What a property management website needs

The facts here come from primary sources: HUD's Fair Housing Act overview, the HUD fair housing rules on advertisements and notices (24 CFR 100.75) and reasonable accommodations (24 CFR 100.204), the FTC's guide Using Consumer Reports: What Landlords Need to Know, and schema.org's RealEstateListing and Apartment types. Points marked as our view are our own advice, not rules. This is general information, not legal advice; state and local landlord rules vary, so check them with your attorney.

The short answer

A property management website needs two clear entry points on the homepage (one for owners, one for renters), an owner page that explains your services and how your fees work, a listings page with rent, deposit, availability and photos for each unit, a rental application that states your screening steps, a tenant portal or links for paying rent and requesting maintenance, and contact details for emergencies. Under all of it sit two sets of federal rules that shape the wording: the Fair Housing Act for ads, listings and applications, and the Fair Credit Reporting Act for tenant screening.

Separate paths for owners and renters

Owners and renters arrive with different questions. An owner wants to know what you manage, where, what it costs and how you report. A renter wants to see what is available, apply, or log in to pay rent. In our view the homepage should split them in the first screen with two plain buttons, such as "For property owners" and "For renters," and the main menu should keep that split: owner services, available rentals, apply, resident login, contact.

Keep the resident login and the "Pay rent" and "Request maintenance" links in the header on every page. Current tenants are your most frequent visitors, and they should not have to scroll past marketing for owners to find them.

Pages for property owners

The owner side is where new business comes from, so treat it like a service page. Say which property types you manage (single-family homes, small multifamily, larger apartment communities, HOAs or commercial space), which cities or neighborhoods you cover, and what is included: marketing vacancies, screening, leases, rent collection, maintenance, inspections, owner statements and handling move-outs.

Explain how your fees work in words even if you do not publish exact numbers: whether you charge a monthly percentage of collected rent, a leasing fee when a unit is filled, renewal fees or maintenance markups, and what triggers each one. Owners compare managers on this, and a page that hides it pushes them to call someone else. Add a short "how we start" section (property review, management agreement, onboarding of current tenants) and an owner inquiry form that asks only for the property address, type, number of units and contact details. Our guide to website forms covers keeping that form short.

Rental listings

Each available unit should have its own page with the monthly rent, security deposit, any fees renters pay, the available date, lease length, bedrooms and bathrooms, square footage, pet policy, parking, utilities included and how to schedule a showing. Write these as text, not inside a photo or a PDF, so they can be read on a phone, by screen readers and by search engines. Most property management software can publish a listings feed or widget; use it so a unit disappears from your site when it is leased, and check that the embedded pages work on a phone.

Use your own recent photos of each unit and the common areas, and describe the property and its features rather than the kind of person you expect to live there. Our guide to website photos and image licensing covers using photos you have the rights to, and video on websites covers walkthrough videos without slowing the page.

Fair housing in listings and applications

HUD's overview states that the Fair Housing Act "protects people from discrimination when they are renting or buying a home" and lists the protected characteristics: race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status and disability. HUD's advertising rule, 24 CFR 100.75, makes it unlawful to publish any notice, statement or advertisement about the rental of a dwelling "which indicates any preference, limitation or discrimination" on those grounds. Two parts of that rule matter for a property management site in particular:

• It covers more than ads. Written notices and statements "include any applications, flyers, brochures," signs and other documents, so your online rental application, your listing pages and your FAQ fall under it too.
• It covers images and form design as well as words: "Using words, phrases, photographs, illustrations, symbols or forms which convey that dwellings are available or not available to a particular group of persons."

Word choice in listings is covered in more detail in our real estate agent website guide, and the same approach applies to rentals: describe the unit, not the renter.

Rental pages also carry rules, such as pet policies and parking. HUD's rule on reasonable accommodations, 24 CFR 100.204, makes it unlawful "to refuse to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices, or services" when they may be necessary for a person with a disability to have an equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling. The rule's own first example is a blind applicant with a seeing eye dog at a building with a no pets policy. In our view, every pet policy and parking page should say how a resident or applicant can ask for an accommodation and who to contact.

The rental application and screening

Most managers take applications online through their property management software. Before the form starts, say what the applicant will need (ID, proof of income, rental history), whether there is an application fee and what it covers, and what checks you run. Check your state and local rules on application fees and screening before you publish this page.

