The Internet Listing Services (ILS’s) haven’t had it all that good lately. They’ve been getting some pretty close scrutiny on the Multifamily Insiders website, as well as some discussion at national conferences including NMHC Tech and the Multifamily Brainstorming Conference.
Just to make sure we have full disclosure here, I have worked for many of the ILS’s, either as a paid speaker or a paid consultant. Am I currently under contract with any of them? No.
In the interest of fairness, I want to add a few points to the ILS debate. These points are all based upon my opinion after having numerous discussions with the ILS community over the years.
1. Ratings: All of the ILS’s are very much aware that renters want ratings. However, they (the ILS’s) have received significant pushback from their advertisers (NOT their renter/users) on the whole idea of ratings. The majority of their advertisers have been vocal in saying that they do not want ratings on the ILS sites. Rock, meet hard place for the ILS’s. Years ago, some of the ILS’s used to advertise onApartment Ratings. Why? The site receives a tremendous amount of renter traffic, exceeding some of the smaller ILS’s on some occasions. Their advertising on this site was dropped however, again due to pressure from advertisers.
2. It appears, to me at least, that the majority of the ILS’s are continually striving to keep changing, upgrading and improving not only their product, but the end user experience. Apartment Guide was the first ILS to come out with an iPhone application. Apartment Finderlaunched their Community Sherpa product, in an effort to help property management companies pursue a social media strategy. For Rent just launched the first augmented reality application for the ILS’s, yet another way to improve the renter experience.
3. Most companies who choose to work with an ILS never try to leverage their relationship. The ILS’s have a wealth of knowledge about your renters at their fingertips such as the top ten search items for your market. Have you asked what these are? If not, why not? Have you asked them how renter behavior changed due to the recession? Rent.com even released a white paper on the topic, loaded with great information on number of searches and more. ILS’s can tell you how many properties the average renter views, how many they contact, what features are most helpful to you in gaining more ‘page views’ and more. (Coupons can increase your leads by 18%; including accurate pricing can increase them by 30%).
4. One of the biggest criticisms of the ILS approach to the rental market is the fact that all property ads basically look the same. And I agree, that’s clearly an issue for companies that have been able to successfully build a brand. Unfortunately for those forward thinking companies who’ve managed to do this, they are in the minority (on an national basis) and in their case, they might not be the best properties served by an ILS. Taking an extraordinary approach with their extraordinary brand is smart marketing on their part. I will throw in one caution, however. For potential renters coming in from outside the immediate market, the personality that these companies have established might not be immediately discernible to someone who is simply searching for an apartment home with geography, size and price as their qualifiers. In that case, the ILS model would serve them and I believe, serve them well.
Lastly, I must say that I fully appreciate and support the discussion that has been started by folks on the ILS model. Pushing the ILS’s to improve the experience for both renters and property management companies and owners is only going to improve the performance of the product. In NO WAY am I criticizing those who have been willing to ‘take up the charge’ so to speak. They have actually publicly stated what many were ‘whispering about’ for years and for that and more, I applaud them.
Let’s keep the debate going and help to increase leads and leases for all of us.
Lisa Trosien is an award winning, multifamily educator, consultant and professional speaker with 20+ years of industry experience. She blogs here and on her website, Apartment Marketing Blog.