Rentals.com Company Blog

A security deposit, even a small one, creates a bond between landlord and tenant, creating an extra financial incentive for the tenant to be responsible for the property they are renting. But the ins and outs of how to handle a tenant’s security deposit can be confusing. Read on for the dos, the don’ts and [...]

Your property description will be a very important promotional piece for your rental. Sure, a picture’s worth a thousand words, but your prospective tenant is going to want the details. Follow the tips below to write a description that will get your property lots of attention.
Why do you like it?
Remember that whatever appealed to you [...]

The single most important interior amenity in an apartment is a washer and dryer or washer/dryer hookups. Data pulled from searches on ApartmentGuide.com over the last six months and other third party sources have consistently resulted in the same conclusion. With this knowledge an owner of a rental property with no laundry [...]

Renting out a home can offer some significant tax breaks for homeowners. Here are some tips on how to take advantage of your rental home’s potential tax benefits.
Appraisal
In order to calculate taxes properly, you’ll need to know how much your home worth. A professional appraisal holds the most weight, but written estimates from several [...]

One of the privileges of owning and managing rental properties is the late night emergency calls. Reviewing emergency procedures prior to occupancy might just prevent a late night call from a panic-stricken resident. Always properly identify and preview with the resident the location of the following systems within a rental unit.
1) The water shut-off. This [...]

Screening tenants is a must for any landlord wanting to protect their property and their livelihood, but what are the steps and what rental laws do you need to be aware of? Below, we’ve created a quick list of what to check and how.
Point of contact
When you are dealing with a prospective tenant, the screening [...]

When you’re ready to set the price for your rental home, there are a number of things to keep in mind. Below, we’ve assembled the most important factors on which you should base your rental price.
Location
Just as it’s true in buying or selling a home, location is also key in renting a home. Is your [...]

At the peak of the renting season, which is now for many markets around the country, everyone is usually at their busiest.  A disproportionate number of landlord-tenant disputes over the years have resulted from the handling, and sometimes mishandling, of security deposits.  In the world of social media today, it is especially critical to fairly [...]

You’ve slaved to get the inside of your home perfect with new paint and power cleaning, but the first thing a prospective renter will see is the outside. Also, people who might not even know they’re prospective renters could drive by and say, “Look at that great house!” To get them in the door, you’ve [...]

In most parts of the country we have entered the peak renting season. With more people moving this time of year in most markets, we now have the luxury of getting more than one application on a given unit. Be sure to have established procedures for how you handle such situations. Even [...]

Rentals.com now offers customers the ability to track their listings via My.Rentals.com, the latest innovation from the Rentals.com team designed to make ads profitable and easy to manage. This invaluable new tool makes tracking listings simple and straightforward and affords clients immediate knowledge about which listings are soaring and which need attention.

Starting today, these new [...]

Rentals.com has a brand new look with exciting search features and new products that have been proven to dramatically increase leads to rental listings.

It is quite common to periodically receive requests from residents for upgrades to rental houses during the term of their leases. The best method for deciding how to respond can be determined by answering the following questions.
1) Is this suggested improvement something from which future residents will benefit?
2) Does this improvement add either rental or [...]

Many new (and established!) landlords don’t consider the need for a new insurance policy when they decide to rent out their house. But without proper coverage, you could leave yourself open to costly damages. Here are some tips on how to protect yourself and your property as a landlord.
New status, new policy
Once you have tenants [...]

If you’re a property manager, you know the importance of having a clean rental property after each rental term.  However, cleaning a property can be very tedious and time-consuming – and with other important responsibilities in your daily life, you may not have the time or patience to complete such a task.  That’s where a [...]

When it comes to selling an occupied rental house you should first address any concerns your renters may have. Before considering this arrangement, inspect the home and make sure that the residents are keeping it in reasonable, showing condition. If the home passes the suitability test then it is critical to get the residents’ cooperation [...]

This is Part 2 in a series of posts describing best practice property management techniques for minimizing eviction through effective tenant screening.

Location. Location. Location. The three most important factors for a retail business apply to property investment as well. As you’d guess, the location of a rental property has a significant impact on its value, and your success as a property manager and property investor.
But you’d be surprised at how many new property [...]

(this is one in a series of posts describing best practice property management techniques for minimizing eviction through effective tenant screening)

In the rental and property investment business, property managers and property owners nearly always will have a rental eviction at some point. Of course the best method for keeping them at a minimum is by [...]

Now you can “frame” a page with all your Rentals.com property listings within another site, like your company website. It’s an easy way to show your listings on your own website with minimal effort.

Rentals.com policy of keeping listing and images helps when a customers server and backup both fail. Because Rentals.com doesn’t delete information from the database, the customer was able to recover valuable information including over 8,000 images.

Now, you can advertise your property management services to millions of renters and rental home owners with banner ads that showcase your brand.

The National Apartment Association will host the 2008 NAA Education Conference and Expo at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center in Orlando, FL. The event starts on 6/26/2008 and goes through 6/28/2008.

The Rentals Product Development team invited REAL prospective renters into a lab to provide their unguided feedback on a number of competitive rental home web sites.