Is the local luxury apartment rental niche profitable?

JOoa0ky

Joined
Jul 14, 2022
Messages
252
Likes
357
Degree
1
Just some brainstorming.

Is the luxury apartment rental niche profitable?

I was thinking of starting a local blog of my own neighborhood.
  • The competition is like near non-existent. There used to be 2 blogs but one has been inactive for over a year. The other one puts out one article per week roughly.
  • I want to focus on the luxury rental apartments... Was thinking of taking pictures of the spaces and videos and creating an info post for prospective renters. There is literally zero competition or anyone else doing that.
  • Rest of the site will be about local businesses like restaurants and what not. Things to do etc.
The search volume will be lower since its focusing on a single neighborhood... although if its profitable enough then its worth it?
 
You talking long term (real estate) or short term (tourism)? (And country/location probably makes a difference as well.)

Added: but if you are new to SEO, a local blog/site is imo a very good way to cut your teeth with site marketing/local competitive areas* and (done right) can leave you with a useful local marketing resource if you decide to pivot into aspects of local like pay-per-lead, agency work, etc.

(* Because it is the one way that most people can be a topic expert with relatively little expert competition.)
 
Last edited:
ToffeeLa said:
You talking long term (real estate) or short term (tourism)? (And country/location probably makes a difference as well.)

Added: but if you are new to SEO, a local blog/site is imo a very good way to cut your teeth with site marketing/local competitive areas* and (done right) can leave you with a useful local marketing resource if you decide to pivot into aspects of local like pay-per-lead, agency work, etc.

(* Because it is the one way that most people can be a topic expert with relatively little expert competition.)
Click to expand...
Not tourism, I mean like actually living there on like a 1-2 year lease.

Is the local pay-per-lead different from using Ad networks?
 
JOoa0ky said:
Not tourism, I mean like actually living there on like a 1-2 year lease.

Is the local pay-per-lead different from using Ad networks?
Click to expand...
Then you would have to work out how you would get paid and why people would make their initial inquiry through you (rather than any local real estate person or whatever equivalent there is in your country).

Actually pay-per-lead (or lead gen), as I was using it, relates to this, meaning that a site sets up a system where they get paid for sending valued leads to a professional, such as lawyers, real estate professionals, rehab places, etc. Possibly not something you should get involved in if you are just starting out, though.
 
@ToffeeLa

Yeah, I have no idea how to even get started with that. I'm just starting to learn about the Ad networks lol...

Was just curious as to whether or not it would be a profitable niche with good RPM.
 
Well you can check the CPC out yourself with your favourite tool - I wouldn't have thought there is enough traffic for you to make a go of straight ad placement. (Volume is the name of the game for all the adherents of ads as the way to riches, as you can see from the laboratory threads by successful members.)
 
If you never built and ranked a site, like some one said before here, just do it for this niche. You either learn something and lose a few bucks or you learn something and make a few bucks. It sounds like a good way to start SEO.
 
I do not know how big your neighborhood is, and what percentage of the population even wants a luxury rental. Among them, how many go through their trusted agent or Zillow versus googling for properties. And assuming, you rank top #1 (which is a big IF), you are still looking at a tiny percentage of traffic hitting your website

I don't mean to discourage you, but if this is your first shot at a website business, I feel like even a successful launch could still be discouraging for how small the audience is.

Alternately, how about launching a local news website instead - you become the trusted resource for everything in your neighborhood. And you still sell leads for various local needs - rental, restaurants, etc. In fact it is a proven model that many have successfully executed in the past. Here is a nice read on this subject - https://gaps.com/local-monthly/
 
@Hanuman Great article! I don't think what I have in mind would reach that level since I would be covering a specific neighborhood rather than the entire state.

There is absolutely NO way I would win in the state game. Some mega huge names that I can't win against even if I had like 100 viral articles...

I've put out about 8-10 articles that were about the neighborhood on my other website and I did manage to first page about 3 of them. The volume is LOW though, which is why I was wondering about profitability.

This is a very yuppie neighborhood with a ton of new construction going on. Massive gentrification over the past 2 decades. Demographics mostly aged 25-35 and they're all in tech, finance, healthcare, etc.

I mean I was just mostly trying to brainstorm about a new niche to go into. Do I want to go into something that I have no idea about or should I try to do something where I do have an "edge" in?
 
JOoa0ky said:
I mean I was just mostly trying to brainstorm about a new niche to go into.
Click to expand...
Why is that? You were previously asking questions about your health industry site which (apparently) is growing but not yet at the stage that it is providing a life-changing income for you?
 
ToffeeLa said:
Why is that? You were previously asking questions about your health industry site which (apparently) is growing but not yet at the stage that it is providing a life-changing income for you?
Click to expand...
You get a little bored writing about the same stuff... Its kind of a breath of fresh air when you look at something completely different.

Also having the local blog would be advantageous for my healthcare site because then I can send local links back to myself. It's been like near impossible to get local links.

Then there is also the fact that it should be a lot easier to monetize a local blog that is more lifestyle oriented rather than healthcare. Having to jump through a lot of hoops to figure out the healthcare monetization at the moment.

