Eleven great websites to rent your extra space
More people than ever are checking online for extra space to rent. These website are the best in the business at helping you connect with potential renters.
This April 6, 2011 file photo shows a "For Rent" sign in front of a home in Los Angeles. The current rental market is great for potential landlords.
Reed Saxon/AP/File
Location, location, location.
According to some experts, those are the only three things that matter for any property. If your first instinct is to list your rental property in the local newspaper, consider this: nine in 10 people in the market for a property today rely on the web as one of their primary sources, and a full 52% of them turn to the Internet as their first step.
So where on the web should be listing your rental? Here are 11 places to start.
1. Craigslist
With more than 50 billion page views per month, Craigslist is a great starting point for promoting your rental property. All apartment rental postings on Craigslist are free, except those for brokered apartment rentals in the New York City area (a $10 fee applies). To increase your chances of getting leads, you must include pictures. On Craigslist, you can upload up to 12 photos from your rental property and any user can leave out postings without pictures from their search queries.
2. Airbnb
Unlike Craigslist, on Airbnb you have a clearer picture of who you're dealing with. Most Airbnb users connect their accounts to their Facebook profiles so that they can filter searches by "Social Connections" and show listings that their friends have reviewed, or where they are mutual friends with a host.
Of course, to leverage social connections on Airbnb, you first need to have reviews of your rental property. Most Airbnb Superhosts advise first-time users to research nearby properties and price your rental unit between 10% to 20% lower to increase your chances of landing those first bookings. Experienced Airbnb hosts suggest to not only list the good things about your rental, but also the bad things. Guests appreciate the honesty and, some of them may not mind those bad things at all!
3. HotPads
A free option to list your single-family home, townhouse, or individual apartment unit isHotPads. Based out of San Francisco, HotPads distributes your listing automatically to various partner sites to maximize your listing's exposure and get you more leads.
If you have some money available to promote your listing, HotPads offers you the option to enhance it for as low as $1 per day. Your featured listing only appears to a user when it meets the category (e.g. buy vs. rent), geography, pricing range, and housing type specified in that user's query.
4. Trulia
Renting your apartment? There's an app for that. Trulia lets you post your rental apartment using both iPhone and Android devices. Trulia is part of the same 20+ site syndication network as HotPads. However, two key things that set Trulia apart from HotPads are the first's active community and blog with useful articles.
5. Apartments.com
You probably have seen Apartments.com's hysterical TV ads featuring Jeff Goldblum in hisBrad Bellflower persona. If you have several properties for rent, Apartments.com provides detailed analytics for each of your listings. By seeing key performance indicators, such as number of impressions by day, number of appearances in search results, and number of clickthroughs in your listing, you can fine tune your listings and experiment to find out what works best.
A nice feature of this site is that you can add a video to showcase your property and track the views by day of the video. By providing a video walk-through of your rental, you can entice more people to contact you.
6. ForRent.com
For those living in communities near universities or colleges, or in those attractive to retirees, ForRent.com is a great option. This site has sections dedicated exclusively to off-campus housing and retirement living. ForRent.com charges $100–$150 per listing and additional fees for enhancements, such as additional photos and maps and directions.
7. Rent Jungle
Another pay-to-play option is Rent Jungle, which boasts over 700,000 active listings of apartments and rental homes. Individuals posting 20 rental units or fewer pay $47 per month per listing and are able to include a three-photo gallery, unit information, floor plan, contact information, and list amenities and features.
Like Apartments.com, Rent Jungle provides a dashboard to review traffic, manage leads, and tweak your listings.
8. PeopleWithPets.com
Talking about a jungle — it can be quite an adventure for pet owners to find good, pet-friendly apartments. If you think your apartment can offer outstanding accommodations to furry companions, then you could consider spending the $69 per month (with a minimum three-month commitment) to advertise your rental at PeopleWithPets.com.
The fee may seem a bit high, but it may be due to two factors. First, we are talking about a niche market: 65% of households own a pet according to the 2015-2016 APPA National Pet Owners Survey. Second, the site currently ranks quite well at the first page of Google results for "pet friendly apartments."
9. DogVacay
Now, if you're more of a "dog person" than a "people person," you may prefer to play hosts for pets without their owners. In that case, with DogVacay you could rent your space for pet daycare or dog boarding.
If your application is approved for dog boarding, then DogVacay pays you 85% of customer payments via PayPal one business day after boarding is complete. There is a $5 check fee if you prefer to receive a check via snail mail. The 15% cut from DogVacay is to cover a series of costs, including a comprehensive pet insurance with a $1 million commercial general liability coverage, a $1 million professional liability coverage, and a $25,000 veterinary coverage for guest dog ($250 deductible covered by guest).
10. JustPark and ParkingSpotter.com
Last but not least, you could cash in on your empty driveway, garage, or parking space by making them available for rent. JustPark and ParkingSpotter.com are two sites that let you offer your parking spot for rent on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
According to ParkingSpotter.com, the average monthly parking rate are $297.50 and $460in Philadelphia and Boston, respectively. With such prices, it makes sense to try your luck making an extra buck with that empty driveway.