Advertising rented property via social media.
Discussion
We have a portfolio of rented property which currently rents about 50-50 word of mouth and Gumtree. The price point is top end of the bottom of the market, so we rent almost exclusively to people who work in factories, hospitality, retail etc.
Gumtree has started to become expensive and I am not entirely convinced it's the best place to advertise anymore.
Hands up, my knowledge and involvement with social media is limited. Can someone more clued up than me comment regarding whether social media is a good vehicle for this sort of advertising?
Many thanks.
I have a friend who has 10 HMO's in the same town. I in the past have worked for her renting those out and did it solely through Facebook. We used a professional photographer who did the photos just after the houses were completed and dressed up each room.
So those are the photos we use and never had to update them.
Pretty much had a waiting list of tenants and we also used a referral scheme for existing tenants to refer new ones.
But Facebook was perfect for this
So those are the photos we use and never had to update them.
Pretty much had a waiting list of tenants and we also used a referral scheme for existing tenants to refer new ones.
But Facebook was perfect for this
Lemmonie said:
I have a friend who has 10 HMO's in the same town. I in the past have worked for her renting those out and did it solely through Facebook. We used a professional photographer who did the photos just after the houses were completed and dressed up each room.
So those are the photos we use and never had to update them.
Pretty much had a waiting list of tenants and we also used a referral scheme for existing tenants to refer new ones.
But Facebook was perfect for this
Excuse my ignorance, but I find Facebook stuff doesn’t always come up on Google searches. Do people go specifically to Facebook to search for accommodation?So those are the photos we use and never had to update them.
Pretty much had a waiting list of tenants and we also used a referral scheme for existing tenants to refer new ones.
But Facebook was perfect for this
So said:
Excuse my ignorance, but I find Facebook stuff doesn’t always come up on Google searches. Do people go specifically to Facebook to search for accommodation?
Yes, especially if you have a local group; on mine there are currently two people looking for places to rent. The mods of the group decide on what adverts are allowed & when so you might need to ask them.dazwalsh said:
Get yourself on openrent, 30 quid gets you on every major portal going, rightmove, prime location, zoopla and gumtree included.
Can you just use them for ads? I seem to recall they contacted us a while ago and they wanted to sell services to us or prospective tenants. Has that changed?Yeah just use them for advertising, they do offer tenant referencing and all that guff but you can just use them for advertising, any responses come through on your “dashboard”. The one thing they insist on though is zero fees for the tenant, which comes into force anyways in a couple of weeks.
dazwalsh said:
Yeah just use them for advertising, they do offer tenant referencing and all that guff but you can just use them for advertising, any responses come through on your “dashboard”. The one thing they insist on though is zero fees for the tenant, which comes into force anyways in a couple of weeks.
Will look into it again, thanks. I discounted them before because ( you're reminding me) I think it was free for us but fees for applicants. We tend to do well because we aren't an agency and have not charged fees for many years.Out of curiosity, what is this charge for advertising on gumtree that you speak of? Is this a new thing? My LL advertises all his rentals on there, always has great success and has commented to me on a few occasions that it doesn't cost anything, although admittedly this was a while ago now.
Personally I would never look on Facebook as random searches simply don't work and you'd have to be a member of all your local groups (not that the search function works any better there either and no-one can be bothered wading through 1000s of adverts for other tat).
Personally I would never look on Facebook as random searches simply don't work and you'd have to be a member of all your local groups (not that the search function works any better there either and no-one can be bothered wading through 1000s of adverts for other tat).
Lemming Train said:
Out of curiosity, what is this charge for advertising on gumtree that you speak of? Is this a new thing? My LL advertises all his rentals on there, always has great success and has commented to me on a few occasions that it doesn't cost anything, although admittedly this was a while ago now.
Personally I would never look on Facebook as random searches simply don't work and you'd have to be a member of all your local groups (not that the search function works any better there either and no-one can be bothered wading through 1000s of adverts for other tat).
It costs somewhere between £60-£75 to post an ad for a couple of weeks, including promoting the ad to the front page (which appears to be important).Personally I would never look on Facebook as random searches simply don't work and you'd have to be a member of all your local groups (not that the search function works any better there either and no-one can be bothered wading through 1000s of adverts for other tat).
It used to be free.
In actual fact, Gumtree is a good example of the "market penetration strategy"... three years of Industrial Economics degree wasn't entirely wasted then... whereby the firm puts a product to market below cost in order to gain widespread uptake, before increasing the price to profitable levels.
