I am hearing rumors down in Florida that www.RentalHomesPlus.com is offering some large property managers an unlimited pricing plan of $300 till the end of the year.
This of course makes sense because www.RentalHouses.com I hear is ending their unlimited plan of $300 at the end of this year.
I think this is a smart strategy for RentalHomesPlus to pull large property managers away from RentalHouses.com before the unlimited spigot runs dry.
I am starting to think that the unlimited plan for large PM’s is never going to go away however.
At RentVine.com I am staying clear of the unlimited plan - I might offer a volume discount someday, but in order to do that I think I would need a sales force which I am not willing do.
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Dave,
You should offer published quantity discounts that are open and fair for everyone to take advantage of. They can vary by market based on the results/traffic you can provide.
Do not give your service away like Huey and Rentalhouses but offer reasonable discounts based on volume ( unless you need to turn around your company to sell!).
If PM’s know they are being treated fairly (equally) it will solidify your business relationship with them!
Rentclicks (rentals)and Rentalhouses have so many different pricing plans out there nobody knows what is going on! One thing is for sure….the PM ’s are not being treated fairly!
MGG
Dave,
RHPlus has partnered with FARPM in Florida. If they are offering an “all you can eat plan” they will do well with it. There is a lot of resistance by PM’s to the Rentals pricing plans.
MGG
One thing I am learning is offering even a simple unlimited pricing can be a little time consuming. I am only offering it to one PM that was very helpful with their time years ago during beta testing.
Since it is just me working part time, I can’t offer too many unlimited plans because of the time required to maintain them.
I don’t have any ideas to automate it whether it is unlimited or a volume discount.
Dave,
“I don’t have any ideas to automate it whether it is unlimited or a volume discount”
That seems to be the catch 22! Rentclicks had no way to automate it either. But they did have special pricing for certain PM’s. That came back to bite them. PM’s do talk to each other.
It you discount for one you should have the same pricing available to all clients whether its by volume or unlimited!
MGG
Dave,
Looks like RHP has really made some progress in Orlando. Lots of PM’s advertising there. You would think that their partnership with the Orlando Sentinel would be helpful if handled properly!
Orlando was the #1 site for Rentclicks before the owners took the $ and ran! It looks like Rentals has taken a hit in that market.
MGG
Nathan and others at RHP must have kicked it in to high gear.
I guess FARPM backing them has helped!
MGG
I keep hearing really good things about FARPM, I am definitely going to the next FARPM conference.
Just make sure the hurricanes, noreasters and red tide have subsided!
MGG
Red Tide is still here
hey i called panama city home for over 35 years it a great place guys just dont breath when the red tide hits! lol
Dave,
Don’t you wake up sweating at night when you dream about Google, Yahoo, Facebook and Myspace offering free rental sites with all the bells and whistles you , Rentals and RHPlus offer?
Just curious!
Rentas would be wiped out overnight!
MGG
This is like the holy grail. Free rental sites. But Craigslist etc has been around for a while and yet people still pay to be on rental websites. No need to worry just yet…
Unlimited pricing plans sound great on the surface, but they can actually create a secaniro where it does more harm than good. It was killing Rentalhouses and it will do the same to Rentalhomesplus. They only reason RHP is utilizing this type of pricing plan is out of pure desperation. Its certainly not because they want to. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Why would anyone want to discount their product unless they are forced to. Does the auto indusrty slash prices and offer incredible 0% financing offers because sales are up? Do home builders pay closing costs, slash prices, and suspend operations (check out that latest on Levitt & Sons - one of the largest home builders in the nation) when the market is hot? Do guys date ugly girls just because they want to? Do you think Ruth’s Chris or the Four Season’s will start offering AYCE buffets because thats what the Golden Corral does and they bring in more customers? Not only no, but hell no. Classified listing websites don’t only offer unlimited pricing plans because they love their customers and they just want to.
You are saying to your customer “Hey, I realize our product does not perfrom as advertised and that things are so bad that we have decided to price our product more closely to what its worth.
What a lot of people just don’t get is that you’ll get into a pickle when your content exceeds a relative amount of traffic. If you “load up” your website with a large number of ads then you better be confident you have enough tennant traffic to support a favorable number of ad views, email & phone replies. Smart PM’s (they are few & far between I know) will figure out that even $300 AYCE does you no good if the response is poor at best.
You cannot build a formidable sales force nor operate a profitable business with AYCE pricing. Rentalhouses proved that one.
Intrinsically you may be saying:
You are saying to your customer “Hey, I realize our product does not perfrom as advertised and that things are so bad that we have decided to price our product more closely to what its worth.
But sometimes the idea is to get as many listings on board as one can to generate critical mass. I’m not saying it’s right, but sometimes it is not about the value.
I think the real question is, is RHP hurting? Are they losing money? Will Classified Ventures give up on it and cut their AdWords budget?
I gotta think that there is a lot of pressure on their in house SEO to preform. If he can’t produce rankings in 6 months, perhaps they will give up the AdWords budget.
