What a property manager website needs: pages, words and photos
A property manager's website has two front doors. One is for property owners deciding whether to hand you their rental. The other is for renters looking for a home, paying rent or reporting a leak. If both groups land on the same page and have to dig, the owners leave and the renters call your office with questions the site could have answered. The fix is a site built around those two doors, with a small set of pages behind each.
Two audiences, two front doors
On the home page, right under the top line, put two clear buttons:
- "Rental owners", leading to your services for owners.
- "Renters and residents", leading to available rentals, the resident portal and maintenance requests.
Everything else hangs off those two. A third, smaller link for associations is worth adding if you also manage HOAs or condo associations, since board members look for different things again.
The top line itself should say what you manage and where: "Residential property management in Boise and Meridian: single-family homes, duplexes and small apartment buildings." That one sentence tells an owner whether you handle their kind of property and tells a renter whether you have homes in their area.
The pages for owners
Owners are trusting you with a valuable asset, often their retirement plan. The pages they need:
Owner services. What you do, in plain words: marketing the rental, screening applicants, leases, rent collection, maintenance, inspections, accounting and owner statements, handling evictions when it comes to that. One short paragraph each.
Fees. How you charge, in words. Buyers in this field compare fees closely and distrust sites that hide them. The separate guide on property management websites for owners and tenants goes into how to word fees, the owner pitch and the tenant side in detail.
Areas we serve. Towns or neighborhoods, and the types of property you take.
About. The people who will manage their property: names, photos, how long they have done this, and your license. Many states require property managers to hold a real estate license; if yours does, show the license number and the broker of record.
Get a rental analysis. A form for owners, covered below.
The pages for renters and residents
Renters need speed and clear rules. Their pages:
Available rentals. Listings with photos, rent, deposit, pets allowed or not, available date, and how to apply. Most property managers use software such as AppFolio, Buildium or Rent Manager, which can publish listings to your site automatically. If yours does, use that feed so the site is never out of date.
How to apply. Screening criteria in plain words, application fee, what documents to have ready, and how long a decision takes.
Residents. Links to pay rent, submit a maintenance request and sign in to the portal, with a phone number for emergencies after hours. Put this link at the top of every page.
Frequently asked questions. Moving in, moving out, deposits, renters insurance, pets. Answering these on the site saves your office many calls.
Photos for a property management site
Two kinds of photo matter:
- Rental photos, bright and honest, room by room. A good set of listing photos fills units faster. Take them in daylight with the lights on, from a corner of each room, and include the outside, the yard and the street.
- Your team and office. Owners want to see the people, and renters want to know where to drop off keys.
Avoid stock photos of luxury apartment towers if you manage duplexes and houses. They make owners wonder whether you are the right size for them. For phone photo tips, see taking good website photos with a phone.
What to leave out
- Old listings. A rental that was leased months ago, still on the site, wastes a renter's time and makes you look careless. Use the software feed or check weekly.
- Real estate sales pages mixed into management pages, unless sales is a real part of your business. If it is, give it its own section.
- Long legal text on the home page. Put lease rules and policies on their own pages.
- Vague promises such as "maximize your return". Owners hear this from everyone. Tell them what you do instead.
- A single generic contact form for everyone. An owner enquiry and a broken water heater should not land in the same inbox.
Contact paths for each group
Give each audience its own way in:
- Owners: a "Get a rental analysis" form asking for the property address, type, number of units, whether it is rented now, and when they would like you to start. Under the button: "We reply within one business day with a rent estimate and a time to talk."
- Applicants: an "Apply" button on each listing, going to your software's application.
- Residents: the portal link for routine requests, and an emergency phone line for flooding, no heat, gas smells and lockouts. Say plainly what counts as an emergency.
- Everyone else: your office phone, hours and address.
Put the office phone at the top of every page as a tappable link, and the emergency line on the residents page and in the footer.
Fair housing and the fine print
Property managers commonly show the Equal Housing Opportunity logo or statement on their site and listings, and write screening criteria that apply the same way to everyone. The wording of listings and criteria matters under fair housing rules, so have your attorney or your state association check them. Your license number and the broker of record usually go in the footer.
For more on showing your license and credentials clearly, see showing licenses, insurance and certifications.
What to do this week
- Add the two front-door buttons to your home page.
- Check every listing on your site is still available, or connect the software feed.
- Put the resident portal and emergency line at the top of every page.
- Write your owner services page in plain words, one paragraph per service.
- Add your license number to the footer.
If your current site mixes owners and renters on every page, or the listings are hard to use on a phone, you can see your site rebuilt first and check how the two-door layout works for your business.