So said:
It costs somewhere between £60-£75 to post an ad for a couple of weeks, including promoting the ad to the front page (which appears to be important).
It used to be free.
In actual fact, Gumtree is a good example of the "market penetration strategy"... three years of Industrial Economics degree wasn't entirely wasted then... whereby the firm puts a product to market below cost in order to gain widespread uptake, before increasing the price to profitable levels.
I've just looked at their fees. The cost you mention is for pinning your ad to the top of the listings which has been the case since day 1. There is no fee to list a rental ad. It used to be free.
In actual fact, Gumtree is a good example of the "market penetration strategy"... three years of Industrial Economics degree wasn't entirely wasted then... whereby the firm puts a product to market below cost in order to gain widespread uptake, before increasing the price to profitable levels.
Lemming Train said:
So said:
It costs somewhere between £60-£75 to post an ad for a couple of weeks, including promoting the ad to the front page (which appears to be important).
It used to be free.
In actual fact, Gumtree is a good example of the "market penetration strategy"... three years of Industrial Economics degree wasn't entirely wasted then... whereby the firm puts a product to market below cost in order to gain widespread uptake, before increasing the price to profitable levels.
I've just looked at their fees. The cost you mention is for pinning your ad to the top of the listings which has been the case since day 1. There is no fee to list a rental ad. It used to be free.
In actual fact, Gumtree is a good example of the "market penetration strategy"... three years of Industrial Economics degree wasn't entirely wasted then... whereby the firm puts a product to market below cost in order to gain widespread uptake, before increasing the price to profitable levels.
And in my experience unless you are at the top the price of the ad is wasted,
So said:
Lemming Train said:
So said:
It costs somewhere between £60-£75 to post an ad for a couple of weeks, including promoting the ad to the front page (which appears to be important).
It used to be free.
In actual fact, Gumtree is a good example of the "market penetration strategy"... three years of Industrial Economics degree wasn't entirely wasted then... whereby the firm puts a product to market below cost in order to gain widespread uptake, before increasing the price to profitable levels.
I've just looked at their fees. The cost you mention is for pinning your ad to the top of the listings which has been the case since day 1. There is no fee to list a rental ad. It used to be free.
In actual fact, Gumtree is a good example of the "market penetration strategy"... three years of Industrial Economics degree wasn't entirely wasted then... whereby the firm puts a product to market below cost in order to gain widespread uptake, before increasing the price to profitable levels.
Lemming Train said:
So said:
Lemming Train said:
So said:
It costs somewhere between £60-£75 to post an ad for a couple of weeks, including promoting the ad to the front page (which appears to be important).
It used to be free.
In actual fact, Gumtree is a good example of the "market penetration strategy"... three years of Industrial Economics degree wasn't entirely wasted then... whereby the firm puts a product to market below cost in order to gain widespread uptake, before increasing the price to profitable levels.
I've just looked at their fees. The cost you mention is for pinning your ad to the top of the listings which has been the case since day 1. There is no fee to list a rental ad. It used to be free.
In actual fact, Gumtree is a good example of the "market penetration strategy"... three years of Industrial Economics degree wasn't entirely wasted then... whereby the firm puts a product to market below cost in order to gain widespread uptake, before increasing the price to profitable levels.
What also seems to happen is that at the beginning of the year we get a couple of free ones, and then we have to pay. Unless they have changed their structure this year - if they have, I am not aware of it.
But the biggy is that we find that unless the ad is promoted it gets very few if any calls. To all intents and purposes therefore an ad costs us quite a lot of money for a couple of weeks.
Sorry if I'm being thick here, but I'm unclear on what point you're trying to prove in your screenshot. You have chosen the OPTIONAL add-ons to have your advert pinned to the top and paid to bump it (which is pointless because the 'pinned' option does that anyway). The key word here is OPTIONAL.
There is no fee to list a rental ad.
There is no fee to list a rental ad.
So said:
What also seems to happen is that at the beginning of the year we get a couple of free ones, and then we have to pay. Unless they have changed their structure this year - if they have, I am not aware of it.
But the biggy is that we find that unless the ad is promoted it gets very few if any calls. To all intents and purposes therefore an ad costs us quite a lot of money for a couple of weeks.
