The California Association of Realtors on Tuesday announced the launch of California Rental Listing Service, a database that lists rental properties in California.
The new listing service is backed by SaaS platform Rental Beast, which collects real-time listing data from property owners. The rental database contains an overview of properties and owner types.
The company aims to expand from its 500,000 rentals in San Diego, Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Fresno, Sacramento and the Bay Area regions, to the entire state.
The California rental listing was a collaboration between Rental Beast and Real Estate Business Services, a subsidiary of C.A.R. In March, REBS and Rental Beast, announced a partnership to provide its “lead-to-lease” software tools to C.A.R.’s 217,000+ members.
MLSs and Realtors in California can integrate the rental listing service at a reduced cost. This will provide subscribers direct access to rentals through their existing systems.
The search results will comprise a combined listing database from C.A.R member and Rental Beast’s owner-sourced rentals.
Rental Beast CEO and founder Ishay Grinberg said the partnership is an attempt to “democratize” California’s rental market, the stakeholders of which are renters, Realtors, landlords and the state’s MLSs.
The combined listings will allow potential renters in California to check rentals for free on the portal. C.A.R members can also have access to Rental Beast’s software and tools such as market analysis, rental applications and tenant screenings, free of cost.
Today, the high demand and low inventory of homes for sale, along with a high interest rate, is turning many potential Californian buyers into renters.
In September 2022, C.A.R. reported single-family home sales totaled 305,680, showing a decrease of 30% from September 2021. Moreover, median home prices in California was $821,680, revealing an increase of 1.6% from September 2021 and year-to-date statewide home sales were down by 16.5% last month.
“Californians now have a powerful resource for finding housing that best suits their needs, along with a direct connection to California REALTORS, who now have direct access to the rental market data and tools to facilitate fast and affordable rental transactions,” added REBS Chairman Jared Martin.
The C.A.R-Rental Beast partnership also allows property managers and landlords to add or claim listings within the service at no charge, by “enabling distribution to Rental Beast within their property management platforms,” the release says.
In July this year, The National Association of Realtors declared Rental Beast to be its exclusive software provider in the rental industry. The agreement enables NAR members to get access to Rental Beast’s “apply now,” the company’s rental application and tenant screening software, free of charge.