Rent.com

Free Search for Apartments for Rent and Homes for Rent

Rent.com is the nation’s #1 Internet listing site (ILS) in the rental housing industry, enabling renters to find a residential rental property online using a free robust search tool. Rent.com has the most online traffic and the largest inventory of contracted property listings.

Renters can search the site’s detailed property listings, including contact information, pricing, photos, floor plans, and virtual tours. With the ability to directly contact property managers, finding the rental housing of your dreams is as easy as 1-2-3.

In addition to providing renters free access to detailed property listings and robust search tools, Rent.com rewards renters with a $100 prepaid Visa® debit card if they: (1) find their property using the Rent.com website, (2) tell the property owner or manager they found their rental home using Rent.com, and (3) report to Rent.com signing a lease with a property that participates in the $100 Reward Card Program.

As the only national ILS with a pay-per-lease business model, Rent.com allows large-property managers to cost-effectively fill their vacancies. For property owners with 1-49 units, we also offer a pay-per-lead program. With our detailed activity and performance reports, managing your property listings is easy.

Rent.com is dedicated to giving renters a convenient way to find the perfect place to live and building innovative tools that bring renters and property owners together.

Company History

In April 2000, founders Scott Ingraham and Allan Hunter launched what is now the Rent.com site as Viva.com, with headquarters in Santa Monica, CA. By November 2000, Viva Group, Inc. had raised $17 million in funding, led by seven of the largest apartment real estate investment trusts.

The following May, the Rent.com domain name was purchased, and six months later, in October 2001, the site was relaunched as Rent.com. Ten months after the relaunch on the Rent.com domain, the company turned cash flow positive.

In October 2004, Rent.com became the most visited national ILS and that December was acquired by eBay. The eBay acquisition of Rent.com was effective in February 2005 and by that summer the site had reached 3.5 million unique visitors per month.

In 2006, Rent.com partnered with eBay to build a new shipping platform for eBay Motors. Leveraging technology that Rent.com had previously built to implement renter services on the Rent.com site, we worked with eBay Motors to develop a solution that is still used today for the shipping of all automobiles, motorcycles, and boats purchased on the eBay Motors website.

Rent.com launched a new pay-per-lead program for properties with 49 units or less in October 2008 to meet the needs of rental property owners with single family homes, condos, and smaller apartment buildings.

Rent.com mailed its 1 millionth $100 prepaid Visa® debit card in November 2008.