RentLinx - The Rental Housing Multi-List

RentLinx Partners with National REIA

2008-06-25T13:50:00.002-04:00

RentLinx is proud to announce a new partnership with the National Real Estate Investors Association or REIA! RentLinx and REIA have partnered to create a nationwide rental search website featuring REIA members' houses for rent. You can visit the new site at www.reiarentals.com

RentLinx will also be participating in REIA's Mid-Year Leadership Conference to help get the word out to the the more than 200 local REIA chapters. If you're in Orlando June 26-28, stop by the RentLinx booth! If you would like to meet up, just contact us and we will set something up!

RentLinx also recently partnered with a local REIA affiliate, the Rental Property Owners Association of Kent County (RPOA). RPOA recently revamped their rental housing search website to tap into the powerful RentLinx database and renamed the site MIRentalGuide.com from WeeklyRentalGuide.org.

RentLinx would like to send a big thank you to Rebecca McLean from National REIA and Clay Powell and Russ VandenToorn from RPOA. Thank you for all your hard work!

New Search Radius Feature

2008-06-09T16:03:00.005-04:00

All RentLinx-powered rental housing searches now have a new feature that lets renters better target the location where they would like to live!

Now when a renter does a location based rental housing search, the results page will include a description above the results like "Showing properties within 10.0 miles of the center of Ann Arbor".

You can click the "10.0" in the example above to modify your search radius. This helps renters target their perfect area whether they want to live within a few blocks of a specific urban location, or if they are willing to live within 50 miles of a rural location!

Schneider Speaks at Affordable Housing Conference

2008-04-29T13:19:00.002-04:00

On Monday, I spoke at the Michigan Conference on Affordable Housing. My session was titled "Marketing Through the Ages" and I shared the slot with national speaker Donna Hickey

I covered the Michigan Housing Locator and included tips on creating effective online ads. I also presented some exclusive traffic and lead statistics from the Michigan Housing Locator and the RentLinx network.

If you missed the talk or didn't get a copy of the slides, you can click here to download them in PowerPoint format (5MB).

RentLinx Featured in metromode e-Magazine

2008-04-03T10:44:00.003-04:00

RentLinx has a great feature article in today's edition of metromode e-magazine written by Tanya Muzumdar! RentLinx was featured as part of their ongoing series "From Scratch".

Read RentLinx's "From Scratch" article in metromode

From their website, "[metromode] posts daily reports on job growth and development in Southeast Michigan, from Detroit to Ann Arbor. A free, weekly e-magazine is published Thursdays. With community directories and guides for Southeast Michigan cities, metromode is a resource for people who want to work, build a business, relocate or visit here."

New Rent Ranges, No More Unit Groups

2008-03-20T15:13:00.005-04:00

We recently released an exciting new update to the RentLinx interface for property managers! We have done away with the concept of "unit groups" and instead allow property managers much more flexibility when listing their unit or floor plan information.

Now, when a property manager lists or edits a unit, she chooses if the unit is a:

Single Family Home:

Specific Unit:

Type of Unit:

type

If you are familiar with the "unit group" interface, you may notice that your properties look a bit different when you login. Rest assured, that your property information has not changed. Renters will view your properties exactly as they did before. Now your admin interface more closely matches what prospective residents see.

Along with this change, RentLinx now offers the ability to add rent ranges for all units!

Top 5 Benefits of Automatically Updating Your Account

2008-02-21T14:53:00.004-05:00

Property managers, did you know that RentLinx offers you the ability to automatically update your RentLinx account? Your property information is pulled directly from your property management software or local database using our DataLinx service. You never have to manually update your RentLinx account and your ads always stay current!

DataLinx is now better than ever! Below is an exciting top 5 list of DataLinx features that you may not have known!

