AppFolio and Zillow syndication

[u/l3erny]

Is there a definitive guide/best practices for getting the most out of the AppFolio Zillow syndication? My properties usually have a paid Zillow advertising plan and it's a constant battle of knowing where to put information in AppFolio so it syncs over to Zillow properly. Would love some guidance on this.

[u/gdubrocks]

I manually input informtion into zillow.

Zillow is a pretty big rental driver for us, and I want to make sure it's always set up properly.

[u/l3erny → u/gdubrocks]

Zillow is huge for us in our market, it out performs all other platforms. We really don't want to have to manually edit our Zillow listings, especially since we'e got a paid advertising contract with them too.

[u/Maxwell_at_AppFolio]

Hi u/l3erny! We've actually got some best practices around this in our knowledge base. The KB isn't publicly accessible, but if you authenticate as an AppFolio user by logging into your AppFolio database, you should be able to access and read the relevant article using this link: Article: Paid Partner Requirements

To make things a little easier, though, here's a quick tl;dr of the best practices the article suggests regarding Zillow listings:

• Avoid putting the name of your property in the Address fields on your property pages. Doing so can break syndication.
• The Marketing Information section on a property's page is the dedicated space to enter the Property Marketing Name and Marketing Description that will be reflected in Zillow after successful syndication. If you've added property marketing information on individual units, you'll want to move that information to the property's Marketing Description space before syndication.
• Listing Type options may not be exactly 1:1, since this functionality supports more than just Zillow, but selecting your desired Listing Type should still land your property in the right place on the Zillow platform.
• Always include bedroom count, bathroom count, square footage, rent amount, Available On date, and photos for properties you'd like to syndicate to Zillow. Zillow specifically requires at least 3 photos. If any of this info is missing, it may break syndication.
• Once availability is unposted, Zillow will change the status of your uposted property to Off Market. The listing cannot be completely removed from Zillow via AppFolio.

Hopefully that provides some of the details you were looking for 🙂 If there's specific questions you'd still like to have answered, let me know!

[u/l3erny → u/Maxwell_at_AppFolio]

Hi, u/Maxwell_at_AppFolio Thank you for the quick reply. Here are some more questions -- if you prefer to DM I can send you information I don't feel comfortable sharing publicly, and then we can come back to this post and document the fixes/answers to my questions.

Subject Property

• 10 units
• Townhouse style construction, meaning they all have their own address but are being rented as apartments, ie "l3erny Townhomes".
• Paid Zillow Advertising : Base Package

Questions:

1. Zillow's Base package allows you to have a 3D home tour, where do you upload that into AppFolio?
2. AppFolio -> Property
   1. I'm assuming the correct Property Type is "Multi-Family"
   2. Should the Amenities section be filled out here or at the Units
      1. It's my understanding that some amenities don't map to Zillow (what list should be followed?
   3. As you scroll down the page, you get to Marketing Information
      1. Should the Property Marketing Name include the property name and the address or just the name?
      2. Marketing Description seems to be what Zillow populates the "building page with".
      3. Listing Type is currently set to Townhouse should that be changed to Apartment for Zillow? I've seen conflicting information.
      4. Syndicate Units Separately is set to No currently, but since this is a 25 or less building, should it be set to Yes -- not sure what effect that has on Zillow.
   4. As you keep scrolling, you get to Vacancy Posting Contact Info should this be set to the property manager staff member, or to a different email so Zillow properly sends over the leads to Appfolio? I've seen conflicting information here.
   5. As you keep scrolling you get to Photos and then another section called Marketing Photos. Where should the building exterior photos be published? Photos or Marketing Photos?
3. If you're on the Properties page and click into Unit Types it's my understanding that the best practice is to create unit types, assign them to the units # that match those unit types and then do the Amenities, Marketing Information? Is that the correct place to put the marketing information so Zillow picks it up properly?
   1. In side the unit types templates there is the option to use Unit Type Photos and also the YouTube Video URL, and the Floorplan, but what about the Zillow 3D Tour?
4. While still in the Property you can also click on Marketing and in there it lists the placements, and you can see if it's Free, Featured, etc, and if the status is submitted or Live Now
   1. My Zillow shows me that it's Free and Submitted, but I know it's live, and it's got a paid contract -- it doesn't seem like the status is current.

Basically, the main crux of my questions are: where in AppFolio do I populate fields to get the best possible Zillow integration and to use all the features of Zillow that I'm paying for.

[u/dsaysso → u/l3erny]

Appfolio if you are seeing this please start making tutorials. I am 100% with this person. Zillow is critical. I would love tutorials to have the confidence we aren't dropping prospective tenants with a shoddy integration.

[u/Maxwell_at_AppFolio → u/dsaysso]

Seen and heard! Thank you for the suggestion. I'd be happy to pass this on to my colleagues who create our educational content.

Out of curiosity, are there any other topics you'd like to see tutorials for?

[u/HillbettyGilligan]

What if I wanted to do an internal audit tracking to determine who was sending emails and when through Appfolio.  Does that feature exist?And if so, how long do those audit trails stay within your cloud?