RentCafe is a website (rentcafe.com) where Breeze clients can list their properties for free.
RentCafe pulls information about available units from the Units tab (the number of bedrooms and bathrooms and the square footage). Make sure the unit details are correct.
The rent amounts shown on RentCafe also come from the unit setup. When you add units to a property, enter the market rent, not the current rent paid by tenants.
Prerequisites
Complete the KYC process at the company level.
Upload a primary photo for the property.
Enter a phone number and email address at the property level.
Create at lease 1 unit for the property.
To list a property on RentCafe
Listing a property on RentCafe is easy.
Review your property. On the Property Info tab, record a phone number and an email address. This email address will be used for leasing inquiries.
Upload at least one picture of your property by clicking on the Add Photo button.
Navigate to the RentCafe tab.
Complete the tab.
Click Save & Publish. (Publishing makes the property available on the RentCafe website.)
To see how RentCafe will present the property, click View Marketing Site. RentCafe appears in another tab.
If you need to make changes, make them in Breeze. To view the changes, click Save & Publish, and then click View Marketing Site.
Note: It can take up to 24 hours for changes to appear on the marketing site.
Listing Details
This section is split into multiple parts: the left side of the screen, the right side, and the tabs at the bottom.
Left side of the screen
Listing Title | The name of the property on the RentCafe website. It defaults to the name of the property in Breeze (the first line in the Name/Address block). Change it as needed. |
Overview | Write a short, upbeat description of the property. |
Office Hours | Enter the time when the property manager is available to answer the phone or show the unit. |
Property's Time Zone | Select your property's time zone so that the office hours are shown correctly on the listing. |
Pet Policy | In the example, there is only one row, but you can add additional rows if needed. Each row has two parts: Type and Notes. You can include the type of pet and a comment (for example, "Dogs" as the Type, and "under 75 lbs" as the Notes). In the Type field, the options are Cats, Dogs, Pet Friendly, and No Pets Allowed. |
Right side of the screen
The right-hand side of the screen is the Amenities section.
For each amenity, specify the Type (Community or Apartment) and enter a description.
At least one amenity is required. In RentCafe, the amenities appear in a list and also in a paragraph that describes the property. (The paragraph is generated by RentCafe.)
Settings Tab
Allow Maintenance Requests | Enables your tenants to enter maintenance requests on the portal. |
Allow Maint Reqs Attachments | Enables your tenants to attach files (for example, photos) to maintenance requests on the portal. |
Publish to Corp Site | Allows you to publish the property to your corporate website. A Corp Site is a dedicated website for your management company. If you would like to set one up, start a Chat with us. |
Advertise on Rentcafe ILS | Adds the property to the RentCafe website. This is selected by default. If you want to allow tenants to use the resident portal (but not list the property), clear this check box. |
Advertise on Property website | If you have created a RentCafe property website, select this checkbox to make the site live. Note that property websites require additional licensing. For more information about property websites, contact Support. |
Enable ID Verify | ID Verify is an optional feature that validates each applicant's identity. To enable it for your company, start a Chat with us. After it is enabled at the company level, you can enable it for each property by selecting this checkbox. |
Only show properties with availability (on Corporate Site) | If the property has vacancies, it will appear on the Corporate Site (if you set up one). If there are no vacancies, the property will not appear. |
Use Tenant Portal | Allows tenants to use the resident portal. This is selected by default. |
Use Renters Insurance | If selected, when a prospect submits an application, they are notified that they will need to carry renter's insurance when they move in. |
Maintenance Email | The email address for maintenance requests. When a tenant enters a request on the Portal, a notification is sent to this address. By default, all email is sent to the email address on the Property Info screen, but you can use this field to specify a different email address which will only be used for maintenance requests. |
Screen RentCafe Applicant | If you have set up screening for your company, select this checkbox to enable it for RentCafe applicants to this property. There is also a Screening tab on the Property screen for some additional settings related to screening. |
Screening Application Form section | In this section, you can choose to hide certain questions from the screening form:
|
Enable ICRAA Screening Question (This option does not appear in the screenshot above; it only appears for California properties.) | For California properties, there is an additional checkbox: Enable ICRAA Screening Question. If selected, this option allows prospects to request a copy of their screening report when they apply. If the prospect requests a copy, Breeze displays the request on the Prospect screen so that you can email them the report. ICRAA is the California law that mandates that applicants are able to view their screening report. |
Online Payments Tab
If you have set up online payments for your system, you can select payment methods and set options.
ILS Settings Tab
This tab allows you to share marketing data with other Internet Listing Services (ILSs).
Viewing RentCafe Listings
To see how a RentCafe listing will look in real life, go to rentcafe.com.
Vacant Units
If there is a vacant unit, prospects can apply online. If there are no vacant units, RentCafe does not show the property. Also, if there are no vacant units, the View Marketing Site link does not open the property's listing; instead, it shows the RentCafe search page.
If your property has multiple unit types, and some of those unit types have no vacancy, they will display "Ask for Details" or "Contact Us" on the marketing site instead of "Apply Now." This can also happen if you tick One Applicant Per Unit on the Property Information screen. When that box is checked, only one prospect can apply for the unit at a time. After one application is received, the unit will update to say "Ask for Details" or "Contact Us" on the marketing site.
A unit is deemed "vacant" when the tenant in the unit is set to Notice or Past. For Notice tenants, RentCafe will advertise a unit within 60 days of it becoming available.
Updating Your Listing
Changes to units, unit types, application fees, or market rents are not reflected immediately on the RentCafe website. There is a nightly task that looks at unit details in Breeze and updates the listing accordingly. For example, if you increase a unit's market rent, the change will appear on RentCafe the next day.
If you add photos or units to the property record, you need to go to the RentCafe tab and publish again. (This pushes the data from Breeze to RentCafe.)
When you update, there are two buttons: Sync Photos and Save and Publish.
If you are only changing the details of the listing (the text), click Save and Publish.
If you change property photos, click Sync Photos.
If there are changes to photos and text, click both.
Note: Changes to your listing (including photos, text, and market rent) can take up to 24 hours to appear on RentCafe after clicking Save and Publish. They may not appear immediately.