No programmers required - DataLinx can now accept data files in virtually any format. As long as your local database or management software can produce a file with your property data, DataLinx can accept it and automatically update your RentLinx account. Our highly qualified developers will help you through the entire process, making it easy on you.
Two ways to update - Once you have your data file, you can upload it through the RentLinx website to instantly update all of your properties. Better yet, if your file can be placed at a location on your website (like http://www.example.com/MyFile.xml) we will automatically read your file nightly and you will never even need to login to RentLinx. (But you still may want to in order to review your traffic and leads!)
Eliminate Typos - You will save money and headaches by ensuring that your online ads contain only accurate, up-to-date information. You will never have to retype the same information into two different systems, eliminating the double-entry and human error.
Stay at the top of the list - Many of our partner sites, including ShowMeTheRent.com, sort all of the listings by the date they were last updated. DataLinx will automatically update your account nightly, keeping your ads at the top of the list!
Save time - Manually entering and updating all of your property information can be a time consuming process. DataLinx will do all of the work for you! You won't even need to log in to RentLinx and your listings will be advertised on our partner sites throughout the Internet!

Please contact us if you have any questions, or visit our DataLinx page to see pricing and learn more!

Ready to go? Visit our buy now page to purchase DataLinx and begin automatically updating your RentLinx account!

More than 10,000 Properties Now Listed

2008-01-02T17:58:00.000-05:00

Just over two years after we went live and allowed property managers to list their properties for free, RentLinx now has over 10,000 active property listings representing just under 300,000 housing units!

RentLinx by the numbers as of 1/1/2008

46:	States with at least one property listed
55:	Websites that are fed or powered by RentLinx
1,392	Zip codes with at least one property listed
3,620	Management companies
6,295	Active users
10,577	Active properties listed
290,480:	Active units represented
1,057,848:	Visits during 2007 to our network of sites according to Google Analytics
7,577,999:	Page views during 2007 according to Google Analytics

In very rough terms, most of these statistics are doubling about every 6 months, so we are looking forward to 2008!

Renters Can Now Mark and Save Favorites

2007-11-12T10:44:00.000-05:00

Our friends at the Michigan State Housing Development Authority and many of our WebLinx clients have given us some great feedback and asked for a way for renters to save favorite properties on their websites. We responded and added a new "favorites" feature! Renters can now mark and save their favorite properties on any RentLinx-powered website by clicking the star next to the property name in the search results or the property details pages.

Renters can begin marking favorites right away without logging in or creating an account! If a renter wants to save her list of favorites between visits, she can create an account in one step and login to access her saved favorites. Our favorites feature also makes use of the cool new AJAX technology so marking favorites is quick and easy.

Try the new feature by searching for rental housing on our sister site ShowMeTheRent.com and marking and saving some favorites!

If your company has added your RentLinx listings to your company website (WebLinx), you automatically have this new feature on your website!

New Fraud Detection for your Safety

2007-10-10T11:26:00.001-04:00

When a website becomes more popular and draws more traffic it invariably attracts some Internet users with impure intentions. I'm proud to announce that RentLinx has crossed that threshold!

In the last few months a few Internet scam artists have visited RentLinx-powered websites posing as renters! One of the basic scams works like this:

A scam artist contacts a property manager posing as a renter.
The scam artist says he is moving to the area from overseas and needs to quickly rent a unit.
The scam artist graciously offers to send a check (often times for more than the required move-in cost).
Once the manager receives the check, the scam artist tells her that he needs furniture delivered to his house, but cannot arrange it from his current location. He asks that she forward some of his check to the furniture company's bank account.
Sure enough, his original check bounces, and the furniture company was actually his own personal bank account.

Don't let this happen to you! To help you detect fraudulent leads, RentLinx has implemented a new technique to show you the country of origin of users who contact you. Almost always these scam artists operate from outside of the United States and Canada where there is virtually no risk of being penalized by law enforcement.

Below is an ACTUAL message sent from a scam artist in Nigeria which was appropriately flagged.

Note that the user claims to be from London, but our system shows they are writing from Nigeria (which is a hot bed for Internet fraud).

Remember to always use common sense and never send money AWAY from your account. Hopefully this new fraud detection technique will help.

