Zillow to Begin Charging for Single Family Rental Listings
September 6, 2018
The golden age of free posting on Zillow may be coming to an end. Now, with the slow rollout of Zillow's new Single Family Homes product, most property management companies will be required to pay Zillow to list their rentals or change their posting process. What does this mean for you? Read below to find out.
The paid inclusion model isn't entirely new to Zillow; some may notice it's similar to what Zillow is already doing with apartment communities with 50 or more units. The transition to move over to a similar model for single family homes began earlier this year, initially targeting larger portfolio owners like Progress Residential (20,000+ homes) and property management companies with national reach like Renters Warehouse (22,000+ homes).
Now, they are now beginning to contact smaller, local property management companies who are marketing through property management software like AppFolio, Buildium, FreeRentalSite, Propertyware, RentLinx, Tenant Turner, and other non-MLS syndication tools.
You have options once you've been contacted by Zillow.
If you have not yet been contacted by a Zillow representative, sit tight. There is nothing to change about your posting process at this time.
Verified Source is now a featured sorting attribute on Zillow.
Once you hear from Zillow, you will have one month to choose a path before Zillow will begin blocking your listings.
If you choose to pay for Zillow's Single Family Homes product, there are some perks. In addition to syndicating as you do today, you will get direct access to Zillow customer support and a nightly analytics report. Additionally, each of your listings will have a "Verified Source" badge, which Zillow has now made a featured sorting attribute.
Other considerations are cost, manual effort, and lead forwarding.
We are here to help you in this transition
Whatever option you choose, Tenant Turner is here to help! We know how important your tenant leads are, and our support staff is ready to facilitate the transition to Zillow’s paid inclusion or your preferred posting process. Current Tenant Turner customers who have been contacted by Zillow can schedule a Q&A call with our support team. If you are considering Tenant Turner, then you can schedule a product walkthrough where we’ll discuss how Tenant Turner can help syndicate your listings, manage your tenant leads, and get those leads scheduled for viewings.