'Your Listing, Your Lead' is Guiding Principle for Top Rentals Network

"Your Listing, Your Lead" has become something of a rallying cry when it comes to property search portals. We know who the good guys and the bad guys (Zillow, we're looking at you) are when talking about residential homes for sale--but what about rental listings?

Today, we're going to introduce you to one of the good guy heroes of the rental world and show you how you can syndicate your rental listings to their network of over 50 million renters.

Introducing the Nation's Largest Rental Network

Apartments.com is the largest network for single and multi-family rentals, with over 50 million consumers visiting their sites every month to search for houses, townhomes and condos. Those 50 million renters will never be routed to another agent as all leads on your listings are exclusively yours.

Here are a few more perks of sending a feed of your rental listings to Apartments.com:

• It's easy to keep your listings up to date and accurate, with one point of entry and automated take-down via an MLS or direct data feed.
• Apartments.com will never share or sell your leads and will not syndicate your listings to any external third parties.
• In addition to Apartments.com, your listing is displayed across their network of nine leading websites: ForRent.com, ApartmentFinder.com, ApartmentHomeLiving.com, Apartamentos.com, ForRentUniversity.com, After55.com, CorportateHousing.com, WestsideRentals.com.

Why Rentals?

Before we go any further, let's address a question that brokerages who focus on residential sales may have: Why should I bother with rentals? After all, the commissions on rentals are smaller than those of home sales, so are rentals really worth the effort?

Yes, for two main reasons. First, brokerages should consider renters as potential future home buyers—and a future source of profits. Consumers who rent through your brokerage will already be familiar with your brand, making it likely that your firm, and your agent, will be the one they reach out to when ready to buy a home.

Brokerages can increase this likelihood by adding renters to a targeted lead-nurture campaign. For example, many renters may be surprised to find out that they can already afford a home, and that they can purchase property with down payments as low as 3 percent. Brokerages can also share content with them that reflects this messaging—whether by social media, email newsletters, targeted ads, and more.

Second, rentals are a great way for new agents to get their feet underneath them. They can learn the business, grow their pipeline, and sustain themselves on rentals until they begin earning sales commissions.

Sounds good, right? Here's how you can start syndicating your listings to the nation's largest rental site:

How to Send Your Rental Listings to Apartments.com

Depending on your MLS, your brokerage may have to opt-in your office to the Apartments.com listing feed. The easiest way to do this is to simply contact Apartments.com. You can do that by filling out the application form here. This page also offers a FAQ to answer any questions you may have.

It's free to participate in this program, and Apartments.com can accept your feed via RETS, IDX, and XML. Get started today!