for a pre-screening and that is what I do. The first thing I do when an inquiry comes in is respond with a canned email containing more information about the rental and a link to a Google Form that asks them a bunch of questions, all the while educating them on the requirements. This is helpful several reasons:
* It saves me having to waste time doing it on the phone or a showing. I too amazed at how many people don't read the requirements of the listing.
* It prevents poorly qualifying candidates from applying. This is helpful in reducing the number of applications I have to review (and legally respond to) but is even more important in New York State since a $20 application fee maximum means you are loosing money on every application you run a credit/background check on.
For those few that make it past that I then send them either a PDF application or a DigiSigner link to complete it virtually. I tried several online applications, including Zillow and Avail, but I was unable to customize it sufficiently to match my custom lease and comply with NYS laws (as such you should actually disable the ability to apply in Avail, which isn't obvious).
For credit/background checks I have gone with RentPrep which allows you to get sufficiently deep credit / background check info for a reasonable cost without running the eviction checks that are no longer allowed in NYS (crazy I know, but that's the law). Doing this as a separate step in a different system means you should have gotten proper permission from them to run their credit as part of your application process.
@Cory Melious I use Facebook marketplace too but I respond to each inquiry with a blast of 5-10 yes or no pre screening questions. From there, only a subset of folks answer the pre screening questions. I take a look at the answers, and let those who answered know if they are a good fit or not. Those who are a good fit get offered a showing at an open house, of which only a subset attend. Those who attend a showing or voice that they want an application get my full application. Only a subset of those folks return the application in full. Usually by then I have whittled it down to a few qualified applicants, who I can screen further.