ForRent.com and Social Media

November 19, 2008 – 5:03 pm
According to Virtue, a site that offers a free tool that measures a brand's online conversations, ForRent.com is leading the multi-housing sector's social share of voice by 66 percent. Over the past year or so, ForRent.com has been active in generating video commercials called Community Theater for communities. These videos are seen on ForRent.com, YouTube, MySpace and other social networks. ForRent says these videos are viewed 17,000 times a day.ForRent is also active in social networking and has Facebook pages as well as over 40 profile pages in 40 markets on MySpace.ForRent developed a press release on the findings. 

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LocalMatters Pulls its IPO

November 14, 2008 – 2:56 pm
LocalMatters, a Denver based company that offers technology to businesses in the local market, has pulled their IPO. They originally submitted IPO papers in 2006 and hoped to raise up to $46 million. From their prospectus, they generated $8.4M in revenue in 2005 but had a net loss of $18.5M.  According to filings, the firm is pulling the IPO because of "changed circumstances regarding the securities markets."According to Borrell and Associates, the local online advertising market was around $8.5 billion in 2007 and is expected to reach $12.6 billion this year.

Posted in Rental Market | No Comments »

Oodle Lays of 20% of it Workforce

November 14, 2008 – 2:30 pm
 Oodle, the classifieds search engine has layed off 10 people which represent 20% of its workforce. Oodle has raised $16 million over the last 2 years and has signed some great partnerships including MySpace, Military.com, Wal-Mart and more. 

Posted in Rental Market | 1 Comment »

Apartment Marketer in Las Vegas

November 14, 2008 – 7:14 am
Apartment Marketer, our lead generation platform and advertising network for the apartment industry, will be in Las Vegas next week for the annual Multifamily Pro Brainstorming event. If you are going to be there, please stop by our booth and say hello.

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ForSaleByOwner Now Disributes to Realtor.com

November 14, 2008 – 6:49 am
Realtor.com, the largest real estate search site on the net has never served For Sale By Owner Listings. This week, ForSaleByOwner.com announced they will now be distributing properties to Realtor.com. “The DOJ-NAR settlement benefited consumers by giving them access to Realtor.com without the expensive cost of a commission fee,” said Greg Healy, Vice President of Operations at ForSaleByOwner.com. “We’re proud to be the first to offer this new consumer-friendly access to Realtor.com. In today’s challenging housing market, sellers need cost-saving ways to sell their homes.” ForSaleByOwner.com informs clients that in order for their listings to appear on Realtor.com, they will be contacted by an affiliate broker to help with MLS paperworl and "You must indicate what you are willing to pay a buyer's agent - between 2-3% of the sale price of your home.... Of course, if you sell your home directly to a buyer (without a buyer's agent) you would pay ...

Posted in Rental Market | No Comments »

Rent Marketer now Posts to Rentals.com, RentalHouses.com + 80 Additional Sites

November 12, 2008 – 11:42 am
Rent Marketer, an online rental advertising network, (which owns and operates rentBits.com and ApartmentMarketer) has announced a new partnership with Rentals.com and RentalHouses.com. Rent Marketer will distribute rental listings to Rentals.com, RentalHouses.com and 80 other online rental and classifieds sites.       Rent Marketer works with property managers, real estate investors and real estate agents and posts their properties to many rental sites using proprietary posting technology.  According to Compete.com, the Rent Marketer network reaches over 10.2 million people each month and continues to growing rapidly.The Benefits of Rent Marketer are: Technology Leadership - Proprietary one click advertising solution No Contracts - Each ad runs for 30 days Massive Reach - Post to over 80 different rental and classifieds sites from one place Accountability - Free phone and email tracking 100% Guarantee - No riskRent Marketer launched in 2006 and their management team consists of technologists, real estate investors and Ex-Googlers. To learn more about Rent Marketer go to www.rentmarketer.com.

Posted in Rental Marketing | 2 Comments »

HomeAway Raises $250 Million on a Pre Money Valuation of $1.15 Billion

November 11, 2008 – 10:25 am
HomeAway, the aggregator of vacation rental sites has raised $250 million on a monster $1.15 billion dollar pre money valuation. They previously raised $209 million over two rounds which puts their total raised to $459 million.TechCrunch writes:The pre-money valuation was around $1.15 billion, say a couple of sources, and at least $50 million of the round went off the table to earlier investors. The company was founded in 2005 and has grown primarily through acquisitions: They’ve acquired at least eleven vacation home rental sites, including VRBO, VacationRentals.com, Abritel.fr and OwnersDirect.co.uk....  It’s also clear that the round was seriously overvalued. Ebay was rumored to have mulled over an acquisition earlier this year at $1.5 billion, but it never came through with a firm offer. It’s not clear who else could be a buyer at this valuation. What in the world would HomeAway spend all this money on? They have already acquired most of the top rental ...