That’s the acid test. If they are still able to make money at that rate then they can stay in business. If they bleed then yes, advertising will be the first to go, and after that traffic will tail off until they simply are non existent.
The one person shop (Kudos Mr Dugdale) has an advantage here of lower overheads. You have an easier job (assumption) of making the mortgage, keeping a DSL line, and putting food on the table than a corporation that has multiple overheads. Supporting layers of management etc mean that a certain price has to be charged, or a certain volume of sales made.
Actually I am a cable user, I tried DSL many years ago - but I like my current 9Meg connection!
I am a speed freak.
Is there anyway to see RHP numbers from such a large company as Classified Ventures - I don’t know I am not a finance guy.
You can never get rid of me, my expenses are so low it is not even funny. Perhaps I will write a post on it some day.
Mr anonyomous
If your product isnt about value, then what good is it?
anonymous,
“This is like the holy grail. Free rental sites. But Craigslist etc has been around for a while and yet people still pay to be on rental websites. No need to worry just yet…”
If Craigslist (or better yet Google) had a decent interface that had all the features of the recently retired Rentclicks they would put all paid sites out of business pronto!
anonymous,
“But sometimes the idea is to get as many listings on board as one can to generate critical mass. I’m not saying it’s right, but sometimes it is not about the value.”
That is okay in the early days of a start up. Rentclicks did tons of “free trials”. But once you build a market up it is not fair to paying clients to load up with lots of free trials that dilute the leads/value of your real customers. A couple per prospect is okay….20-100 is not!
There are managers at Rentals today who have still not learned that!
MGG
anonymous,
“Supporting layers of management etc mean that a certain price has to be charged, or a certain volume of sales made.”
This is where Rentals is dying on the vine! They have layers of useless managers with little real experience. The were led by someone with no industry experience. When there sales numbers come out next week I am pretty certain they will not be good!
Primedia(KKR) must be wondering why they bought Rentalhouses!They had enough problems already!
MGG
There’s no doubt in my mind that the numbers for RHP would be nothing less than comical. The total monthly revenue for Rentalhouses was a joke and beyond belief…really no kidding! It makes you wonder why PRIMEDIA purchased a company that was on the verge of extinction. Hold on…I just checked their latest stock price and everything is getting clearer. What a joke! The funny thing, it’s along the lines if not higher higher than the average ad price of a Rentahouses ad…really!
It’s good to see that the folks from Rentals are back to blogging again. So when was the gag order released…or is this the ex general manager of Rentals??? Either way, its still a bunch of Huey!
It doesn’t matter how big or small you are. It doesnt matter if you are the one and only manager or if you have dozens. It doesn’t matter if you have one mouth to feed or hundreds. The one who has the advantage is the one who puts the customers needs first and provides a product that focuses on the customer and addresses their needs better than the next guy. Most of the people in this indusrty are focusing on their own business rather than serving the needs of their customers. Its funny how they all aspire to be the RentClicks of old. Dream on!
Its quite funny. Everyone sees what three bright young, articulate and determined “boys” were able to accomplish. Everyone thinks they can easily duplicate their success. And yet no one has even come close. Especially the hilljacks from Kentucky and the gwettos from Chicago.
Keep on trucking Dave!
Rednecker…..
“Do guys date ugly girls just because they want to?”
Usually they have just made a concious decision to go ugly early!
In response to a pervious post:
People will always be willing to pay for ads. Why? Becuase they provide fresh, relative content. Tennants will always search and frequent sites which offer this experience. Its something free sites will never be able to deliver. Tennants will easily identify sites that do not offer the greatest user experience just as PM’s will figure out that AYCE plans are cheap but you get exactly what you pay for.
Searching for a place to call home is vastly different than searching for an original GI Jooe with Kung Fu grip. You expect to go through a bunch of BS when searcging for a lot of things, but when you are talking about searching for your next home don’t you expect a lot more?
Kona,
How early, how often, and if & when you go ugly is relative to the number of beers consumed within a given amount of time.
What some forget, is it may not matter to some proeprty managers the “experience” but that it’s being told by the prospective residents “I saw your listings everywhere and want to lease from you because of that.” This is why I look for good pricing to allow my listings to be on over 30 different sites. Free is good. Value is good. Being on the sites that are ranking well is very good. I take all of those factors together to find the right mix for the properties I have listed.
But, if there is value pricing but no ranking, then it’s not a good value and not assisting in creating the “whole picture” I want of being everywhere that people are searching.
I could write a book about this subject!
It is very different from market to market. AYCE works for me and works for my customers because I offer them a great product “that works” And I listen to what my customers want from my service.
Just pick up the phone and ask them what service they use works better for them than any other service? The proof is in my results I provide.
But then again my model is different, I am a regional website that rocks in the search engines!
But I only concentrate on one area to market. National websites must work on hundred’s of markets!
I could go on and on…Have a great weekend!
Wendy,
“I want to be everywhere that people are searching.”
That is very smart! Most PM’s do not understand that!
MGG
Robbie,
Thinking national is much tougher. But honestly you really can just concentrate on the “real rental markets”.
