REAL ESTATE AND THE WEB
It's not a great revelation that the
internet has made a significant impact on Real Estate marketing.
In the "For Sale" market, most buyers and
sellers go on the internet to get educated as to neighborhoods and prices before
they ever contact a Real Estate Agent.
In the "For Rent" market, in days gone by it
was the newspaper where most prospective tenants looked for rentals. Most now go to the web first.
For renters, it has made finding good rental information more of a challenge. The
choices usually fall into one of the following categories:
| Pre-paid Rental Listing Agencies |
| Free Rental Listing Agencies |
| Traditional Real Estate Offices |
| Free Internet Classified |
| Newspapers |
| Property Management Websites |
| For Rent Signs |
Pre-paid Rental Listing Agencies - These
companies appear high on most internet searches. They will give a
prospective renter only a little bit of property information until you pay them
a fee. The fee buys you more detailed information and addresses on
available rentals. These companies get their listings from property owners
and managers who advertise with them. Some charge to advertise, most do it
for free. A few of these companies are very good, many are not. The
biggest complaints we hear are that the information is so old that the
properties are already rented, and that the fees are very high for information
that could be found for free.
Free Rental Listing Agencies - These
companies are similar to the above except they don't charge the prospective
renters. Instead, they more often, charge the owner or manager to
advertise. Because they charge they have far less listings. Again,
the listings are sometimes too old. The biggest complaint is that they
predominately have listings only for large apartment complexes with very few for
single family homes, condos, or small complexes.
Traditional Real Estate Offices - Some
agents, who generally specialize in the "For Sale" market, will also list
property for rent. (Especially when sales are slow.) These listings can be
found on websites with MLS search capabilities. The number of listings you
will find is generally limited, and they are usually for the higher end of the
single family home market.
Free Internet Classified - The leader in
this area is Craigslist. At the time of this writing they were the 7th
most active website in the world. They are free to advertise and free to
search. The biggest complaint for landlords who advertise is the
tremendous amount of internet scammers who will contact you. If you can't
immediately spot them, it will drive you crazy.
Newspapers - We have been in business for
over 27 years. For most of those years the newspaper, especially the
Sunday paper, was a must place to advertise. The effectiveness of
newspaper advertising is now minimal. We spot advertise to drive people
back to our website, but otherwise it is not the place to be.
Property Management Websites - If you can
find them on the web, they will often have the best, most current information
for prospective renters. Plus they will have listings for houses, condos
and small complexes. For landlords, if you use a property management
company, make sure they have a website that lists their available
properties and make sure those listings have photos. Everyone wants
photos. At Cornerstone Property Management we have had a website since the
internet's early days. We get hundreds of visitors each
day. We also advertise on most of the other formats mentioned above.
In our ads, we give listing information, and we refer the prospects back to our
website.
For Rent Signs - Of course, For
Rent signs still work for most properties. We have found that the large
real estate type signs that go on a post are not as effective as a small more
traditional For Rent sign. We have a custom made For Rent sign that we
have found to be the most effective.
Houses,
Apartments, Condominiums
Questions, call Cornerstone Property Management at 909/596-9488, or email to Rentals1234@aol.com.