Craiglist Helper is Now Free!

2007-09-18T17:20:00.001-04:00

craigslist

We're proud to announce that our craigslist helper tool is now free to all! In addition, we've recently updated the tool to make it even MORE useful. Now, the photos associated your property are automatically included in the body of your post so you don't have to upload attachments separately!

If you aren't familiar with our craigslist helper tool, check it out here.

If you would like to use the craigslist helper tool, just click Choose Websites in your account and click the "Add My Properties To This Website" button on the craigslist row.

RentLinx Releases ShowMeTheRent.com

2007-09-04T13:18:00.000-04:00

We're proud to announce the release of our new sister site, ShowMeTheRent.com. This is a site specifically for renters that showcases all of the properties listed through RentLinx.

ShowMeTheRent.com was released to better serve property managers who use RentLinx. The new site has a few added benefits:

Renters now have a single place to go to find all of your properties listed through RentLinx.
RentLinx is now able to feed your properties to even more partner sites. Many of our new partners aggregate links back to the original site, so ShowMeTheRent.com now acts as the landing page for these "aggregator" sites.

We're now working harder than ever to partner with more sites so RentLinx can truly be your one-stop shop for rental housing advertising. You can keep up with our new partners by checking out our partners page.

Move Your Ad to the Top of the List

2007-08-14T11:10:00.000-04:00

RentLinx users do a great job keeping their property information updated. In fact, in the last month RentLinx users have logged in 2,565 times to update 3,362 different properties.

To reward these diligent users, and help renters find the most current information we have changed the default search on all our WebLinx and PartnerLinx sites to show the most recently updated properties first. (The old sort showed the properties with the lowest rent first, regardless of modification date).

Renters can still choose to search the results however they wish, plus they can always see the date each property was updated, regardless of how they are sorted.

Property managers: Now one of the best ways to draw more attention to your property is to keep it updated which will move it to the top of the list!

Custom Search Page for WebLinx and PartnerLinx

2007-07-10T11:24:00.000-04:00

WebLinx and PartnerLinx clients can now take advantage of an even higher level of customization of their product by using the new custom search URL feature.

WebLinx and PartnerLinx clients can design a totally custom search page that includes the desired search options laid out to their liking. When renters follow a "search" link on any RentLinx-powered pages, they will be redirected to the client's custom search page. This allows the client to have tight control over how prospective residents can search their properties.

Exchange Apartment Finders, an apartment locator service based in Chicago and new WebLinx client, was among the first to use the new custom search URL feature. You can see their custom search page here:

http://www.exchangeapartmentfinders.com/search.html

New Rebranded Products, DataLinx, Online Order Form

2007-06-05T16:35:00.000-04:00

The RentLinx website is now showcasing our suite of newly rebranded products on our products page.

The free RentLinx advertising services which allows managers to easily advertise their rental properties on multiple websites has been named AdLinx

We have also named our website integration tool WebLinx. WebLinx powers the property listings on your property management company website. When you update your RentLinx account, your company website will automatically be updated.

This update also includes the release of our newest product, DataLinx, which allows property managers to automatically update their RentLinx account from their own management software or their VaultWare™ account.

Our rental housing search service we provide to partners who serve property managers or renters has been named PartnerLinx.

We also now have an online order form for property managers to purchase our WebLinx and DataLinx products quickly and easily!

New Feature: Edit your WebLinx Template

2007-05-17T12:00:00.000-04:00

All WebLinx clients can now edit their WebLinx template when they login to their RentLinx account. This gives WebLinx clients the ability to customize the exact look and feel of their custom RentLinx-powered apartment search using our state-of-the-art templating system.

Editing your WebLinx Tempate

WebLinx powers the property listings on your company website. When you update your RentLinx account, your company website will automatically be updated. WebLinx is the cheapest, easiest and fastest way to advertise your properties on your website.

Schneider named one of Crain's "20 in their 20s"

2007-05-03T17:06:00.000-04:00

RentLinx founder Jeremy Schneider was recently named one of Crain's Detroit Business' "20 in their 20s", a list of twenty-somethings making a difference in Metro Detroit.