The real players are Florida, Arizona and Colorado.
That is where the revenue for Rentals is coming from!
Florida and Colorado made Rentclicks.
Secondary markets include Nev,Ga, NC, Tex, VA, MN, CA (SACTO),and WA. The rest of the country basically “sucks”.
MGG
Robbie,
Jax is a very “cheap” market. Most PM’s there are not willing to spend the $ regradless of the results you can provide!
SAD…BUT VERY TRUE!
MGG
regardless! I used to laugh my ass off after talking to some PM’s in Jax…..cheap and DUMB!
MGG
RNcrrr,
“Everyone sees what three bright young, articulate and determined “boys—
The Rentclicks founders sold out way to soon and left major $ on the table!
I know they had enough of PM,s and were burnt out…….but they sold out to Metz and Jamie too easily!
Borden took the money and ran. He left all his loyal employees working for a sh*t company…..Primedia!
Not many of those poor bastards are still working for PRM. Quirk is still there though!
Chung is still there also…….last employee still around from original Jax office……..He may run the whole show someday….if he can put up with all the crap that has gone on the past two years…… he and the roaches would probably still be there after a nuclear winter!
I hope that the Primedia stock continues its amazing slide downward!
Someone at Rentclicks actually said I should invest in PRM! Thank God I didn’t!
MGG
Kona,
You are correct about that….I tried several strategies to try to gain more P.M.’s So that is why I went with my pricing structure. But I always try new things to see what will work best for me and them.
As far as markets I picked Jax to start because I live here. I can better serve my customer on a one on one basis like I do know.
I have plans to grow…I will save all the news for later
Robbie,
You have to deal with the Jax PM’s?
Sorry man!
MGG
Robbie,
Rentals has a full time Rep there now….what a waste!
MGG
Yes, And the word on the street they hate me being around!
Robbie,
Who is the Rentals Rep in Jax? Word on the street is that there is a lot of turmoil with their Florida Reps. Gene Bennet’s daughter is their Orlando Rep and he is pusing RH Plus!
I think they are trying to dump her.
The Rep in Tampa has been nothing but trouble! She is a real real piece of work!
They have 3 Reps in Fla and are trying to hire a fourth in South Florida…..but their ad numbers and revenue are tanking. Another piece of great work by “HUEY”
MGG
Robbie,
The cheapest PM Company I have ever encountered was Walter Williams in Jax. They have ads up on RHPlus so they must be free trials!If you can get their business and actually have them pay you…..you are my hero!
MGG
Let’s not kid anyone here guys. You charge what you charge because your customers and your competition have dictated what constitutes fair market value. If your customers think you’re the Mercedes Benz, then they are willing to pay the price. If you are delivering the Kia of the market, your customers know it and will force you to drop your pants if you want to keep your doors open - i.e. AYCE. You are only kidding yourself if you believe you are utilizing AYCE because that’s what your customers are asking for. Yeah, they are asking for it all right because they know its real value.
If you were confident your product is delivering better results than the competition, then shame on you for not being a better businessman and commanding more for your product. You’re not going to make it anyway.
PM’s - Go ahead and waste your time thinking free sites are where your tenants are coming from. Tenants don’t like using free sites because it lacks fresh, relative content. Hey Mr. PM - when you place free ads do you take the time to remove them when the property is rented? Do you place your complete inventory even though they are not going to be vacant anytime in the near future because you think people say “I saw your listings everywhere and want to lease from you because of that”. You guys are notorious for placing your complete invetory on free sites because…ITS FREE! And you want to give the impression that you are the biggest player in town to garner more business. Come on PM’s, today’s tenants are smater than you are giving them credit for. When tenants visit free sites (thats if they find them - free sites do not spending $$$ on SEO) they become quickly frustrated with the stale, irrelevant content. This will be a persistent problem even when Google takes the market over.
PM’s use free sites because 1) they are cheap
and/or 2) because they are mentally challenged.
Smart businessmen/salespeople quickly identify these PM’s right off the bat. They are not the kind of customer’s you want. Refer them to the hillbillies over at rentalhouses.
This industry is so big there’s enough room for everybody - the national sites, the regional sites, the struggling AYCE sites, and the free sites. The smart one’s will best serve their customers and make a tremendous amount of $$$ doing so. There is nothing wrong with that so don’t hate them for it.
Redneck,
I agree with you on:
“You charge what you charge because your customers and your competition have dictated what constitutes fair market value”
RentalHouses started that “AYCE” monster way back when the internet first got big, I have fought that battle on every visit to my customers.
But being the smart Businessman that I am I had to think outside the box in order to overcome the plague of alce pricing.
And I have! I would never make it in the market if I only charged $199.00 a month for listings.
Rememeber, P.M.’s are dying for people to walk into the door who knows what they are doing and how to make there business better.
In this industry you have to be/get really smart…I.E. my post earlier about the rentals rep. They know I’m here, They know what I am doing to them in this market and they are not happy about it. Even to the point they are slinging mud .
Kona,
They do have a deal there…If you look roght now….They have three major players with listings there….I just got two of them!
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