Creating Vacancy Listings and Advertising Your Units

Turn a vacant unit into a public listing prospects can browse and apply to, then promote it with a shareable link, a QR code, a ready-to-post Craigslist template, and — once a partnership is finalized — automatic syndication to major rental sites.

Go to Listings →

Creating a listing from a unit

Click Add Listing and pick which vacant unit you're advertising — units that already have a listing show its status instead of a create button, with a link to edit it. Selecting a unit opens the listing form, pre-filled with that unit's address, bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage, and rent. From there you fill in:

Photos — up to 20, JPEG/PNG/WebP, 10 MB each; the first photo becomes the cover image shown everywhere the listing is previewed
Video Tour URL (optional) — paste a YouTube or Vimeo link; VerticalRent embeds it on the public page but doesn't host video itself
Listing Title and Description — write your own, or use AI
Available Date and Lease Term — Month-to-Month, 3, 6, 12, 18, or 24 months
Pet Policy — No Pets, Cats OK, Dogs under 25 lb, Dogs OK, All Pets, or Negotiable
Parking Spots Included — None, 1, 2, or 3+
Utilities Included in Rent — Water, Electric, Gas, Internet, Trash (anything left unchecked is billed to the tenant)

A unit's amenities and furnished/furnishings details (set when you added the unit) carry over to the listing automatically — you don't re-enter them here.

Writing the description with AI

Two AI buttons sit above the description field:

Generate with AI (5 credits) — writes a full listing description from the unit's details
SEO Optimize (2 credits) — rewrites your existing title and description to be more search-friendly; requires a title and description already in place

Out of AI credits?

If either AI action runs out of credits, a purchase prompt opens right in the form — buy more credits and the AI generation automatically retries so you don't lose your place.

Publishing and the public listing page

Publishing gives the listing a public page at a unique link. A prospective renter who opens it sees a photo gallery (or your embedded video tour), a "Verified by VerticalRent" badge, bed/bath/square footage/rent stats, the available date and lease term, your full description, the utilities and parking included, unit amenities and furnishings, the pet policy, an interactive location map, a message-the-landlord inquiry form, and a prominent Apply Now button that sends them straight into your application flow. If you're ID-verified, the page also shows a "Verified Listing" badge to build trust with prospects.

Sharing and promoting your listing

Every listing's Promote & Share tab gives you three ways to get the word out beyond VerticalRent:

Public link + QR code — copy the link or scan the QR code straight to your phone; great for texting a prospect or printing on a flyer
Craigslist post template — a ready-to-copy plain-text post (price, address, bed/bath, availability, lease term, pet policy, parking, utilities, your description, and your listing link) — Craigslist has no posting API, so you paste this in manually and attach your photos
Listing Syndication panel — opt in to have VerticalRent submit your listing to partner rental sites (see below)

Listing syndication status

VerticalRent has a MITS 2.0-compliant listing feed and is actively onboarding syndication partners, but automatic syndication is not live yet for any platform:

Zillow Group (Zillow, HotPads, Trulia) and Apartments.com (Apartments.com, Homes.com, Rentals.com) — status "Applying," a certified feed is built and VerticalRent is completing vendor onboarding
Zumper (Zumper, PadMapper), Facebook Marketplace, and Realtor.com Rentals — status "Coming Soon"

You can still toggle any "Applying" platform on for a listing today — doing so opts it in, and it goes live automatically the moment VerticalRent's vendor agreement with that platform is finalized, with no re-entry needed on your part. "Coming Soon" platforms can't be toggled yet. The panel also gives you your account's feed URL, which you can submit yourself when applying directly to a platform's feed program.

Nothing is publicly syndicated today

Until a partnership is finalized, your listing is only visible at its VerticalRent public link. To reach renters on Zillow, Apartments.com, Facebook, or elsewhere right now, share your public link or the Craigslist template directly on those sites yourself.

Managing inquiries

Messages sent through a listing's public inquiry form land on that listing's Inquiries page, each with the prospect's name, email, phone (if given), desired move-in date, and message. Reply straight from your email client using the "Reply by email" link on each inquiry. Your Listings page shows a running view count and inquiry count for every listing.

Editing, activating, and deactivating a listing

Use Edit on any listing to change its photos, title, description, available date, lease term, pet policy, parking, or utilities at any time — changes save immediately. You can also toggle a listing between Active and Inactive yourself from the Listings page; an inactive listing's public page stops accepting new applications, but nothing is deleted.

Listings deactivate automatically once a unit is no longer vacant

As soon as a unit's status moves away from vacant — for example, once a lease is signed and it becomes occupied — its active listing is deactivated for you automatically. Its photos and past inquiries are kept, so if that unit opens back up later, reactivating or editing the listing for the next vacancy takes seconds.

Still need help?

support@verticalrent.com Open the app and click Ask John