You can see Jeremy's profile in this week's edition of Crain's, or view Jeremy's profile in the online 20 in their 20s list.

Keystone Management Goes Live with New DataLinx Product

2007-04-27T13:50:00.000-04:00

Keystone Management Group (KMG), based out of Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, has recently gone live with RentLinx's WebLinx and DataLinx products.

Keystone Management Group manages over 15,000 apartment units in nearly 300 different properties throughout Michigan, California, Indiana, and Wisconsin. KMG is now using our cutting edge DataLinx product to keep their impressive portfolio up-to-date.

DataLinx allows KMG to send an automatic XML data feed from their proprietary database to their RentLinx account. This keeps all of their properties, descriptions, amenities, photos, availability and more up-to-date with no double-entry. Learn more about DataLinx in our DataLinx brochure.

Keystone also has made use of our WebLinx product to power an apartment search on the Keystone website. When renters visit the Keystone website, they can search Keystone's 15,000 apartment units by rent, location, availability, Section 8 and more. Visit Keystone's website to give it a try.

New Feature: Add Links to Your Listings

2007-04-02T21:09:00.000-04:00

We have recently released a new feature for all Rentlinx users! You can now add links to your property listings that link to specific pages of your choice. For example, you can add a link to your property's website or to a hosted virtual tour.

The links feature is grouped with attachments in the "Links & Attachments" section of an individual property's page, shown below. Links are denoted by the earth icon , while attachments are denoted by the paper clip icon

You can add a link to any URL of your choice (like http://www.myproperty.com) and give the link a title (like "My Property's Website"). Each link can apply to a single property or to any number of your properties as shown below.

When a prospective resident views your property's page on a RentLinx-powered website, she will see all of the links associated with that property.

New "View My Property" Feature Added for Property Managers!

2007-03-15T13:10:00.000-04:00

RentLinx released a new "View My Property" feature to assist Property Managers. Property Managers now have the ability to see how their property will look to renters on each of the different websites where their properties are advertised. (Note that "View my Property" is not yet available for some 3rd party websites) Property managers can see how their company as a whole is being advertised by scrolling down and choosing a website from the list. When the property manager selects an individual property, they will have the ability to see how that individual property will look to renters on each of the websites. This option is located directly above the "Property General Information" section, as shown below. The "View My Property" feature makes navigation on the net even easier for Property Managers and ensures them that their properties are being advertised effectively!

MSHDA Launches Radio Ad Campaign for MichiganHousingLocator.com!

2007-02-15T15:50:00.000-05:00

On February 14, 2007, Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) released a radio advertising campaign for the MichiganHousingLocator.com ! Emphasizing the convenient and user-friendly aspects of the Locator, the radio advertisements will be broadcasted in following cities: Detroit, Grand Rapids, Flint, Saginaw, Lansing and Kalamazoo. Twelve radio stations will run approximately 570 ads until March 4, 2007.

Powered by RentLinx, the Michigan Housing Locator is a website devoted to assisting residents in finding Michigan housing and giving property managers a marketing tool for their entire rental portfolio.

One of the radio advertisements targets adults 18-34 years old and focuses on the Michigan Housing Locator as the single source for finding housing in Michigan. The other radio advertisement is geared towards senior housing. Click below to listen!

