Top 25 Websites for Advertising Your Property Rental Listing

Due to the popularity of this post, we've updated the property listing site list for 2019 to include 10 more places to post your rental property. Additional updates have been made in August 2020. Enjoy!

Newspaper classified ads are dead; long live the Internet! As property managers and owners, we work in a world where renters are looking for dynamic content that gives them more than the number of bedrooms and baths. They want videos, rental reviews, social integration, 3D walk-thrus, real-time mapping, and interactive media.

For rent: gone are the days of simply placing a sign outside a home when you're trying to rent it. Today, you're aiming for website traffic in addition to foot traffic when you're trying to advertise your rental property. What are the best sites to advertise rental property?

1. Your Website

Your website should be advertising central for your rental property listings. This is where you can feature photos, detailed information, and the ability to easily connect with your property management staff. Your site must not only feature properties in a beautiful and informative way, it needs to integrate SEO best practices to help it get a higher search engine ranking.

With 75 percent of Americans accessing the web using mobile devices, you must also ensure that your site is optimized for mobile. According to Huffington Post, "research shows that 57 percent of mobile users will abandon your website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load." Help your prospective tenants see all of the features of your properties in a timely manner with a fast, up-to-date website and thorough, attractive listings.

Still need a website that's clean, easy to use, mobile-friendly and built to maximize lease inquiries? Click here to check out Propertywares' property management website solutions.

2. Craigslist

The ubiquitous Craiglist is where people turn for almost everything, including housing that's focused on a specific metropolitan area. The benefits: it's inexpensive, and it allows you to write in your own way and with your own photos. The drawbacks: you'll get many inquiries, and many of them will be from those who are not always serious about your rental.

[Additional Reading: How To Become a Property Manager]

3. Oodle

Like Craigslist, Oodle is a classified listing service that includes rental housing. It's not just property-focused but it's good for attracting renters who are local and may stumble on your listing as they browse for other items.

4. Zillow

With its photo listings, interactive map, and ability to easily sort by features such as bedrooms, bathrooms, and rental price, Zillow is a popular rental property listing site. It also allows prospective tenants to compare two listings side by side.

5. Hotpads

Looking for a website that allows you to list your unit in a multi-family building? Try Hotpads. This site also caters to pet owners with pet information upfront, and like Zillow, it's based on an interactive map.

6. Apartment List

Apartment List is a marketplace that brings renters and property owners together. Apartment List gets to know renters through a comprehensive set of questions to help them find a home they'll love. Property managers can list their apartments for free, are connected to high-quality leads, and only pay if a renter leases through the platform.

7. Realtor.com

Realtor.com manages both rentals and real estate sales. It only accepts listings from property managers and owners. The interface is a little less straightforward and attractive than sites like Zillow, but it provides a simple search function for price and location.

8. Padmapper

Padmapper has a fun, interactive map that allows prospective renters to set a price, set a number of bedrooms, and look at cities across North America that suit that price range. Renters won't see your actual listing until after the initial search when they dig a little deeper.

9. Trulia

Trulia is an attractive and simple property listing site that allows renters to set parameters to see a group of photo listings with vital statistics about a property right underneath. Make sure you have a single great photo for adding your property to this site.

[Additional Reading: How to Start a Property Management Company]

10. Lovely

Lovely has a very simple, graphic format with an interactive map. The latest listings show up in red on the map, so that renters can see what's fresh on the market. It's also easy for tenants to see whether a property is pet-friendly, and there's a bullet list of amenities that you'll need to fill out.

11. Rentals.com

Rentals.com makes it easy for tenants to search for exactly the type of home they want, with searches compiled into condos, lofts, duplexes, and more. There's less information required about amenities, and it has your contact information and the availability flagged to press people to call.

With all of the calls you'll be receiving about your property, did you know that Propertyware can ensure that you never miss another leasing call again?

12. Rentdigs

Rentdigs features free photo listings. Prospective tenants can not only find rentals, they can also find rent-to-own homes and moving company quotes. Rentdigs features a single photo and some simple information on the listing, so make sure your photo is a good one.

