Where Do the Best Rental Leads Come From? Zillow vs. Apartments.com vs. Rentpath

We analyzed Hemlane's internal leasing data, more than 16,000 tours (see the full report), to find out where the best rental leads actually come from.

What we found: Zillow sends the most renters by far, but they are not the best-converting ones. Tours from Rentpath, Apartments.com, and Hemlane's own listings turn into applications at a higher rate than Zillow's. More volume is not the same as better leads.

Here is how the major listing sites compare, and how Hemlane can help you reach all of them at once.

Volume versus quality

Listing sites are not interchangeable. Some send a flood of casual browsers; others send fewer but far more serious renters. Here is how the major channels turn tours into applications:

• Rentpath: about 37% of tours become applications, the highest conversion of any major channel
• Apartments.com: about 29%
• Hemlane Direct: about 28%
• Realtor.com: about 27%
• Zillow: about 27%, but the largest volume by far (roughly 63% of all tours in our data)
• Rent.com: about 21%

Zillow is the volume leader by a wide margin. But renters who come through Rentpath, Apartments.com, and Hemlane's own listings are more likely to follow through after touring.

Why Zillow alone is not enough

Zillow is reach. It puts your unit in front of the largest audience, which matters; it accounts for nearly two-thirds of all the tours in our data. But if Zillow is your only listing, you are leaning on a channel with middle-of-the-pack conversion rates and skipping the channels that send your most committed renters. Rentpath and Apartments.com convert tours several points higher, and those applicants are not reaching you if your listing lives in one place.

The most effective landlords treat listing sites as a portfolio: Zillow for reach, the higher-converting channels for quality, and as much overlap as possible so a serious renter can find you wherever they happen to be searching.

The simplest way to cover all of them

Listing your unit on a dozen sites by hand, then keeping each one updated as the unit rents, is the kind of busywork that eats a weekend. There is a faster path.

Hemlane's rental advertising service syndicates one listing across 15 or more top rental sites at once, including the higher-converting channels above. You write the listing once, and it goes everywhere the right renters are looking.Hemlane also offers self-guided tours, managed leasing services, applicant tracking, tenant screening, and lease management, all in one place.

About Hemlane

Hemlane is property management software with real people behind it, built for property managers and landlords with 10 to 200 units and beyond.

Start a free account or schedule a demo to see how it fits your portfolio.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best site to list a rental? 

For raw reach, Zillow, which drives about two-thirds of all tours. For the highest-converting renters, Rentpath, Apartments.com, and Hemlane's own listings. The strongest approach is to be on all of them.

Is Zillow enough on its own? 

Not usually. Zillow leads on volume but converts in the middle of the pack, and relying on it alone skips the channels that send your most committed renters.

Which listing site converts best? 

Among the major channels, Rentpath has the highest tour-to-application rate at about 37%, ahead of Apartments.com and Hemlane Direct at about 29 and 28%, with Zillow around 27%.

How do I list all of them at once? 

Listing syndication tools publish one listing across many sites simultaneously, so you do not have to post and maintain each one by hand. Hemlane's Leasing Services covers 15 or more.

Methodology

Tour-to-application conversion by originating listing site, tracked from showing attendance to application across more than 16,000 tours on a filtered sample of active, verified Hemlane subscription accounts. Channels with fewer than 100 tours, and tours with no recorded source, are excluded. Hemlane first-party data, February 2023 to July 2026.

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