Pay-per-lead Model Levels Playing Field in the Online Rental Properties Game

Newest Property Rental Web Site Eliminates Risk for Landlords, Apartment Hunters.

OKLAHOMA CITY (PRWEB) June 22, 2003 -- Two years ago Sondra Russell, a Bay Area web developer, went apartment hunting in one of the most competitive rental markets in the world: San Francisco. "I knew it would be an uphill battle," she says, but in a time when market sites like ebay.com and match.com were becoming more popular, she thought the web would help with her apartment search. "I expected an online apartment search to be at least as successful as looking for vintage computer equipment or a next date."

But what she found was a disappointment. National sites, due to their high monthly fees, listed mainly corporate-backed apartment complexes in suburban areas -- "not an option" for urban dwellers like Ms. Russell. Alternatively, the smattering of sites serving only San Francisco charged the apartment hunter a flat fee to view listings. "They all looked expensive and risky. What if I paid my $60 and never found an apartment I liked?" said Ms. Russell.

Four months later she found a home through word-of-mouth, but her experience stayed with her, eventually growing into an idea for a better approach to the large online rental properties market.

"Newspapers have to charge up front for classifieds because there's no precise way to track the ad's success," says Ms. Russell, "but on a web site, you can track exactly how many people have expressed interest and charge on that basis."

So Ms. Russell gathered together a few investors and developed Find-a-pad.com, the first International property rentals site based entirely on a pay-per-lead model.

"On Find-a-pad.com, nobody pays up front. Anyone can advertise their rental for free," says Ms. Russell. "This means that smaller landlords with only one or two available properties can enjoy the same high quality exposure as their large multi-unit counterparts."

Rental listings include text and photos, but do not include contact information. If a prospective tenant wants to contact an owner about a listing they see on find-a-pad.com, they send a message through the site and the owner chooses to spend a "credit" to continue the discussion.

Alternatively, prospective renters in competitive markets like San Francisco or New York can spend a credit to view owners' contact information right away.

"That way, find-a-pad.com can be as relevant in large cities as it is in suburban areas or small towns," says Ms. Russell.

An unexpected benefit to find-a-pad.com's pay-per-lead model? Vacation and time share rentals. "During our development period, many of our most successful customers were owners of vacation rentals. They could post their property when it was available and then hide the listing when it was filled. When the property became available again they could revive the listing with one click. And never pay a listing fee."

Find-a-pad.com is the Internet's premiere comprehensive pay-per-lead rental properties site.    

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