Rentlinx is closing down April 15, 2024
On January 17, 2024, we received an email stating that our Rentlinx account would become inactive on April 15, 2024, and the service would be shut down. This is a big blow for us as a property management company that has been utilizing the service since 2013. Initially, it was a free service syndicating to all the leading rental listing websites like Zillow, Costar, Realtor, Zumper, and dozens more.
In 2016, Appfolio bought Rentlimx and, within a year, started charging for the service. This was fine, as we got a special deal as an early adopter, saving 30%, paying $1,134 annually for the service, which represented good value for us, the time it saved me being able to syndicate to 40+ listing websites from one website is easily worth the $1,134 annual fee, heck, it would be worth the $1,620 full fee.
In mid-2020, Zillow Group decided to force users syndicating to the platform into an agreement for a service called Zillow Feed Connect. Again, being an early adopter, we got a deal of $1.05 per listing per day, so it was not the end of the world, and overall, the return on investment was still good!
Over the past 18 months, the Rentlinx website has become very slow and unresponsive during regular office hours. Like, the network infrastructure was insufficient to support the service’s number of concurrent users. I mean, it is slow to the point of visiting rentlinx.com, leaving the office to make a cup of coffee, and returning to the office slow. So, the news that Rentlinx was closing down was not surprising to me. Clearly, there had not been any investment in the Rentlinx service in many years.
It looks like Appfolio has stripped the assets of Rentlinx and integrated it into their property management software product. We have an established property management software solution, so we won’t switch to Appfolio, as transitioning from one property management software solution to another is a PITA.
Our annual renewal payment was due on February 11. 2024, so I emailed Rentlinx on Thursday, January 18, 2024, asking whether the renewal cost would be 16% of the regular price as the service was shutting down by 4/15/2024, and I have not received a response as of now, January 28, 2024. So, I canceled the renewal, as we do not want to pay $1,134 for the two months before the service shuts down.
I have looked at alternatives, and there does not seem to be any, at least none that syndicate to the Zillow Group of websites, our major lead generator. So we will just list on Zillow directly, costing the same $1.05 per listing daily, as it did when syndicating from Rentlinx. The downside is that we can now only have one phone number and email address; we cannot ‘cheat the system’ and list some of our available units at our apartment communities, leaving us only listing our single-family homes, duplexes, and townhomes.
Hi Jason, we’d be happy to offer you a free rental marketing account. Please email us if you’d like to give it a go in the email address in the comment.
YR, I looked at your service previously, and according the reallyo.com website, Zillow Group is not one of your syndication partners, and this is a deal breaker for us, but thanks for commenting.
Hi Jason, the partners we list are partners which don’t require you to have a prior agreement to publish to. Just like Rentlinx we can create a feed of your listings to send via Zillow Feed Connect if you have an agreement with them. If you decide you want to discuss your options further based on your current technology setup with minimum disruption just send us an email. All the best.
YR, thanks for clarifying, it’s a shame that Zillow was not listed on your website, with a footnote to explain that a Zillow Feed Connect contract is required for Zillow syndication. At the moment, we are trialing another syndication website, but we’ll keep reallyo.com in mind if this doesn’t work out.
Hi Jason! I am also very disappointed that Rentlinx is shutting down! I have been trying to do a lot of research on other syndication websites/softwares and came across Rentec Direct. I am currently trialing it but am discouraged that it won’t be nearly as powerful as Rentlinx. If you don’t mind me asking, which syndication site are you currently trialing?
Hi Jason, just want to pitch YouGotListings.com as an alternative solution. We do cover Zillow. Our paid account does not have a listings limit. Founded in 2009 and used by thousands of brokers, landlords and management companies.
Nic, I am trialing realbird.com, which is rough around the edges and nowhere near as powerful as Rentlinx in many ways, but it’s cheap enough to take a risk and it gets the job done. I am in contact with the developer, working on improving their product for rental marketers. The developer told me that the updates I requested will go live in a few weeks. I do like that this company is new to rental marketing, and actively developing their service, and that I can help shape the final product.
Jason, I really appreciate the response back. The clock is ticking on our end to figure out a solution(s) to a life without Rentlinx. I hope you’ll consider keeping us up to date as your trial moves forward and if you find any other platforms that might help. Thank you!
Nic, I’m committed to Real Bird, and helping develop it over time. To find a service who are willing to accept suggestions, and make changes in timely manner is rare. I will write a post about my thoughts on Real Bird before the shutdown date of Rentlimx. Our annual subscription to Rentlinx has already expired, so we are using Real Bird as are only syndication platform currently, and it does the job well, just need refinement. There are some platforms suggested in this comments section, you might want to check out.
Hi Jason! I just finally got verified by RealBird via Stripe. Waiting for them to give me full access to the platform. Hoping it’s not much longer now. Question: Rentlinx was incredibly powerful because it syndicated to Zillow. Do you know of any other provider that has the ability to syndicate to Zillow?
Nic, Real bird definitely does, Zillow is our #1 provider of leads, so like you, it’s essential for us. yougotlistings.com, and reallyo.com both claim to syndicate to Zillow, which I am unable to confirm as I have not tested their platforms, reallyo.com requires a Zillow Feed Connect contract, which I’d guess you have given that it’s now a requirement to syndicate to Zillow. Overall I’m happy with Real Bird, it does not seem to syndicate to realtor.com, but that is not a big loss for us as a rental management company. The biggest thing I am missing is the ability to have different lead contact information per listing, that, currently is not available on Real Bird.
Hi, I want to add that our relationship with Zillow does not require our clients to have a Zillow Feed Connect contract depending on your property type. And we do also syndicate to Realtor.com.
John, really? Zillow forced us to sign a contract in June 2020, or they would delist all our properties if we did not sign a Feed Connect contract, we advertise single family homes, duplexes, townhomes and a couple of small communities under 25 units.
Hi Jason, every market is handled differently. An example would be NYC, which works completely differently vs the rest of the country because of Zillow’s ownership of StreetEasy. At the end of the day, I would take Zillow’s word of course. However, a lot has also changed since 2020. Zillow Feed Connect is their premium offering where you get priority placement, reports, support, etc. Our ability to syndicate to Zillow without Zillow Feed Connect provides none of those benefits.
John, thanks for clarifying. We don’t mind paying Zillow, it generates a lot of leads with Feed Connect, and the cost is relatively low, with an average cost per lease of $20—$35 ($1.05 per day). I’m leaving all this information here for anyone stumbling on my blog.
Hi Jason, $1.05 per day is pretty decent. We of course also support Zillow Feed Connect along with Zumper’s premium syndication offering. But it sounds like you are set with RealBird for the moment. Happy to chat if you would like to learn more about what we offer. Although syndication is one of our main offerings, there are also many other solutions that comes with our account. Otherwise, please do keep us in mind as an alternative if you ever need it down the road.
This blog has been very helpful with finding new syndication websites for us to utilize for our rentals! I am currently using RealBird and have posted multiple rental units the past few days but have yet to generate leads. To make sure syndication is working google the listing but I’ve yet to find it published on any of the 3rd parties RealBird says it covers. Is there a way to confirm that RealBird is displaying the listing son their partner/3rd party websites?
Nic, I’ve never had an issue with syndication, properties would go live sometime overnight after creating the listing in RealBird. The only issue I had was that I had to contact Zillow to add RealBird to my Zillow Feed Connect account, as it was not appearing on my Zillow dashboard. RealBird just shows “syndication on” for a listing, nothing more, no links to listings like Rentlinx. I did confirm that it was listing on Zillow, I searched by address and it came up as for lease, or even when sorting by date, newest first.