When a tenant moves out of your rental property, you want to get it occupied again as fast as possible to keep generating rental income. But, you also want to make sure you find the right tenants.
These days, the best way to get your property in front of lots of eyes and find new tenants is to list it on one or more of the many rental platforms out there.
Many of these rental listing sites offer landlord tools, such as tenant screening and rent collection, to help you with various parts of the rental process.
Zillow
Founded in 2006, Zillow is one of the older rental listing websites out there, and it’s still one of the best rental websites in 2022. It’s reliable and full of useful features for both landlords and renters.
Cost to list: Your first listing on Zillow is free, and after that it costs $9.99 per week for every additional listing.
Number of rentals you can list: As many as you want, as long as you pay the weekly fee for each listing.
Screening tools: Zillow has a built-in tenant screening tool called Zillow Rental Manager that you can use to run credit and background checks.
Special features: Rent collection, an owner portal, and pricing suggestions.
Cons: You only get one free listing on Zillow.
Best for: Zillow is the best overall rental platform for landlords because of its high site traffic and ease of use.
Apartments.com
Apartments.com is one of the free rental listing sites you can use. Having been in operation since 1992, Apartments.com has developed a reputation for reliability and user-friendliness.
Cost to list: Rental property owners don’t pay anything to list their rental units on the site.
Number of rentals you can list: Unlimited.
Screening tools: Credit and background checks.
Special features: Rent collection, lease signing, tour scheduling, tenant applications.
Cons: The mobile app is not as intuitive or easy to use as the site.
Best for: Apartments.com is the best free rental listing site.
Rentberry
Rentberry is another free rental listing site. However, you do have to pay if you want to promote your property.
Cost to list: Free.
Number of rentals you can list: Unlimited.
Screening tools: Credit reports and background checks.
Special features: Instant messaging, e-signing of lease agreements, rent collection.
Cons: Have to pay to promote your listing.
Best for: Landlords that want to communicate with prospective tenants via instant messages.
Avail
Avail is one of the best rental websites in 2022 that’s specifically built for landlords. Whereas other sites on this list are designed equally for landlords and tenants, Avail is definitely a more landlord-friendly rental platform. It’s especially known for its rigorous tenant screening checks.
Cost to list: Free or $5 per listing, per month.
Number of rentals you can list: Unlimited.
Screening tools: Avail offers credit history reports and nationwide criminal background and eviction checks.
Special features: Lease signing, rent collection, and applications.
Cons: There’s no mobile app and listing options are relatively limited, making it harder to highlight your property.
Best for: Avail is best for syndicating your rental listings, as the platform offers free syndicated listings on 10 other sites.
Zumper
Zumper is a modern rental listing website known for its “Instarent” feature that allows landlords to fill vacancies within 24 hours. However, the rental platform is only currently available for 10 major US cities.
Cost to list: You can list up to five properties for free in some cities, then you pay $20 per listing.
Number of rentals you can list: Up to five for free, depending on the city, and as many as you want if you pay.
Screening tools: Zumper offers credit report, background check, and eviction history screening tools.
Special features: Instarent, which allegedly fills your empty rental unit in 24 hours, as well as lease signing, and rent collection.
Cons: Zumper is only available in 10 major US cities and gets relatively low site traffic compared to other top rental listing websites.
Best for: Zumper is best if you own a rental unit in one of the 10 major cities it’s available in and you want to fill your unit fast.
Other Rental Platforms To Consider
Though not technically a rental listing website, you can list a rental property on Facebook Marketplace to find potential tenants.
This provides a way to connect directly with prospective tenants, and many landlords successfully find new tenants through Facebook Marketplace.
Plus, listing your property on Facebook is totally free, and you can add a detailed description and lots of photos to help promote it.
However, keep in mind that Facebook does not have any built-in tools for landlords, such as tenant screening, rent collection, or lease signing. So, you’ll need to find other services and platforms to help you with these parts of the rental process.
Craigslist
Craigslist, the online classifieds site, is another free alternative to listing your property on one of the rental platforms mentioned above.
Craigslist can be a good place to list your property because many tenants searching for new homes start their search here.
But, Craigslist is also a very basic site, and there are no extra features for landlords or tenants.
Additionally, Craigslist has had many issues in the past with scammers, fraud, and spam, so you’ll want to be wary of these if you do decide to list on the site.
Oodle.com
Oodle is an online classifieds site, similar to Craigslist. This means it also has the same limitations of Craigslist — there are no tenant screening tools or other extra features for landlords.
Property listings on the site are very basic, which could either be a pro or a con, depending on how much work you want to put into your listings.
On the positive side, listing a rental unit on Oodle.com is totally free, so it can’t hurt!
Local newspapers and magazines
If you want to go old school, you can always try listing your rental unit in local newspapers, classifieds, and magazines.
Although these methods aren’t as effective as they used to be, they are still an option for getting your property in front of people who may not be searching online rental listings.
How To Choose the Best Rental Website for Your Property
Ultimately, where you should list property for rent comes down to a few different factors, including what your budget is, how many rental units you want to list, and what additional features and tools you’re interested in.
If you want to keep it simple and only list your property on one or two sites, you can’t get wrong with tried-and-true rental platforms like Zillow and Apartments.com.
These sites work almost anywhere in the US, and there are free listing options. Additionally, they have extra tools for landlords that essentially make these sites work like landlord software for screening tenants, collecting rent, and more.
If you want even more people to see your property in order to find new tenants ASAP, consider listing it on some of the other sites discussed above as well.