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Rental Advertising Business Models that Work

November 9, 2008 – 6:06 pm
A while ago I did an interview with Dave at RentVine. In this interview I talk about my thoughts on what rental advertising models are used in the rental space and which ones work the best for single family homes and multi-housing.We use the subscription model for RentMarketer.com and the Cost Per Lead model for ApartmentMarketer.com.[youtube]kelGbrJ3ZKg[/youtube] 

Posted in Apartment Marketer, Rental Marketing | No Comments »

RentVine New Rental News Blog

November 3, 2008 – 5:48 pm
Dave Dugdale of RentVine has released a new rental market news blog. Enjoy!

Posted in RentVine | 1 Comment »

Rent.com Releases Cost Per Lead Model

November 2, 2008 – 5:07 pm
Rent.com has released a cost per lead (CPL) model for properties with 49 units or less. How does it work? Properties with 1-49 units pay $15 per phone or email that is received. Properties can set a "lead cap" for the maximum number of leads they want to receive in a 30 day period. For those properties with 50 or more units, they have to use the cost per lease model and pay $389 per lease.

Posted in rental sites | 5 Comments »

Dominium Enterprises Suspends Sale

October 31, 2008 – 12:42 pm
Dominium Enterprises was looking to sell by the end of this year, but the current economic conditions is not going to make the sale happen. Frank Batten Jr., chairman and CEO of Landmark, said in a statement: "The credit crisis has made it virtually impossible for companies to obtain bank commitments to help finance acquisitions. And the recession has reduced revenue and earnings and made it very difficult to value a business."  source

Posted in ForRent | No Comments »

Where is the Bailout Transparancy?

October 22, 2008 – 5:18 pm
Where exactly is our tax payer bailout money going?From the BailoutSleuth.com."The Treasury Department has hired two big accounting firms to help keep tabs on the government's financial-industry rescue program, and once again certain basic elements of the deals are shrouded in secrecy.  That sort of specific detail is lacking in the agreements themselves. The Pricewaterhouse Coopers contract released by the Treasury Department on Tuesday has blacked-out text in the area covering the firm's bid, and also conceals the name of the PricewaterhouseCoopers partner who signed the deal.Another section listing the names of the PricewaterhouseCoopers employees designated to work on the contract also is blacked out. "  

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Zillow Lays off 25% of it Workforce

October 17, 2008 – 4:17 pm
Rich Barton, the CEO of Zillow recently wrote a post entitled "Difficult Times, Difficult Decisions". In it he says:This week we are reducing our workforce by 25%.  This was an incredibly painful decision for me and the leadership team, but, in the end, we concluded that we had no choice but to securely batten down the hatches as we sail into a major economic storm. The unprecedented economic events that are playing out on a global stage began in our own industry and have made a prolonged recession likely, in our judgment.  We are a young company that is not yet making a profit.  Despite having sizeable cash reserves, we deemed the responsible course was to meaningfully reduce expenses, so that Zillow emerges from the other side of the recession in a very strong position, even if the recession lasts many years. ..... Fear, value-shopping, and curiosity are driving people in record volumes ...

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What is Trulia.com Worth?

October 15, 2008 – 6:28 pm
This is a very interesting question since I think Trulia is worth much less today than it was 6 months ago. But, for arguments sake, lets run some numbers on what Trulia could potentially be worth today if someone were to acquire them.(Note: Theses are obviously guesses based on data gathered from multiple sources. Take it with a grain of salt.)How many Employees does Trulia have?According to Trulia, they have 80 employees.How many unique monthly visitors does Trulia have?According to Trulia they have 5,000,000 unique users per month.How many page views per month does Trulia have?According to Trulia they have 40,000,000 page views per month.What is the RPM (Revenue per thousand pageviews) for Trulia?Not every single page is monetized but RPMs can vary by industry. For real estate, RPMs can be anywhere between $2 - $30 RPM. Lets meet halfway and use an RPM of $15.What does all this mean?If Trulia has 80 employees at ...

