Renting out your property is a big and responsible step. Traditionally, it would mean finding a professional estate agent and leaving all the work to them. But what if we tell you that creating listings and finding tenants on your own could be more efficient today, with the help of the Internet?
The option to rent out property online, on your own, can sound terrifying at first. But it can be much simpler, faster, and beneficial than you think.
According to the National Apartment Association, today, around 98% of tenants rely on online resources when looking for rent. And as many as 20% of them use only the web. This means that turning to digital marketplaces and listings is the key to reaching more applicants.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through the concept of independent online rental, share the most effective and original approaches that will help, and tell you more about the pros and cons of this route.
What is Online Property Renting?
Online home renting means completing the entire leasing cycle right from your screen. It involves listing your properties, marketing and showing them to potential tenants, and even arranging your rental agreements online. Each stage of the process is conveniently handled with the help of online tools, such as listing and virtual tour platforms, marketplaces, e-signature platforms, and so on.
Moving your leasing efforts to the web gives broader outreach and great flexibility. It minimizes the frequency of in-person meetings and, potentially, offers a faster contract signing with the right approach. It's also a great time-saver. With digital portals, showing and renting out your home becomes nearly effortless, even if your schedule is busy.
7 Original Ways to Rent Out Property Online
Craft an Outstanding and Optimized Landing Page
A landing page is a standalone page dedicated to a specific product/service. Most often, prospects come across landing pages when looking for relevant offerings in search engines. Or they can land on it after clicking on a link in an ad, email, or social media publication. The goal of the page is to inform and convert the visitor.
Of course, building a landing page and optimizing it may not seem like the most innovative or creative approach to online house renting. But it’s still one of the most powerful ones. A well-thought-through landing page with strong SEO can make people interested in properties similar to yours come right to your doorstep.
In order to handle SEO correctly and get noticed by potential tenants, you can use free optimization tools. For example, a free keyword search volume checker by SE Ranking will help you find the most relevant and trending keywords for your landing page based on how many people look for them. Using this tool, you can map up geo demand. Choose the location of your interest and enter popular estate keywords to find those with the highest volumes but rarely featured in listings. These are the keywords you can rank for more easily and attract more potential tenants.
You can also perform seasonal demand forecasting with the tool. To do this, analyze monthly search volumes over a set period, let's say, May-July, to forecast demand and launch your SEO campaigns at the right point of this period, before the peak.
After choosing your keywords, implement basic SEO practices to get discovered in organic search:
- Write engaging meta titles and descriptions.
- Write interesting, human-first content with natural keyword integration.
- Target local keywords (ones that have your city name in them).
- Add high-quality photos and provide alt text for them.
- Create descriptive and easy-to-remember URLs, ideally optimized with your primary target keyword.
Demonstrate Your Estate With Immersive Viewing
The visual materials matter the most in real estate as they help capture the potential tenants’ attention. First, prepare high-quality photos. Consider hiring a professional to create photos of the main areas that will stand out among other listings.
And here are tips for added creativity:
- Provide virtual 3D tours of your property to help interested candidates evaluate it in full, before even visiting the site.
- If you’re renting out not an apartment but a house that is big and has a nice territory, consider making a drone-shoot video. It will help capture attention.
Create & Post Your Listings Remotely
If you don’t work with an agent, you will have plenty of work to handle on your own. This involves writing listings for the property that you want to rent out and posting them on different marketplaces. Luckily, there are many online rental listing services and platforms that can be used directly by landlords. Some of the major platforms for putting your estate for long-term rent include:
- Zillow
Apartments.com
Realtor.com
Apartment List
Trulia
Make Your Content Fun Using Storytelling
When you enter real estate platforms, you need to stand out so that applicants pick your property among all the rest. That’s why you need a description that doesn’t just give the basic details. You need one that shows prospects the lifestyle they will get.
