How Landlords Can Avoid Gumtree’s Advertising Fees

admin    Landlords, Real Estate     Gumtree, letting links, property rental, rental adverts

No one is sure what happened or why, but earlier this year it was announced that Gumtree, the classified website owned by eBay was going to be charging for their once free service. Gumtree was a place that landlords could post free adverts for vacant rental properties and find tenants quickly and easily. It was a very effective site – and free!

The way Gumtree used to work was that landlords could post as many adverts for free. So if a landlord had several properties, he/she could post as many as necessary without it costing a fortune. They would list their properties from newest to oldest. If a landlord wanted his listing to be visible at the top of search results, he’d have to “bump” his listing frequently in order to be put back at the top.

“Bumping” used to be a simple case of logging in and resubmitting your advert. This would automatically push your ad to the top because it would tell Gumtree that the property was still available. The ‘bump’ feature was absolutely necessary, especially in high volume areas such as London, where there were hundreds of vacant properties added daily. It wouldn’t take long before your advert would sink to the bottom and within a couple of hours be completely out of sight. Without being able to ‘bump’ the advert it would become completely useless.

The old pricing structure was wonderful, which is why Gumtree received so much praise from many landlords through the blogs.

But as is the case with many free listing sites, the word ‘free’ only remains for so long before the powers that be deem it necessary to charge the very people that make the site ‘valuable’ to use their service, you!

The result…Gumtree now charges £9.95 per ad (you get your first 2 ads free) and for unlimited ads they charge a fee of £42 per month. In addition Gumtree also has used this opportunity to revoke the free ‘bump’ feature! This is now chargeable at £2 per day outside of London and £7.14 per day in London, which would amount to £49.98 per week if you decided to do it every day; which you will probably need to do if you want your advert to be read at all!

Now having said all of this, one might start to wonder ‘how does Gumtree monitor and figure out how to limit Landlords to 2 free adverts per year?’ Since landlords didn’t have to register in order to post an advert it didn’t seem technically possible to restrict the free usage so a little research was in order. From the research carried out it would seem that the way Gumtree keeps track of usage is through email addresses.

Anyone with multiple email addresses (and if you don’t they’re certainly easy to obtain) could get many adverts posted for free. It’s also possible to use this system to avoid the costs of ‘bumping’, since all you would need to do is delete the ad, and re-enter under a new email – for FREE.

So now we have shared that golden nugget of information with you, our loyal readers, before you run off and begin posting free property adverts on Gumtree once more, we would like to ask you to consider this…

Aside from its mass traffic generation ability, historically, Gumtree’s unique selling point to landlords was to provide a service by which they could market their properties to a huge audience at no cost. A fantastic, no-brainer service if it’s free, but now it isn’t one should question what they are actually getting for their money.

Ok, we have shown you a way to make the service essentially free for you to use again, but is Gumtree really providing a good service for the average Landlord?

There are several reasons to consider but one that stands out like a sore thumb is Gumtree’s primitive search feature. It is hard to search for properties of interest at the best of times on the site, but with all the extra work involved in keeping the service free, is it really worth it?

There are other options that will be cheaper and easier with less time consumption that would be well worth looking into. User-friendly portal Letting Links is free to use and is growing in popularity everyday. With the sites unique ability to match tenants with properties and vice versa based on their requirements, could there be a simpler, more effective way to rent your property out?

If you rely on finding quality tenants online then Letting Links is just the ticket you’re looking for! Check us out to find out how we can save you money and get you in touch with the right tenants.

The Evolution of Property Portals

admin    Landlords, Real Estate, Tenants     letting links, letting rental, property portals, property rental, rental property

Over the past several years the Property Portals market has been changing and evolving in the attempts to please all parties involved in the letting business. The market gets flooded with many players but several only last a short period of time, mainly because they’re unable to keep their promises which leave only the major players in the game.

The biggest contributor to the evolution is the internet and the web companies that have made their voices known. Keeping up with the ever changing trends is never an easy process so the successful businesses are required to be pro-active instead of re-active. It’s vital to introduce new products and unique ideas that will benefit letting agents, landlords and tenants alike. The old adage of “if you’re not moving forward, or just standing still, then you might as well be moving backwards”, has never been more relevant than it is to the property portals market.

If you can’t attract new customers on a consistent basis you’re never going to stay in business for very long. The best idea so far has been for the property portals to have a limited number of letting agents on board – hopefully you’ll find fast reactive agents that will keep your business ahead of the rest of the field. With over 11,000 registered letting agents, all of whom are paying large sums of money for registration, it’s not surprising that some of the less than dynamic agents start to struggle, their income decreases and they’re left with a large business loss.

The main idea behind the property portals is to first drive site traffic which will then provide the searching users with the information they’re looking for, which will then provide leads for the letting agent. If all of this occurs in a proper manner, everyone will be happy and the letting agents business will continue its growth. Letting Links is such a property portals that are here to help connect prospective tenants with letting agents and landlords.

By listening to the letting agents and to the tenants in order to address any additional questions, concerns or problems, the web business or property portal will continue to evolve and thrive into very successful online businesses.

Understanding Property Rental Credit Checks and Property Rental References

admin    Landlords, Tenants     letting links, letting rental, property rental, property rental credit check, property rental reference

Whether you’re a tenant or a landlord, you’ve probably heard the terms property rental credit checks and property rental references before—but if you don’t know how they should be used, or why you should ask for them—it’s just another piece of paper to add into the mix. So before you run off and get property rental credit checks and property rental references gathered up, let’s take a second to understand how they’re used – and how you can secure the best possible outcome for your checks and references, regardless of if you’re a tenant or a landlord.

A property rental credit check is essentially a piece of confirmation you are, who you say you are. A landlord will often order a property rental credit check to make sure that the tenant applying for the flat is being completely honest about who they are, as well as checking to make sure the tenant is financially fit to rent the property in question.

A property rental credit report will normally consist of various items, but mainly act as a safe guard to proprietors. The report will generally contain information about
previous bankruptcies, insolvencies, bad credit, no credit or any other outstanding financial concerns. Depending on the provider, information such as employment history and current rental arrangements may also be disclosed. The report will put any comments the current landlord may have about the tenant in question (late payments, unruly behavior etc.) as well as the duration of the letting. Some landlords however, may decline the opportunity to have any information disclosed about the tenant – should this be the case, the report will show that they have spoken with the landlord, but commentary was refused.

Property Rental References on the other hand, are a tenants way of showcasing their true “personality” via other people. The types of property rental references required varies greatly depending on the landlord, however, generally speaking a landlord likes to have 2 personal references as well as a professional reference (these may differ depending on your current rental agreement.) The landlord will normally ask for these references before signing the lease, as to confirm what the tenant is claiming – is actually true. There are situations where a landlord may put restrictions on family references, purely because of biased opinions. A family member will normally leave a glowing recommendation for a not-so-stellar family member, where as a friend (despite being a personal reference) may give tips or hints as to the potential tenants true character.

Always make sure to check your own credit history prior to applying for a lease, as you are responsible for your reports accuracy. Note any discrepancies as well as any “problematic” areas you may find. Although you may not be able to remove them, you may be able to determine your best possible explanation ahead of time, instead of being caught without any notice. Landlords do not always expect a perfect property rental credit check, but they would like to see stability, security and the capacity to live in the unit in question. Although they may seem like a burden, property rental credit checks and property rental references actually make the letting process easier for everyone involved.