Posted in trulia | 2 Comments »

Zillow Makes List of 11 Troubled Web Companies

October 14, 2008 – 5:19 pm
CNET recently wrote a post on who they think are the top 11 web companies that may be in trouble considering the current state of the economy. Zillow.com made this list.Zillow The real-estate site's revenue model is advertising. Real estate and bank advertising. Unless the real-estate research site starts charging for foreclosure listings, I don't see it doing too well in a hunkered-down economy, in which people are trying to hold on to their homes for dear life, not upgrade.  Do you think Zillow should be on this list? Do you think other real estate sites should be on this list?  

Posted in zillow | 2 Comments »

VacationRoost.com Launches Vacation Rental Site

October 14, 2008 – 2:31 pm
Vacation rentals are a mutli-billion dollar opportunity. Vacation Roost recently launched to acquire some of this market share. VacationRoost.com has over 100,000 vacation rental properties and was formed by consolidating three vacation rental companies: Mountain Reservations - one of the first vacation rental Web sites that marketed properties exclusively in the Intermountain West; Rooster.com (formerly VR Gateway) – a national vacation rental marketplace; and Mexican Destinations – a supplier of luxury villa rentals in Mexico. Julian Castelli, CEO, was previously the CFO of Primedia and was responsible for the launch and development of rentals.com.VacationRoost has 130 employees and is based out of SLC, Utah. 

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RedFin Lays off 20% of its Workforce

October 14, 2008 – 9:57 am
"A Very Tough Day" says Glenn Kelman, the CEO of Redfin who yesterday had to lay off 20% of his staff. "Unlike other startups, our industry's recession started a year ago, when home prices first plunged." says Kelman.Kelman's final words in his post "Redfin's whole business will struggle and fight and may yet fail. But the only way it is possible to succeed - and even today, I believe we will - is if we adapt."

Posted in Real Estate News | 2 Comments »

Jobs Being Cut Across the Board

October 13, 2008 – 3:44 pm
Many companies are cutting jobs. Ebay recently let off 10% of its workforce, VC's are telling their portfolio of companies to cut staff and conserve as much cash as possible.Well, not here at Rent Marketer.We are looking to hire in various positions for Rent Marketer and Apartment Marketer.Open positions for Rent MarketerOpen positions for Apartment MarketerIf you are looking for a great place to work email us. We would like to meet you.

Posted in Apartment Marketer, Rent Marketer | 1 Comment »

What is an Online Rental Lead and Tips to Convert Them

October 13, 2008 – 2:54 pm
There seems to be some confusion within the rental advertising space on what an online rental lead actually is. A lead is NOT: When someone views your ad When someone clicks on your ad When someone clicks on your ad map When someone prints out a flyer When someone forwards your adA lead IS: When a potential renter emails you directly  When a potential renter calls you directlyThat is it. A phone or email lead.  Tips to convert these leads into leases: Answer your phone. Over 50% of all phone leads go unaswered Respond to email leads within 4 hours. If you don't, your competition will Cross sell other properties. If the property they are interested in just got rented out, offer them other like properties that fit their needs Build a relationship with your customers Offer move-in specials - (sign a 1 year contract today and receive a free iPhone) Track phone and email leads. Some potential renters don't leave a message. Use caller ID ...

Posted in Rental Market | No Comments »

AIM (Apartment Internet Marketing Conference) Registration

October 13, 2008 – 1:56 pm
The AIM conference for 2009 will be held in Denver, CO. Steve Lefkovis and team put on a great conference last year and I know it will be a very educational one this year as well. Some highlights: Registration is now open for AIM 2009 at www.aimconf.comConference is happening April 29-May 1, 2009 in downtown Denver (the first time outside of Phoenix).2009 will be much larger than 2008 conference, which sold out in advance with 305 attendees.Advanced sessions added on Internet marketing, pricing, SEO & more to satisfy growing multifamily use of Internet technology. 

Posted in Apartment Marketer | No Comments »

Warren Buffett Advice on Economy and Business

October 12, 2008 – 4:41 pm
"Be greedy when others are fearful and be fearful when others are greedy." - Warren Buffett 

Posted in Business Tips | 2 Comments »

Zillow and Trulia see a Decline in September Traffic

October 10, 2008 – 2:30 pm
According to Compete.com, both Trulia and Zillow saw a decrease in traffic for the month of September. Trulia fell 11.8% from the previous month and Zillow fell 2.2%. 