Use storytelling and vivid descriptions to show potential customers the unique lifestyle benefits they can gain from renting your apartment or house.
Work With Social Media
Social media gives you access to large and highly engaged communities where you can spread the word about your property. Post quality listings with photos and videos on Facebook and Instagram. Also, leverage short stories to emphasize the unique living experience the tenant will get through visual storytelling. Place your publications in relevant groups and communities. In other words, get active and use every opportunity out there!
Additionally, use non-traditional social media, such as Nextdoor. As an app for neighbors, it features small, local communities. There is always a chance that one of your neighbors has friends who want to live nearby.
Leverage Targeted Advertising
Many landlords decide to rent out their homes independently for cost-efficiency reasons. So, it’s natural if you want to save your money on this process, which is why targeted advertising might not be your first thought. But here’s a thing—paid ads are some of the fastest ways to reach potential tenants, and this can give you a significant advantage.
Create ads on social media, search engines, and real estate-specific sites.
Collaborate With Local Influencers & Bloggers
This might not be the most obvious solution for renting out houses online. But it works by giving you exposure to a large audience and trust.
Micro-influencers are a big trend. They are valued in marketing for authenticity and trust. They give you access to a hyper-targeted audience. And they have very engaged communities. Thus, by partnering with them, you can overcome the competition and sign a contract faster. Your best bet is to team up with influencers and bloggers whose audience is potentially interested in renting property, for example, local lifestyle bloggers, rental experts, etc.
Pros & Cons of Renting Out Your Property Online
Hesitating whether renting out real estate online is good for you? Let’s consider the key advantages and disadvantages:
Pros:
- Getting more exposure & visibility—Online home search is thriving. Potential tenants go to trusted portals like Zillow, Realtor.com, and others to assess their options. And if you’re listed there, you get a broader outreach and receive 24/7 visibility.
- Saving costs—The services of a real estate agent are typically the biggest expense in the leasing process. Although there is no fixed commission, agents typically charge an equivalent of one month’s rent or 10-15% of the first year’s rent. And sometimes, it’s the landlord who covers this expense, especially in less competitive markets. Digital marketplaces offer a significantly lower listing fee, allowing you to save costs. Additionally, when you handle the entire process from your screen, it can help you save on transportation.
- You don’t have to meet potential tenants every day, as they see all the details online. And you can save on marketing too, since many listing platforms feature built-in and cost-efficient tools.
- Gaining more flexibility—Digital marketplaces give you full control. Imagine editing your description, adding/deleting media, changing the price, communicating with applicants, and handling contract negotiation at any time and place. Additionally, virtual touring eliminates the need for constant showings that take extra time.
- Faster lease—Finding tenants with an agent can take a while. However, making a digital listing can greatly speed up the process thanks to a greater visibility of your offer.
Cons:
- Investing a lot of time and effort—Despite cost-efficiency and flexibility, stepping on this route can be stressful. Without an agent by your side, you’ll have to do all the work related to creating and managing your listing, communicating with potential tenants, and even handling paperwork. This will require a greater time and effort investment on your side. Luckily, a variety of digital tools can save you time and help handle different stages of the process more easily.
- Coping with competition—Since real estate portals are so easy and convenient to use, naturally, there is a huge competition among them. And it can be hard to stand out from thousands of listings. But it’s possible to overcome this with smart marketing strategies and quality materials, such as appealing photos, detailed videos, etc.
- Meeting pricing challenges—Lastly, putting together a reasonable, competitive rent price and handling all the negotiations can be a hard thing to do if you’re not an expert in real estate. You’re likely to face certain pricing challenges. But it’s possible to overcome the curve with the help of thorough market research.
Summary
Of course, it takes time and effort to rent out property online without an agent. But it also pays off with flexibility, cost savings, and, possibly, faster leases.
Now, you have a list of simple, but smart and creative ways to list your property on the web and get in front of your potential tenants. Use these hacks to seal the deal as soon as possible!
