A common leasing question is how to refresh a rental advertisement to move it back up in search results. Historically, rental listing websites such as Zillow, Trulia, and ApartmentList made renewals possible. Today, the largest rental listing websites do not allow it.
Why Do Listing Websites Not Allow You to Renew Listings?
Rental listing websites want to attract tenants by providing accurate data, including days on market. The only major website that does not is Craigslist, which allows owners and managers to renew and even duplicate listings. That makes its data less accurate, but more attractive to owners and managers who have time to renew listings. You can learn more about posting to Craigslist here.
Please note that Hemlane previously tried changing property IDs and using other techniques to get properties to the top of listing websites. Third party websites asked us to stop promoting this inaccurate activity.
What Else Can I Do to Attract Tenants?
1. Keep Your Available Date Current
The Available Date is found in the Terms section of the Marketing tab. If your listing’s Available Date is in the past, Hemlane automatically updates it to today’s date. This also signals to Zillow and other listing websites that your listing has been freshly updated with new information. You can still update the Available Date yourself at any time to reflect a future date.
2. Check Your Rental Price
The best way to keep your listing attractive to tenants is to price it appropriately. The goal should be to have the property on the market for less than 30 days. Listing your property too high only hurts you with additional vacancy. Here is a helpful article on Determining Rental Prices.
3. Post to Facebook Marketplace
You can also post your listing on Facebook Marketplace, which is free and where more and more tenants are searching. Here are the steps to do so.
4. Try Hemlane Premium
Premium is the only way to promote your listing, meaning move it up, on rental listing websites. Listing websites allow this because you are paying them for a stronger presence and more views. You can read more about turning on Premium Listings here.