13. Rent.com

At first glance, Rent.com appears to be largely geared towards apartment rentals but it is home (pun intended) to a significant number of rental houses as well. It's also one of the higher traffic sites on the list so it's definitely worth looking into when you're looking for your next potential tenants.

14. Zumper

Zumper is a value-added site that offers up neighborhood information and city guides for your tenants. Its initial listings feature minimal information and a single photo, but its detailed listings offer you the opportunity to add an engaging paragraph about your property.

15. Social Media

Don't underestimate the power of non-housing sites to advertise your rental property listings. If you have a listing on a site or on your website, you can advertise it to your community online through social media. If you're having particular difficulty renting a property, create an infographic with property details. While Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram may not be property-focused, they allow you to reach out to your communities and turn the search for tenants into a more sociable experience.

16. Airbnb

Airbnb is a home rental site that connects a community of homeowners directly to customers seeking short-term rentals. Airbnb is a dominant player in the home rental sharing economy or peer-to-peer (P2P) activity of providing or sharing access to goods and services.

17. Apartments.com

As the name suggests, Apartments.com as well as Apartmentfinder.com which it also owns, are popular sites that provide a free popular tool for long-term rentals of apartments and condos. Apartments.com offers deals and can provide upfront savings for users if they end up renting through the site.

18. VRBO

Vacation Rentals By Owners is a top-ranked site that specializes in vacation rentals homes, apartments, condos, B&B cabins, beach houses, villas, etc.

19. Nextdoor

Nextdoor.com has carved out a unique space on the internet as a private social networking site for local neighborhoods, with 80% of neighborhoods across the US relying on the information and services it provides its members. Think Facebook for your community. It’s a popular site for realtors to brand their services and for landlords to list rentals to a highly engaged and active local community.

20. Facebook Groups

How could we overlook Facebook? With over 500 million users in Facebook groups, these discussion groups are like forums with many varied topics of interest. Rentals groups can be found here by a highly customizable location search function. It’s a great way to get the word out to your Facebook contacts about a rental property.

21. HomeAway

HomeAway has been around longer than Airbnb and is very similar in that it guides registered users to its inventory of short-term rentals. It differs from Airbnb in that it offers rentals of entire properties as opposed to rooms, hostels or even beds. As such this site is more popular with property managers and individual’s owners. HomeAway owns VRBO and uses that site to cater to short-term vacation rentals looking for single rooms or partial accommodations along the lines of Airbnb.

22. Walk Score

As its name suggests Walk Score is another niche site whose stated mission is to promote walkable neighborhoods for those residing in apartments. This is a popular add-on feature to property management website as it appeals to renters concerned with transportation costs, commute times, access to public transportation or a property’s location to activities, businesses, schools etc.

23. Sublet.com

Don’t let the name fool you, Sublet.com is not just about sublets. Every type of rental can be listed here; Short term, long term, vacation, furnished and unfurnished as well as private and room rentals. Landlords can post a Standard listing for free here, but a Premium listing that can receive up to 500 times more leads, as well as tenant screening, employment and criminal background checks services are provided for a sliding scale fee based on the market you’re listing in.

24. Move

Move is a one-stop shop that provides many services for experienced renters or buyers who know exactly where they want to live and want they want in a home or apartment. It also caters to seniors who may require assisted living, continuing care and independent living. This company has a database of listings that is viewed by a customer base of 40 million people and provides many helpful tips and links for topics like owning pets, rent vs buy, painting, decorating and moving.

25. People With Pets

Last but not least, People With Pets. As the name suggests, our often overlooked four-legged family members now have their very own site. This site is essentially a national directory of pet-friendly homes, apartments, and hotels. For renters, this site is free to use, for property managers this site will charge $299 a year for advertising your pet-friendly property to the approximately 72% of renters that own pets.

[Additional Reading: The Definitive Guide to Service Animals & The ADA for Property Managers]

As you aim to optimize your house rental advertising and make a connection with new and existing tenant markets, how can you stay on top of your website and your property listings? Property management software like Propertyware can help by providing you with tools to easily syndicate your listings over multiple listing sites with a just a few clicks. Instantly update property information, such as unit availability, pricing, floor plans and more, and track leads automatically.