Zillow Rental Manager Review:
Features, Cost & an Alternative

Zillow has been around since 2006 and is primarily known as one of the most popular real estate listing websites in the United States. But over the years, Zillow has added to its offerings, including mortgage referrals, the option to connect directly with a Realtor in your area, and the ability to manage properties with its proprietary platform, Zillow Rental Manager, which we’ll focus on today.

In this Zillow Rental Manager review, we’ll examine its primary features, cost, and an alternative so you can determine if it’s the right property management software for you.

Zillow Rental Manager: An Overview

Zillow reports 30 million monthly visitors, making rental listing visibility a key benefit of the Zillow Rental Manager platform. Additionally, the solution aims to digitize many of the traditionally offline tasks landlords complete daily. To meet this goal, Zillow offers landlords a variety of tools, such as online rental applications and digital tenant screening reports.

Further, Zillow Rental Manager features a lease builder and template system that automatically incorporates local laws and regulations. You can also collect rent payments online through Zillow and utilize its database to research market trends, pricing estimates, and comparative listings to help you list a rental property with more certainty.

Who is Zillow Rental Manager for?

Zillow Rental Manager offers an array of tools that could be ideal for landlords with a relatively small number of properties in high-volume locations.

While the tools they offer can be helpful, it’s hard to see them as a solid option for real estate investors with extensive and diverse portfolios. For example, the solution lacks the ability to integrate with accounting solutions and generate reports. Additionally, while Zillow does offer some maintenance tracking functionality, it’s not as robust as many other solutions on the market.

Ultimately, Zillow Rental Manager is primarily for landlords who want to leverage the popularity of Zillow listings.

Key Features of Zillow Rental Manager

As stated, the most significant benefit of using Zillow Rental Manager is access to a wide audience of potential renters. In addition to Zillow’s listings, Zillow Rental Manager automatically syndicates listings to HotPads and Trulia.

Apart from putting your listing in front of would-be tenants, the service offers the following additional features.

Tenant Screening

Zillow Rental Manager offers a full range of tenant screening options, including background checks, credit screening, and eviction reports. The screenings are free for landlords, and the cost of the screening report ($35) is passed on to tenants, which is common in the industry.

Lease Agreement Tools

If you’ve used a lease for years, you can keep using the same document. Zillow Rental Manager enables you to upload the lease into the platform, where you and your tenants can digitally sign it. But if you’re new to property management or want to refresh an old document, landlords can use Zillow Rental Manager to build a lease directly on the website.

Zillow has worked with local law firms to customize agreements for individual states. Multiple templates are available to sign immediately or use as a starting point before customization.

Rent Payments

Tenants can pay their rent for free if using ACH. Credit and debit card fees are as follows: Tenants pay a 2.95% fee for credit cards, and debit card processing costs $9.95 per payment.

To create additional peace of mind for tenants and landlords, tenants can set up autopay to streamline the rent payment/collection process while ensuring on-time rent payments for landlords.

Maintenance Tracking

Few things are as important to maintaining a solid landlord-tenant relationship as keeping your rental properties in the best shape possible. Zillow Rental Manager can track maintenance tasks and their progress when something breaks, and landlords can log expenses within the platform.

However, the functionality is currently limited to landlords. Tenants cannot submit maintenance requests or view maintenance progress.

Cost of Using Zillow Rental Manager

Zillow rental manager fees are fairly straightforward. The platform’s basic features are free of charge, including listing your property, collecting rent, and creating and signing an online lease.

However, Zillow does offer a Premium subscription ($29.99 for 90 days), which they say increases the listing’s visibility, provides additional tools to price the listing accurately, and includes customized tips to improve the listing’s quality.

While this might seem appealing, multiple landlords report being underwhelmed by what you get for the fee. The subscription fee is also charged per individual listing, meaning that Zillow’s solution might not be a worthwhile investment if you’re a high-volume landlord with multiple rentals.

Pros and Cons of Zillow Rental Manager

While Zillow Property Manager boasts a number of features and services within the platform, there might be a better solution for you depending on your needs and whether Zillow’s solution adequately meets them.

By weighing the benefits against potential drawbacks, you can better understand how the platform might enhance or hinder your rental management process.

Pros

• The Zillow Rental Manager cost is a low barrier to entry. The basic, free-to-use service provides many helpful tools for new or experienced landlords, like rental applications, leases, and tenant screening.
• Zillow’s reach and popularity mean your listing is likely to be seen by a high number of potential tenants.

Cons

• Landlords with a large number of properties might find the interface and customization options limited.
• Premium features are lacking, even though the price is relatively low.
• Other landlord-focused property management solutions provide a more comprehensive array of syndicated real estate listing sites to post to.

Zillow Rental Manager User Reviews

Zillow Rental Manager reviews vary from person to person. Many cite its easy-to-use mobile app and rent collection functionality as positive experiences.

However, the biggest complaints come from users who have had difficulty using Zillow’s default, standard lease agreement in the past.

One Reddit user noted that the simplistic format and “one-size-fits-all” approach to their lease mean customization to their specific needs is a must, even though the standard lease agreement appears to be fully formed.

Other users have reported that Zillow’s background check is not as thorough as others and could miss important information about a tenant’s history.

Zillow Rental Manager Alternative

If you’re looking for alternatives to Zillow Rental Manager, we invite you to check out TurboTenant.

TurboTenant is a platform designed expressly for landlords and their tenants. It combines a wide range of customizable features and the ability to market properties across dozens of popular real estate listing websites. Plus, its state-specific lease agreements account for all the ins and outs of operating rental businesses across the U.S.

In addition to lease agreements and property marketing, TurboTenant offers:

• Tenant Screening
• Robust Maintenance Management
• Digital Rental Applications
• Accounting Integration
• Online Rent Collection
• A Comprehensive Landlords Forms Pack

TurboTenant: A Better Alternative

While Zillow has been an industry mainstay for many years, Zillow Rental Manager is a newer feature of its online offerings and is not its main business focus. As such, the platform is lacking compared to TurboTenant.

The biggest reason to consider TurboTenant as an alternative is that it was explicitly designed with landlords in mind. Zillow’s primary offering is its property listing service, and it has seemingly included property management software as an add-on to its primary business.

On the other hand, TurboTenant has served over 650,000 landlords since its inception, making it one of the most reliable platforms for landlords today.

Sign up for a free account and modernize your property management processes.

All claims are a result of an industry-wide audit done by our in-house team. If we missed something or have provided incorrect information, please let us know at [email protected].

FAQ

Is Zillow Rental Manager available in Canada?

Zillow Rental Manager is currently primarily a US-based tool. However, Zillow states that Rental Manager is available in some areas of Canada, but it does not specify which areas.

How do I remove my property from Zillow Rental Manager?

First, “Deactivate” your listing from your Dashboard under the “Find Tenants” tab. Once a property is deactivated, the listing will take up to 24 hours to disappear from search results across all three of Zillow’s listing sites. You can also archive any deactivated listings if you no longer wish them to appear in your owned property listings.

Does Zillow do a hard credit check?

According to Zillow, the credit checks they run as part of their tenant screening process are a “soft pull,” meaning they do not affect the potential tenant’s credit score.