Posted in trulia, zillow | No Comments »

Rent Marketer Mentioned in Esquire Magazine

October 9, 2008 – 1:50 pm
I am not a reader of Esquire Magazine but Rent Marketer was recently mentioned in it. The article talks about the Xoogler universe. We fall between #24 and #25 on the pod grouping. 24. Dan Daugherty, Rent Marketer Previously: sales and operations25. Tim Moynihan, Rent Marketer Previously: sales manager  

Posted in Rent Marketer | 2 Comments »

rentBits.com Launches New Search Design

October 6, 2008 – 1:28 pm
rentBits, our free national rental search engine, has launched a redesign of the search results. We have incorporated feedback from users who asked for:  More prominent advanced search features  Visual of new ads that are in the system  Ability to show just rental ads with picturesOur engineers have spent countless hours and lots of red-bull working on the code. It has been released and we look forward to continuing to improve rentBits based on our user feedback.  rentBits.com Most Frequently Asked Questions What is rentBits? rentBits is a free national rental search engine that actively crawls the web looking for available rental properties. rentBits is a product of Rent Marketer, the largest rental advertising network on the web. How does rentBits make money? rentBits makes money through paid CPC (Cost Per Click) advertising. rentBits works with advertisers like Apartments.com, RentalHomesPlus.com, ForRent.com, RentVine.com and others and displays these Sponsored ads within the top search results.  How many ads does rentBits have? rentBits has ...

Posted in RentBits | 3 Comments »

Rent Marketer Nominated For 2008 Colorado Technology Award

September 24, 2008 – 5:02 pm
Rent Marketer is very excited to have been nominated for the 2008 CSIA DemoGala Award. The theme of this year's event is "Deconstruction-Reconstruction: How disruptive technologies are being used by startups and incumbents to take advantage of a changing world." Congratulations to the other nominees as well.

Posted in Rent Marketer | No Comments »

Scammers Hate RentalScams.org

September 24, 2008 – 3:30 pm
  We recently launched RentalScams.org in an effort to help educate the World about rental scammers and the scams they do. It seems the scammers are not too happy with us exposing their email addresses and content of the scam email. We want to do more of this. Please help us educate users, renters, property managers and agents on the different types of rental scams that are out there. Contact us if you have any examples of rental scams or have been contacted by a scammer.

Posted in rental scams | 1 Comment »

RentVine Working on Neighborhood Profile Videos

September 22, 2008 – 9:24 am
Dave Dugdale of RentVine is working with property managers and setting up Neighborhood profile videos for their home page for free. What are Neighborhood Profile Videos? RentVine will shoot the property manager town in HD.  Set everything up and generate code for the property manager to add to their home page. Below is an example of a neighborhood profile video: [youtube]a94pAG_CfEA[/youtube]

Posted in RentVine, Rental Market | 1 Comment »

eBay Plans to Acquire Many Classifieds Sites

September 18, 2008 – 2:30 pm
eBay, who owns classifieds site Kijiji and a 25% stake in Craigslist, is going to start to buy many classifieds sites in the coming months. The WSJ says, "[eBay is] looking to expand its global classified-ad business by taking advantage of an economic slowdown to buy promising private companies with low valuations." The article goes on to say that eBay will target sites that have leading positions in geographies and industry segments. My guess is a lot of these initial acquisitions will be of companies outside of the US. However, I think eBay will also try to acquire vertically specific sites that concentrate in industries like cars, real estate and jobs in the very near future.

Posted in Craigslist | 3 Comments »

RentWiki Launches in Four Metros - Lesson for Entrepreneurs

September 16, 2008 – 6:40 pm
RentWiki, a site we wrote about awhile back, has launched in 4 metros. The metros are Atlanta, Washington DC, San Francisco, and Dallas/Fort Worth. Eric Wu, a very smart 25 year old, who was named BusinessWeek’s Top 25 Entrepreneur Under 25 and is a good acquaintance of mine, wrote on his blog, "RentWiki is live....sorta." In the post, Eric explains why they decided to launch before all the bugs were worked out. "Most people say you only get one chance at a launch, but I disagree." says Eric, "With a value-added service that is sustainable, we will have plenty of opportunity to help renters.  Our model, product, client-base, and users will change a thousand times before we finalize our vision and product, so it is important to get that feedback early and often." From experience, I completely agree with Eric. At the start-up stage, your product will never be ready for launch if ...

Posted in RentWiki | 2 Comments »

Trulia iPhone Real Estate App Beats Out Others

September 16, 2008 – 5:18 pm
Trulia, the for sale property search engine released their iPhone app last month and has seen some steady growth in the free iPhone app rankings. Some competitive real estate search iPhone apps are: StreetEasy Real Estate Puluwai Real Estate RealEasy Real Estate Trulia is currently ranked 52 in the iPhone app rankings.  

Posted in trulia | No Comments »