New "Featured Property" Tool for WebLinx Clients

2007-02-08T13:57:00.000-05:00

RentLinx recently released a new "Featured Property" option that is free too all WebLinx clients! You can now choose which of your properties you want to appear in the "Featured Property" section included on your company homepage! Adding the "Featured Property" section to your website is quick and easy. Campus Management Inc. and RebateRentals.com Realty, Inc. have already taken advantage of this great new feature! Property Managers also have the ability to choose more than one property to be included in the "Featured Property" section of their website. Available properties will always be shown instead of properties with no availability, otherwise a random featured property will be selected. So each time someone visits your website or the page is "refreshed" a new property will be listed as the "Featured Property" which will maximize exposure for all of your properties. How do I do it? Contact us to add this feature to your website today! Once we have added this ability to your RentLinx account options, you can go under your account and set up your account by following the simple directions below! Under "Quick Links" on the left hand side of the screen, scroll down to "WebLinx Management" and click the "Featured Property" option. Next, simply choose which properties you would like to feature in your website by clicking the box next to the property name. Just like the apartment search on your website, if you choose to add a "Featured Property" section, it will be seamlessly integrated with your existing site and will be branded to match your company colors and image. This feature is just another way that RentLinx is reaching out to WebLinx users and helping them efficiently market their properties!

Publicity in Crain's Detroit Business

2007-01-18T13:23:00.000-05:00

RentLinx gained exposure in Crain's Detroit Business on January 10, 2007. With the launch of www.michiganhousinglocator.com, RentLinx and the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) are now making it easy for renters to find their next home online. Click here for the full article in Crain's Detroit Business.

4 New Partners Allow for More Advertising Options!

2007-01-12T14:11:00.000-05:00

Renters can now search apartments on a local and national level We are proud to announce that RentLinx has recently partnered with four new commercial apartment search companies so that property managers will gain a wealth of advertising opportunities without any additional hassle! Once property managers have entered their property information using RentLinx, they have the option to advertise on the following sites. All properties listed with RentLinx are automatically listed for free on Move.com, while the other three sites below require fees be paid directly to the respective companies in order to list. Apartments.com is a national online apartment guide and relocation resource which will generate more leads. When property managers choose to advertise on Apartments.com through their Rentlinx account, they will be contacted by a local sales representative, learn about how advertising on this site is priced to meet their budget, and have their properties added to Apartments.com today! http://www.apartments.com Move™ provides consumers with the real estate content, decision support tools and professional connections they need before, during and after a move. Choosing to advertise on move.com is free! http://www.move.com GreatLakes4Rent.com is dedicated to bringing users the best properties located in Michigan (MI) that are for rent. Now, property managers can take part in Michigan’s Premier apartment showcase! This opportunity will only be available for just a few select apartment communities! The showcase will feature a full minute commercial of their properties – that commercial will run at least 20 times each month in your local area! Once these limited spots are filled – that’s it! Act now and get involved in this exciting opportunity given by GreatLakes4Rent.com! http://greatlakes4rent.com EliteRenting.com is a full-service online portfolio management company which lists properties all over the United States! By choosing to advertise on EliteRenting.com, properties will be published to over 15 (and growing) rental websites across the internet for a small monthly fee. http://www.eliterenting.com/

RentLinx Surpasses 100,000 Units Listed

2007-01-03T21:26:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, January 2nd, 2007, the 100,000th unit was listed with RentLinx. This is especially significant because 100% of our units listed are entered and maintained by the property managers and owners of each property. This milestone was achieved about 14 months after our first partner, the Washtenaw Area Apartment Association went live with a PartnerLinx apartment search on their website.

MSHDA Releases Michigan Housing Locator

2006-12-05T11:31:00.000-05:00

MichiganHousingLocator.com is Live! The Michigan State Housing Development Authority has just released a new Michigan housing locator at MichiganHousingLocator.com which is powered by RentLinx. This tool is provided as a service to all renters looking for rental housing in the state of Michigan. MSHDA's goal is to provide a comprehensive, up-t0-date and easy-to-use tool for finding available rental units in Michigan. MSHDA Joins other Michigan Partners With MichiganHousingLocator.com, MSHDA joins a growing list of RentLinx partners who serve property managers and renters in the State of Michigan by providing an apartment search powered by RentLinx. These partners include:

Affordable and Accessible Housing RentLinx has worked with both MSHDA and the Michigan Disability Rights Coalition to provide better support for finding affordable and accessible housing on RentLinx powered sites. MichiganHousingLocator.com lets you search for properties with rent based on income, properties that accept housing choice vouchers and for accessible units.