CalderCityRentals.com manager Robert Thompson says as part of the expansion of its web presence, CalderCityRentals.com, a Grand Rapids Michigan area apartment and rental house website, is educating its landlords in listing skills intended to get rental houses and apartments in Grand Rapids rented faster.
Thompson said, "One of the downfalls of our competitors is they do not offer much in the way of usable information. We've been posting model leases and other forms on our site for more than a year. We want to both teach and learn from our property owners, and our online newsletter is just one more step in that process."
I commenting on some rather archane practices, Thompson said, "One pet peeve of mine are folks who list on the web and say things like "serious inquiries only" this is a terrible idea because it both scares away good renters and lets the predator tenant know you've had problems."
Thompson went on to explain. "You are making your first impression online. Make a bad impression and you've lost the tenant with good credit and a solid work history. My question to the folks who post comments like that online is, "Who are you wanting to chase away? Do you think this chases them away?" In reality the needless comments really tell the good people the landlord has some problems with anger and who wants to deal with that when you have options because of your good credit and work history?"
CalderCityRentals.com competes with RentGR.com in the Grand Rapids apartment and housing rental website business. Thompson says, "We are gaining on RentGr.com by offering free services and we are growing in leaps and bounds in both traffic to the site and numbers of listings. We are already beating RentGr.com in traffic according to Compete.com and we expect in the coming months to begin to exceed their listing numbers, as well."