I don't think I would recommend other members here to go into healthcare sites.
 
I'll toss my hat in the ring with a simple opinion of why I wouldn't do this:

The volume is too low. You're already fighting for a tiny amount of traffic. Not just rental traffic but those who want luxury apartments.

The competition is too strong. Every where you turn there's apartment rental guides in print and online. It's not even about ranking so much as the strength of these brands and "first-to-mind" concepts.

Generating the lead and then they bypass you. I've rented close to 10 different apartments over my decades. If I read about them in a magazine or even online, I never once picked up the phone or filled in some contact form. I took my ass down to the office and got a tour and then got on the waiting list in person.

Tracking the leads. This is a giant hurdle. If all these apartment complexes don't already have an affiliate system with phone and email lead tracking (and preferably they all use one system instead of you needing to use 10 separate ones, which is a nightmare), then you'll have to not only create these systems yourself but you'll have to convince the apartment companies to get on board. "Let me ask corporate." Good luck with all that. You're creating an affiliate company so you can create a tiny local website for a tiny demographic. You will have to do this, or the customers won't mention your website on the phone or in email so you get credit, and the apartment companies will shave or lie about how many leads you sent and which converted.

I wouldn't do it. There's a million easier ways to make money online.
 
@Ryuzaki Duly noted.

I'll just focus on my main website. I think I may still toy around with the idea 1-2 months later though just for fun. Not really going to expect anything out of it. It'll be at a snail's pace.

I do need to move over to wordpress and playing around with it on there would be helpful before I do the big move.
 
JOoa0ky said:
You get a little bored writing about the same stuff... Its kind of a breath of fresh air when you look at something completely different.
Click to expand...
Well, like I mentioned earlier, a local site of some kind is certainly something to play around with since you can take photos, keep up with news and events, video stuff, etc. and work out how all that integrates (or not) with a website and rankings.

Since you are relatively new to this space (March?) and you say that your neighbourhood is up-and-coming and upmarket, use it as a test ground for real life keyword research as well. (And I don't just mean using Ahrefs in the same monotonous way that thousands of SEOs are doing.)
 
ToffeeLa said:
Well, like I mentioned earlier, a local site of some kind is certainly something to play around with since you can take photos, keep up with news and events, video stuff, etc. and work out how all that integrates (or not) with a website and rankings.

Since you are relatively new to this space (March?) and you say that your neighbourhood is up-and-coming and upmarket, use it as a test ground for real life keyword research as well. (And I don't just mean using Ahrefs in the same monotonous way that thousands of SEOs are doing.)
Click to expand...

What do you mean by real life keyword research?
- I know that there's a new store opening tomorrow. His website isn't even finished yet... literally has 3 sentences and its one page lol...
- For that, there won't be any keyword data at all... is that what you mean?

For Ahrefs usage... I've been experimenting and trying different things:
- Content explorer, put in a broad keyword with referring domains <5
- Site explorer some competitors and start taking their top ranking pages
- A recent one that I found and like is actually looking at my ranking articles and seeing which keywords it ranks for. Instead of the #1-20 I'll go to the rank 30-100 KWs it ranks for and attack those with a new article. I find KW that I never thought of that way but which google thought was semi relevant.
 
JOoa0ky said:
What do you mean by real life keyword research?
Click to expand...
Looking at non-Google and non-internet nerd sources.

What are people talking about on social media groups related to your neighbourhood? Go and find out more about the topics and publish.
What are people's concerns down at the little league match, the bar and barber shop?
What do people want to know who are thinking of moving to your neighbourhood? Or who are moving to work?
What are parents concerned about in your area?
What's the biggest scandal/controversy to hit your area? How is it playing out or (if it over) is there any danger of it happening again?
What are the concerns of five local businessmen about their future in your neighbourhood? What are they really positive about?
Is there a big building project (factory/warehouse/highway widening) coming down the line? What do people think about it?
What is the biggest sport in your neighbourhood (participation and/or spectator)? How is it doing? What do local people think of the sports and teams?
Are there any major traffic problems? What is planned to happen to alleviate them? (If anything.)
What is the biggest event that takes place each year in your neighbourhood?
Who represents your neighbourhood? What does he or she think about the future? Who is running against them? What do they think? What do local people think about local politicians?
Which local religious establishments are in your area? What are their local concerns? What are their local charity projects? (Likewise groups such as Kiwanis, Lions, etc.)
Is there a local Chamber of Commerce? Is there a local tourism and convention bureau?
Etc. Etc.
 
@ToffeeLa awesome thorough response (:

I completely understand what you mean. You're proposing a first man on the moon approach.

These SEO tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush, etc are basically all looking in the rear view mirror... the information lags behind events.

If that is truly the case, then you're convincing me more and more to actually not do the blog. Since what you're recommending is more of a news publication approach. I would prefer more of an evergreen informational site.

I stumbled upon this article by Animalz.Co it was a fantastic read and I completely agree with their approach to blogging. They made clear a distinction between a Publication vs Library for blogs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back