If you're posting a lot of ads get yourself a cheap dual-sim phone that is permanently connected to the network(s) on both SIMs and/or get yourself a VOIP phone that can be configured with multiple geographic numbers and have them redirect to your mobile. The redirection costs are peanuts in comparison to the fees for ad bumping and you can say to the caller you'll call them straight back so that you're not being charged per minute on the redirection connection. You will need several accounts and you'll need to do the same on gumtree. Set it up right and you'll be able to repost your ad every day so it's pretty much always on the front page and you won't need to pay any of the fees that you are currently paying But the biggy is that we find that unless the ad is promoted it gets very few if any calls. To all intents and purposes therefore an ad costs us quite a lot of money for a couple of weeks.
. I figured all this out myself when I used to buy and sell all sorts of second hand stuff on gumtree. They have algorithms in place to try to detect it but it's fairly trivial to work around (tip: alter the layout of your ad and pics if you're reposting it from a different account ).Apart from the bleedin' obvious.....why don't you simply open a Rightmove account?......I can't agree with you about Gumtree.
My agency uses it - the free version - (alongside Rightmove etc) but reckon it produces the poorest quality of responses. I questioned this, so, for a laugh they stuck my contact details on an ad for one of my flats.
I actually thought the responders were hoaxes. Obviously some very weird people indeed use Gumtree. Some true eccentrics and crackpots. And it went on and on and on...... Weird calls and texts almost all at inappropriate times - either crack of dawn or well after midnight - and this continued for weeks and weeks until I eventually got the ad stopped.
By the time I stopped it the ad must have been on about page 335. Certainly didn't stop the calls coming. And I think that's because of how enquirers search for properties so the fields of search rather than where the ad is pagewise or timewise decide how prominent it is for enquirers.
My agency continues to monitor marketing pretty constantly and has done since the days when local newspapers were the major marketing tool. It keeps data continually updated on where tenants are coming from. At one point it DID try to exploit social media but t didn't find it particularly effective and largely stopped it.
Research also shows that different agents get different results from different media and marketing sources. But the single constant major prominent source of obtaining tenants over decades has been the boring ole referral or 'word of mouth' as you called it.
ETA: In my day before I sold the agency the other major tenant-enquiry vehicle was the boring ole window poster. This has the great advantage of attracting enquiries from people who've actually seen the street/area/building etc. which saves a lot of timewasting.
Ps: The Openrent experiment was "fun". Worse crackpot responses than Gumtree. Tons of them. From all over the world. Why African families of seven who wanted to know if it was okay to keep exotic pets wanted to enquire about a 1-bed flat in Glasgow I really cannot fathom, but there are plenty of them, and similar, including almost every form of nightmare and problem tenant who are obviously aware they would never get a tenancy by normal means.
My agency uses it - the free version - (alongside Rightmove etc) but reckon it produces the poorest quality of responses. I questioned this, so, for a laugh they stuck my contact details on an ad for one of my flats.
I actually thought the responders were hoaxes. Obviously some very weird people indeed use Gumtree. Some true eccentrics and crackpots. And it went on and on and on...... Weird calls and texts almost all at inappropriate times - either crack of dawn or well after midnight - and this continued for weeks and weeks until I eventually got the ad stopped.
By the time I stopped it the ad must have been on about page 335. Certainly didn't stop the calls coming. And I think that's because of how enquirers search for properties so the fields of search rather than where the ad is pagewise or timewise decide how prominent it is for enquirers.
My agency continues to monitor marketing pretty constantly and has done since the days when local newspapers were the major marketing tool. It keeps data continually updated on where tenants are coming from. At one point it DID try to exploit social media but t didn't find it particularly effective and largely stopped it.
Research also shows that different agents get different results from different media and marketing sources. But the single constant major prominent source of obtaining tenants over decades has been the boring ole referral or 'word of mouth' as you called it.
ETA: In my day before I sold the agency the other major tenant-enquiry vehicle was the boring ole window poster. This has the great advantage of attracting enquiries from people who've actually seen the street/area/building etc. which saves a lot of timewasting.
Ps: The Openrent experiment was "fun". Worse crackpot responses than Gumtree. Tons of them. From all over the world. Why African families of seven who wanted to know if it was okay to keep exotic pets wanted to enquire about a 1-bed flat in Glasgow I really cannot fathom, but there are plenty of them, and similar, including almost every form of nightmare and problem tenant who are obviously aware they would never get a tenancy by normal means.
