Fragmentation of the Rental Market and Rental Advertising
March 1, 2008 – 4:35 pmThe rental advertising market for both single family homes and apartments is extremely fragmented. Renters have numerous rental sites to choose from. In many cases, a renter looking for a home or apartment goes to many sites to find what they are looking for.
Google currently has about 70% market share in search. In any industry, having a 70% market share is incredible and doing it with a search engine with little stickiness is even greater.
There is currently not a single rental site or classified site that holds more than 2.2% of all real estate related traffic. This means that rent.com, being the largest, has about 2.2% market share. The other 97.8% market is distributed across hundreds of rental, real estate and classifieds sites.
We see this with lead generation as well with Rent Marketer and rental advertising. With the Rent Marketer network of sites, there is not a single website that drives a majority of the leads. The quality leads are distributed across many rental and classifieds sites because that is where the renters are searching.
Fragmentation of any market means there is a lot of competition and growth. This is great for renters and landlords because this allows for better products, more innovation, a better search experience and more quality leads.
4 Responses to “Fragmentation of the Rental Market and Rental Advertising”
Getting the most web exposure in the least amount of time with the least amount of effort is the KEY…
I no longer post on our local Realtor MLS website for rental listings unless the property is VACANT w/lockbox as it is too cumbersome and time consuming to imput listings and only 15 photos are allowed.
My PM company website through HomeRentals.net posts to numerous partner sites and I can put up to 99 photos in my listing….and I can re-list/edit a listing with a few clicks in about 30 seconds.
I also post listings on Craigslist through postlets which also post to numerous partner sites. Posting for the same listing every 5th day allows for continued presence driving prospects to my website for more information and photos/floor plans.
All listings contain my web site address for the contact information.
I only use print media that has an electronic version that does not truncate my web site address in the ad…..usually a 2-column ad
All of my signs have my website on them.
RE firms that do not have a web site dedicated specifically to rental properties are at a disadvantage.
In this market, many prospective tenants are by-passing Realtor/RE agents and searching for their rental homes directly with Craigslist as their first search efforts!!
By Gibson on Mar 1, 2008
Thanks for stopping by Gibson.
By Dan Daugherty on Mar 1, 2008
I have a few thoughts on this post, I will return later to explain.
Great Blog Dan! I have to get mine started if I ever get the time!
Robbie
By Robbie on Mar 1, 2008
Hi Robbie,
You should definitely start a blog. It is a great way to develop a voice for the industry.
Look forward to hearing your thoughts on this post.
By Dan Daugherty on Mar 2, 2008