Are you considering listing a rental home in the United States? Look no further than Zillow Rentals. It's unquestionably one of the first stops for novices and professionals alike when adding a new rental for people to view on Zillow. Finding out if the site is worth your time and investment is difficult unless you are experienced in property investing.
Let's see how Zillow works for real estate investors and if there is a better solution. Read on.
Rent Manager at Zillow?
Zillow Rental Manager automates processes such as house listing, tenant screening, and rent collection. Zillow launched the software in 2006. Admins can use the lease builder to construct rental agreements and email them to renters for electronic signature.
How Much Does Zillow Rent Cost?
Each month, 36 million people view Zillow, Trulia, and HotPads. For all rentals, Zillow Rental Manager recently started charging a fee. Investors may wonder whether they should continue to post rentals on Zillow. Or find another Zillow rental alternative.
The Zillow Rental Manager just began charging a weekly listing fee in certain markets. Here are the fees:
- Additional Zillow Rental Manager fees apply:
- Each tenant screening request costs $29 for the client. Landlords pay nothing.
- ACH bank transfers make online rent collecting free.
- There is a 2.95% fee for credit card transactions.
- The debit card convenience fee is $9.95.
- Feed Connect with Zillow costs $2.45 per listing.
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Zillow Feed Connect
The Zillow Feed Connect product provides third-party listings to Zillow's network. Using it, landlords can list a rental on Zillow (Trulia, HotPads, and other websites).
Rentals can be listed on the sites. Zillow, Trulia, or HotPads can also receive the postings automatically. Each listing costs $2.45 per day to link to Zillow Feed Connect.
Listing Your Rental Property on Zillow?
Investors can input data like price, several bedrooms, and bath size and make searching for rentals easier for potential customers with Zillow Rentals. Take a look at some of Zillow's pros.
Visibility
Advertisement on Zillow appears on three sites (Zillow, Trulia, and HotPads). Rental listing websites are widely used by renters looking for housing in the United States.
Listing Tools
Rentals can be listed on Zillow quickly and easily. It takes less than a minute. Upload photos and videos, write a compelling description and publish.
There is also a free 3D house tour app available through Zillow Rentals. The app is helpful now that people avoid direct contact due to COVID-19. Listings may be uploaded as many times as you wish. You can shoot videos and upload them to the software for a 3D tour with the app.
Management Resources
Rent management is also available through Zillow Rental Manager. Technology is used for tenant screening, lease uploading (customization is available in some regions), and electronic payments. Various services can be obtained online.
The company also provides troubleshooting, feeding assistance, and listing inquiries. Additionally, you can receive weekly performance updates via email.
Zillow rental listing drawbacks
With its usage, the platform offers a few benefits and has some drawbacks. So, let's see Zillow Rentals' cons and why you should consider something else.
Zillow Rental Manager Cost
Property owners and landlords use it for marketing their rental properties or selling theirs. Property owners in the United States are currently charged $9.99 per week per listed unit on Zillow.
Zillow says most homes listed on its rental listing service are rented within a week, but numerous landlords claim properties often remain vacant for long periods. The original $9.99 listing price may increase to $20, $30, or even more.
Poor Lead Quality
If you do not receive a lead after one week, Zillow Rentals will list your property for free (for up to eight weeks). Despite Zillow providing users with many leads, many are of poor quality.
The listing makes it easy for consumers to search for rentals to get information about the property. However, tenants do not further respond when you follow up or respond to them in most cases. Due to this, landlords spend time and resources responding to leads but rarely get a response, let alone a viewing.
Not enough robust features
Despite providing tenant screening and rent collection, Zillow Rentals lacks some property management tools that can be found on other platforms.
Reporting and accounting are not included, nor are landlords and tenants able to interact. Further, lease modification and creation are only available in Florida, Oregon, Colorado, and a few parts of Illinois.
Data error
There was a problem with a client posting property on Zillow. After publishing the listing, the address was incorrect on the map. The property appeared somewhere else. You could only fix the error by contacting Zillow customer support. However, who knows how many prospective tenants didn't see the listing or ignored it altogether.
Now that we've discussed the cons let's look at an alternative to Zillow Rentals.
An Improved Solution
A.I. is powerful in real estate investing in 2022 and beyond. Expert investors are looking for reliable data sources to evaluate and describe rental properties. When it comes to investing in real estate, you've come to the right place.
Property Data Sources
Addresses, features, size, and listing prices are obtained straight from the MLS database. Further information is obtained from public documents.
The United States' most popular rental marketplaces are Rent Jungle and HotPads. We get short-term rental data from Airbnb, a popular online vacation rental site.
Every analysis of rental income homes for sale, commonly known as rental comps, is based on the success of comparable traditional or Airbnb properties. In addition, we will show you how to find rental comps.
Analyzing property data
Traditional and short-term rental properties can be analyzed using our real estate investment tools. Zillow provides basic property information:
- Descriptions of houses
- House characteristics
- House size
- List price
- Price of Redfin
- Square foot price
- Property photos
Still, while critical, all the information above does not provide a comprehensive analysis of investment properties. Our rental data analytics are entirely different, including:
- Airbnb and traditional rentals
- Expenses such as utility bills, insurance, and HOA fees
- Starting expenses (Repairs, closing costs, furnishings, home inspection)
- Rent, cap rate, occupancy rate (Traditional and Airbnb).
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- Analysis of investment properties
We provide investors with tools to find profitable Zillow properties for sale to rent out long-term and short-term. Among the tools:
Property Heatmap
According to our real estate Heatmap, investors can find the most profitable properties in any U.S. housing market. Color-coded maps indicate the top and bottom neighborhoods:
- List price
- Airbnb and traditional income
- Airbnb cash on cash vs. conventional
- Hosts on Airbnb
- Map of Zillow Rentals
According to their preferred rental strategy, the Heatmap tool points investors to the most profitable locations throughout the U.S. housing market. Calculate rental property
Using our rental property calculator, you can analyze the investment potential of those Zillow properties for sale that have good cash on cash returns. Real estate data and analytics deliver a comprehensive property analysis for any U.S. residential property.
With our investment property calculator, you can calculate whether you can obtain a loan to buy a home and still have a positive return on investment. You can calculate:
- Paying down
- Money lent
- Maturity
- Loans
- Interest rate
More tools can help real estate investors make informed decisions (Property Marketplace, Property Finder, Property Search Engine, Neighborhood Analysis Pages, etc.). Is it better to test it yourself?
Conclusion
When it comes to rental listings, Zillow Rentals was a top platform - if not the largest - in the U.S. However, investors may choose other property sites due to the new Zillow Rental Manager fees. We can streamline and optimize your investment property search and analysis with our platform.
If you’d like to talk more about property management, or you need help with Everest Property Management, please contact us at Everest Realty.
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As a top producing Realtor and Property Manager; Terry specializes in sales, extensive construction homes, rentals, REO’s, short sales, and all aspects of Real Estate. After graduating the University of Michigan with a master in MBA, Terry continued his endeavor and now has over 15+ years of experience in the Real Estate world. If there is anything that has to do with Real Estate and sales, you can always be sure of Terry to provide important, specialized knowledge.
