Battle of the Platforms

On January 17, 2023, a rental unit in Makati was listed with me. Here are my observations.

+ The listing was a recently turned-over unit and came with brand-new furnishing.

+ I uploaded the listing in Carousell, Lamudi, DotProperty, and Rentpad, all at the same time.

+ The price was lowered from Php900/sqm to Php800/sqm on February 3. The new price was below the market average (Php900-1,000/sqm).

+ The photo above would show the number of leads garnered before and after the repricing.

+ Two offers were made, leads that came from Lamudi and Dot Property.

+ The unit was officially leased by March 2, 2023 (Lamudi Lead), 1.5 months from the listing date and a month from the repricing date.

+ The most effective in terms of lead generation is Rentpad (15 inquiries).

+ Although Lamudi and Dot Property generated the least leads (1 and 2, respectively), we got two offers from these platforms.

Key Takeaways:

1. In my last post about property platforms last January 25, I mentioned that it would be best to advertise in all platforms rather than just in the best performing platform. Observations from this study support that statement.

2. Inquiries began coming in after the price was lowered. Thus, this observation suggests that for a property to get inquiries, the price must stand out (this, I think, is stating the obvious). Saying, "it's negotiable, naman." won't cut it.

3. If unit owners' goal is profit maximization, it is best to make the price attractive from square one. For each month units remain vacant is an 8.3% reduction in total revenue.