Advertising is an important part of property management, and that’s because it impacts the type of tenant you attract and the amount of time you spend trying to lease your home.
One of the most common questions I get when owners are interested in working with us at Round Table Property Management is: where do you advertise?
Standard Online Rental Property Advertising
This is a good question, and I used to think that our response was pretty standard. I would tell prospective owners what I’m telling you now. During the leasing process, we advertise vacant properties on over 300 different rental websites. These include the popular ones like Trulia, Zillow, and HotPads. We like to give your listing as much exposure as possible, so we’re on all the big sites that prospective tenants are using to find their next rental home. We also advertise on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and on Realtor.com. When your home goes on those sites, other agents from other brokerages can see the available property, and show it to prospective tenants.
Property Managers and the MLS
This seemed like a pretty standard response that you should get from almost any Jacksonville property management company. However, we learned that a lot of property managers are choosing not to list their available homes on the MLS.
There are various reasons for this, but the most common one we hear has to do with paying referral fees. When a property manager or a broker puts a property on the MLS, we have to pay a referral fee or a commission to the agent who shows your property and ultimately gets it rented to a tenant. Many property managers believe that with the large tenant pool out there, they don’t need other agents showing their rental home, and they don’t want to pay a referral fee. They want to keep the money for themselves.
Paying Real Estate Commissions
At Round Table, we do advertise on the MLS, and we think that paying a finder’s fee or a referral fee to agents who show our home and get it rented to tenants is good business. We want to get your property rented to high quality tenants as soon as possible because vacancies cost you money.
That commission comes out of our pocket. We don’t charge you for it, and we don’t hide it in any advertising fees or extra costs. Tenants can find our listings on any of the other sites we use, but we know that agents aren’t going there. On the MLS, there is current and up-to-date information, and our commissions are guaranteed. So, when you’re interviewing a property management company to manage your investment home, it’s not enough to ask about advertising. Make sure they put your property on the MLS and Realtor.com. It will make a difference in getting your home rented quickly to a great tenant.
If you have any questions about advertising rental property, please contact us at Round Table Property Management. This is another example of how we continue to put people before property.