Edited by selmahoose on Tuesday 16th April 10:30
Lemming Train said:
Sorry if I'm being thick here, but I'm unclear on what point you're trying to prove in your screenshot. You have chosen the OPTIONAL add-ons to have your advert pinned to the top and paid to bump it (which is pointless because the 'pinned' option does that anyway). The key word here is OPTIONAL.
There is no fee to list a rental ad.
You don’t choose to pay for the bump if you’re re listing a property. It is mandatory.There is no fee to list a rental ad.
So said:
Lemming Train said:
Sorry if I'm being thick here, but I'm unclear on what point you're trying to prove in your screenshot. You have chosen the OPTIONAL add-ons to have your advert pinned to the top and paid to bump it (which is pointless because the 'pinned' option does that anyway). The key word here is OPTIONAL.
There is no fee to list a rental ad.
You don’t choose to pay for the bump if you’re re listing a property. It is mandatory.There is no fee to list a rental ad.
Hence my advice above to solve the problem .Your original argument to my "there is no fee to list a rental ad" was "yes there is". This is completely untrue.
selmahoose said:
Apart from the bleedin' obvious.....why don't you simply open a Rightmove account?......I can't agree with you about Gumtree.
My agency uses it - the free version - (alongside Rightmove etc) but reckon it produces the poorest quality of responses. I questioned this, so, for a laugh they stuck my contact details on an ad for one of my flats.
I actually thought the responders were hoaxes. Obviously some very weird people indeed use Gumtree. Some true eccentrics and crackpots. And it went on and on and on...... Weird calls and texts almost all at inappropriate times - either crack of dawn or well after midnight - and this continued for weeks and weeks until I eventually got the ad stopped.
By the time I stopped it the ad must have been on about page 335. Certainly didn't stop the calls coming. And I think that's because of how enquirers search for properties so the fields of search rather than where the ad is pagewise or timewise decide how prominent it is for enquirers.
My agency continues to monitor marketing pretty constantly and has done since the days when local newspapers were the major marketing tool. It keeps data continually updated on where tenants are coming from. At one point it DID try to exploit social media but t didn't find it particularly effective and largely stopped it.
Research also shows that different agents get different results from different media and marketing sources. But the single constant major prominent source of obtaining tenants over decades has been the boring ole referral or 'word of mouth' as you called it.
ETA: In my day before I sold the agency the other major tenant-enquiry vehicle was the boring ole window poster. This has the great advantage of attracting enquiries from people who've actually seen the street/area/building etc. which saves a lot of timewasting.
The standard of response has definitely dropped from Gumtree. That might be due to a changing demographic of applicant. Since the Brexit vote we’ve seen far fewer Eastern Europeans and in the last month none at all. My agency uses it - the free version - (alongside Rightmove etc) but reckon it produces the poorest quality of responses. I questioned this, so, for a laugh they stuck my contact details on an ad for one of my flats.
I actually thought the responders were hoaxes. Obviously some very weird people indeed use Gumtree. Some true eccentrics and crackpots. And it went on and on and on...... Weird calls and texts almost all at inappropriate times - either crack of dawn or well after midnight - and this continued for weeks and weeks until I eventually got the ad stopped.
By the time I stopped it the ad must have been on about page 335. Certainly didn't stop the calls coming. And I think that's because of how enquirers search for properties so the fields of search rather than where the ad is pagewise or timewise decide how prominent it is for enquirers.
My agency continues to monitor marketing pretty constantly and has done since the days when local newspapers were the major marketing tool. It keeps data continually updated on where tenants are coming from. At one point it DID try to exploit social media but t didn't find it particularly effective and largely stopped it.
Research also shows that different agents get different results from different media and marketing sources. But the single constant major prominent source of obtaining tenants over decades has been the boring ole referral or 'word of mouth' as you called it.
ETA: In my day before I sold the agency the other major tenant-enquiry vehicle was the boring ole window poster. This has the great advantage of attracting enquiries from people who've actually seen the street/area/building etc. which saves a lot of timewasting.
Edited by selmahoose on Tuesday 16th April 10:13
We have seen a marked increase in British applicants who variously seem unable to read, think or gain access to money.
Just this morning an email response was waiting, “Yo cool viewing”. We don’t know if it was from a Brit and we won’t be finding out.
With regard to your point about contact at silly hours, the office goes through to a call centre out of hours and business mobiles go off.
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