Published: 17 March 2007.

There has been a lot of internal research conducted on how to maximize rental lead enquiries from the web and increase market reach. One thing is for sure as a manager you have to be listed on as many reputable sites as possible. There are basically 3 types of rental listing sites, subscription based where you pay an annual fee, commission referral which you only pay per booking or generated lead and lastly free. Some sites require that you update your availabilities which has its advantageous especially for holiday lettings while others just display your building and contact details.

Based on internal market research from a company called Ecom Media Group who runs a site successful rental site called Rentaustralia.com has found some interesting patterns emerging.

What has been found through user surveys and traffic reports is the following:

Managers of permanent complex’s that place a variety of their properties online with no availabilities shown tend to get more enquiries then those that place availabilities. Because the tenant now has to enquire to the manager whether or not something is available which leads to direct customer interaction. Its often difficult for the manager to know of up and coming properties with the legislation in Australia that permits a tenant to only give two weeks notice to vacate his property. Many tenants don’t wait two weeks before they have to move out to find suitable accommodation but rather start looking up to 3 months in advance. So by constantly displaying what apartment varieties you have to offer will help increase your web enquiries.

Managers of holiday or nightly bookings tend to do better by being able to showcase what nights are free because unlike permanent tenants holiday makers are more specific to booking their holidays or weekends away. However on the other side it is still equally important to maintain web presence at all times by placing what we call “generic� listings online to ensure that your properties maintain a front of mind and are not forgotten.

The end result is simple – do your research to see what type of tenants you want to target and actively promote your properties online.

More of this can be discussed online via a chat forum setup to openly discuss your point of views online. Please see www.thepropertymanagers.com.au/forums and search for the one titled Web Marketing.

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