Zillow Rentals is a new marketplace that launched today and provides rental professionals free tools to help manage listings. This comes on the heels of Zillow’s acquisition of RentJuice this past June. Now, all of RentJuice’s solutions for rental professionals are under the Zillow Rentals brand.
“The RentJuice acquisition four months ago laid the foundation for this expansion in rentals, and today’s announcement brings us one step closer toward our vision of rewiring the rental industry,” Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff said in a press release.
Rascoff told GeekWire in May that rentals represent a “huge market opportunity,” since 70 percent of all movers are renters. The company estimates that more than six million renters visit Zillow each month.
“You can’t really be a leading real estate Web site without having a significant rentals business,” he said.
Beyond its current rental offerings, Zillow is also introducing Zillow Rental Premier, a paid program that includes extended listing syndication across 30 consumer websites, an email marketing platform and extra leasing tools. Zillow Rental Pro will be free for iPhone and Android devices.
When Zillow acquired RentJuice in June, the Seattle-based company posted $22.8 million first quarter revenue and saw income rise to $1.7 million. However, even with two recent significant stock drops, Zillow’s shares are still trading at nearly double its $20 per share price from the July 2011 IPO.
Previously on GeekWire: Redfin study: Trulia and Zillow lack listings and show out-of-date information
