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Anyone Doing Apartment Rental Niche?

by PaulintheSticks
20 replies
Looks like a good local niche. Easy to rank for, plenty of searches and about half of the apartment complexes are nowhere to be found online. Only thing is none of them advertise in yellow pages although some advertise in online directories.

Just wondering if anyone's working that niche and what kind of results they're having.

Thanks.
#apartment #niche #rental
  • Profile picture of the author John Durham
    No but I have given serious thought to it in the past... dont think I ever thought it all the way through, but some apts pay 500 - 1000 per referral.
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  • Profile picture of the author internetsweetie
    I've thought about it but would love a blueprint on how to do it. In my area there are apartment guides and resources available in print and most corporate rental communities have websites....

    What can I offer?
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    • Profile picture of the author PaulintheSticks
      Originally Posted by internetsweetie View Post

      I've thought about it but would love a blueprint on how to do it. In my area there are apartment guides and resources available in print and most corporate rental communities have websites....

      What can I offer?
      I was thinking to offer websites to the ones that don't have them and SEO to the ones that aren't at the top of page one.
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    • Profile picture of the author valleytech
      Originally Posted by internetsweetie View Post

      I've thought about it but would love a blueprint on how to do it. In my area there are apartment guides and resources available in print and most corporate rental communities have websites....

      What can I offer?
      In addition to my above post what we offered was an ability to search the MLS without having a realtor doing all the searches for you.

      If you really want a powerful script for any real estate site. AND you HAVE a real estate license. Then Diverse Solutions is your tool
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      • Profile picture of the author WildGale
        Originally Posted by valleytech View Post

        In addition to my above post what we offered was an ability to search the MLS without having a realtor doing all the searches for you.
        Do you guys happen to know if a realtor can access the MLS with that plugin if they are not part of the MLS? My dad is a licensed broker and basically retired, not on the MLS. I wonder if he'd have to belly up to get access.
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        • Profile picture of the author grd77
          my understanding is that you will need to be registred with the MLS. but before you do that, find out if your's dad's MLS provides the IDX feed for its registered users to use in their own websites. Some, like mine, keep a tight ship and do not offer the IDX feed.
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  • Profile picture of the author grd77
    I'm looking into it. I have a real estate license and live in a high density area. but I don't have time for real estate and hate to just let my license expire. i'm debating weather to get realtorpress theme and diving right in. just not sure how to approach in getting the word out. the only thing that comes to mind is actually door knocking on the for rent signs and giving the landlord a quick sales pitch.
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  • Profile picture of the author valleytech
    I build a rental website that crushes it in leads! Not really from SEO but of all places creigslist! Taking MLS numbers and using an online service that creates a nice HTML add. With backlink anchor text to a website that has full access to the MLS database using a google search map.

    The website has a very nice searching script so the idea is to use creigslist to get people to your site. This theory does not do well with Real Estate Purchase business but everyone and their mom goes to creigslist looking for rentals.

    Hope this was helpful.
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    • Profile picture of the author grd77
      Interesting. diverse solutions looks like a great ticket for a real estate site. not sure if the diverse solution themes allow regular users to post rental ads, like in craigslist for example. realtor press has this function but I'm sure there are more out there.
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  • Profile picture of the author Darla
    The rental apartments niche could be a great idea. You could build and own the site and sell the leads to local apartment owners or you could offer website services and SEO to the local apartment owners. That's a great idea.
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  • Profile picture of the author redcell1
    Now I have another niche I might consider
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    Just here to see the shenanigans.

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  • Profile picture of the author Voasi
    Some of those apartment keyword are pretty competitive - mainly the major metro areas. I have a client in a major metro area and she ranks for her primary keyword. It's a great area to get into, as John Durham said, they give pay upwards of $1k per referral.
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    • Profile picture of the author WildGale
      In a smaller city where you could actually compete for something like "cityname apartment rentals," it seems like the trick would be structuring the site so that it sorts by location and/or apartment type (luxury/college/etc). You'd want relationships with different sorts of management companies and structure the site so that you were sending the leads in the right direction.

      I bet if we did some searching we could find just such an example in a bigger city
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  • Profile picture of the author gg282
    I use to work for an apartment management company. If you are lucky enough to get them to agree to generate leads, It will be a headache trying to get paid. They (most apartments) do NET30 and you may have to keep bugging the accountant to cut a check after the 30 days. The apartment locators will usually only send referrals to apartments, that will actually pay and are known as "apartment locator friendly".

    If you are going to generate leads, generate leads for the apartment locators instead. (BTW apartment locators, in most states are licensed real estate agents/brokers)

    That would be my opinion plus I think apartment leads are sold for around $10 each, depending on area,
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    • Profile picture of the author virginiad
      One thing you have to be careful of...

      If you don't have a real estate license (in the US), even if you have a written contract that says you will be paid for leads/rentals, they are not legally obligated to pay you. If you were to take them to court, you would lose, even though there is a contract.

      Realtors know this, so make sure you trust the people you deal with (or get a license).

      Virginia
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      Virginia Drew


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  • Profile picture of the author brik2500
    To me, offline is the way to go in the housing rental niche....I get typically 50-100 calls a week from people wanting rentals....

    Surprisingly enough....(or maybe not) CRAIGSLIST is huge in terms of apts/housing.....EVERYONE needs a place to live....


    I've dissected a number of different ways to optimize Craigslist....I recently helped my buddy fill two homes in bad neighborhoods by renting rooms weekly which DOUBLED the rents coming in.


    The possibilities are limitless.....
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  • Profile picture of the author Younmar
    Banned
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    • Profile picture of the author zimbizee
      Originally Posted by Younmar View Post

      I use to work for an apartment management company.
      SO WHAT!!!!!
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  • Profile picture of the author Seantrepreneur
    We have a client in the high end home rental niche and it is pretty easy to rank for those keywords. I know property management companies have great referral fees so this might be a good niche to put some time in money into to explore. I would look into doing some PPC or maybe even FB advertising instead of just focusing on SEO. Just a thought.

    Sean
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  • Profile picture of the author neighborhub
    We dumped about $2,000 putting a platform together through a CMS and some other licenses for the rental industry and never launched it.

    We worked on marketing it in our smaller community but ran into the issue of getting paid and showing the "value" when the government and various income assistance associations offered free listings for the large amount of "income assistance" based housing which is apparently big in our area.

    Then you had to deal with the single apartment owners who really didn't want to pay anything.

    We were considering a model where the listings are free for the landlords and the referral $'s came from the Real Estate agents etc. The SEO was nuts. It seems to be a bare field in terms of income but so saturated online.
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  • Profile picture of the author johnstockwell
    Yes, I am doing like this, And that is really great with amazing results....
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    Georgetown Mortgage
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