If you run tenant background checks, the FTC's guide for landlords applies. It says tenant background check reports "are consumer reports," so when you use them for tenant decisions "you must comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)." You need a permissible purpose, and you must certify to the screening company that you will use the report only for housing purposes. If you reject an applicant, raise the rent or deposit, require a co-signer or take any other adverse action based even partly on the report, you must give an adverse action notice. That notice must name the reporting company with its address and phone number, say that the company did not make the decision, and explain the right to dispute the information and to get a free report "if the person asks for it within 60 days." The FTC adds that written notices "are the best practice."

In our view the application confirmation page and email should tell applicants when they will hear back and how decisions are sent, so these notices have a clear place to go. Our forms guide covers splitting a long application into steps and saving progress.

Tenant portal: rent and repairs

A tenant portal usually comes from the property management software, not from a custom build. The website's job is to link to it clearly, explain what tenants can do there (pay rent, set up autopay, see their balance, request maintenance, read notices) and help with the first login. If you are planning a portal of your own, our guide to planning a customer portal covers roles, passwords and account recovery, and accepting payments online covers card data and PCI rules.

For maintenance, a good request form asks for the unit, the problem, the location in the unit, photos, the best time to enter and permission to enter, and gives a reference number after it is sent. In our view the form page should also say clearly what counts as an emergency, such as a gas smell, flooding or no heat in winter, and give a phone number for those instead of a form. Our forms guide covers the fields, errors and what happens after someone presses send.

Keep the forms and documents tenants need in one place: move-in and move-out checklists, the resident handbook, renters insurance requirements and how to give notice. These pages save your staff phone calls, and they keep the rules the same for everyone.

Privacy and applicant data

Rental applications collect some of the most sensitive data a small business holds: Social Security numbers, income, bank details and rental history. Keep that data inside your application software rather than plain email or a general contact form, and say in your privacy policy what you collect, why and who you share it with. Our guide to website privacy basics covers the policy itself.

The FTC's guide also covers what happens after a decision: "When you're done using a consumer report, you must securely dispose of the report and any information you gathered from it," including electronic information disposed of "so that it can't be read or reconstructed." Ask your software provider how screening reports are stored and removed, and limit staff access to the people who need it.

Templates, builders and schema

Many property management software companies offer website templates connected to their listings and portal. In our view they are a reasonable start for a small portfolio, as long as you can edit the owner pages, write your own service-area pages and keep the site on your own domain. A custom site makes more sense when you manage several brands or communities, need detailed owner pages per city, or want the listings presented your own way. Either way, check the site on a phone and against the accessibility basics, since many renters apply from their phones.

For structured data, mark up the business itself with LocalBusiness markup (see our local business schema guide). For listings, schema.org has a RealEstateListing type that "describes one or more real-estate Offers (whose businessFunction is typically to lease out, or to sell)," and it notes the type is in its "new" area. Units can be described with the Apartment type and its properties such as numberOfRooms. Treat this markup as a description of the page, not a ranking switch, and keep it in sync with the listing feed so a leased unit does not still show as available.

A short checklist (our view)

• Two clear paths on the homepage: one for owners, one for renters.
• Resident login, "Pay rent" and "Request maintenance" in the header of every page.
• Owner pages with services, areas covered and how your fees work, plus a short inquiry form.
• One page per available unit with rent, deposit, fees, dates and policies as text.
• Listings, photos and the application checked against the fair housing advertising rule.
• An accommodation request contact on pet and parking policy pages.
• Screening steps stated before the application, and adverse action notices planned.
• Applicant data kept in your software, a privacy policy, and a disposal process.
• An emergency phone number next to the maintenance form.

Real estate agents have a matching guide in what a real estate agent website needs, and senior communities in what a senior living website needs. If you want help building or rebuilding a property management website, see our website development service or the full list of services.

Frequently asked questions

What should a property management website include?

Separate paths for owners and renters, owner pages with your services, areas and how fees work, a page per available unit with rent and terms as text, an online rental application, links to the tenant portal for rent and maintenance, an emergency contact and a privacy policy.

Does the Fair Housing Act apply to my rental application form?

Yes. HUD's advertising rule says written notices and statements include any applications, and it covers words, photos and forms that suggest a home is or is not available to a protected group.

Do I have to tell an applicant why I denied them?

If the decision was based even partly on a tenant screening or credit report, the FTC says you must give an adverse action notice naming the reporting company and explaining the applicant's right to dispute the report and get a free copy within 60 days.

Should I use a template from my property management software?

For a small portfolio it can be a good start if you can edit the owner pages and keep your own domain. A custom site makes more sense for several communities, many service areas or a custom listing search.