Apartments.com Advertising Cost and ILS Pricing for Multifamily: How Zillow, Apartments.com, Apartment List and Zumper Charge

The three pricing models, and which ILS uses which

Every ILS invoice has one of three shapes, and the shape decides what you can compare and where billing errors hide. Brynson works with Apartments.com, Zillow, Apartment List and Zumper as partners. Everything below comes from each company's own pages, its SEC filings or the FTC's order, checked October 22, 2026.

Unsourced guides quoting Apartments.com price ranges lead search results. Treat any number without a vendor page or proposal behind it as a guess.

Apartments.com: what the listing fees depend on

Apartments.com publishes no community prices. The most authoritative public statement of how it charges is CoStar Group's annual report. CoStar says its services are "typically distributed to our clients under subscription-based license agreements that typically renew automatically, a majority of which have a term of at least one year," and that it "generally charge[s] a fixed monthly subscription fee rather than fees based on actual platform usage or number of paid clicks" (CoStar Group 10-K, FY2025).

Among CoStar's contract-rate factors, two apply directly to advertisers: "the number of properties a customer advertises, and the prominence and placement of a customer's advertised properties in the search results." Geographic location is also listed.

• Same package, different price. Location and placement are listed pricing factors, so ask for the price per property, per month, by package, in writing.
• A fixed fee means cost per lease floats with leasing volume.
• Not always monthly. CoStar says some customers pay "on a quarterly or annual basis." Spread those invoices across their service months before calculating cost per lease.

Zillow multifamily advertising cost: the 25-unit line and the FTC exit window

Zillow splits rentals at 25 units. Its help center says "Zillow considers properties with 25 units or more as large multi-family listings, which require a paid listing" (Zillow Help Center). For listings posted directly, Zillow says "all listings posted directly to Zillow Rental Manager are free to publish," and a premium upgrade "is a flat fee of $39.99 and gives you premium benefits for your listing up to 90 days," with no automatic renewal (Zillow Help Center). Zillow's FY2025 10-K mentions "performance based models" for its "rentals Pay-Per-Lease" product (Zillow Group 10-K), so ask which model you are quoted. Feeds and the 25-unit rule are covered in Zillow multifamily listings.

A contract term the FTC order adds

The stipulated final order in FTC v. Zillow Group (E.D. Va., No. 1:25-cv-1638, filed August 24, 2026) requires Redfin to re-enter the sale of ILS advertising to property managers no later than 6 months after the court enters the order (Section IV.A). For 9 months after Redfin meets that requirement, Zillow must "allow any ILS Customer whose contract cannot be cancelled within 3 months to exit or renegotiate its contract with Defendant Zillow in order to negotiate with or enter into an agreement with Defendant Redfin, without cost or penalty" (Section II.C), and must send its ILS customers a notice of that right within 20 days after the FTC tells Zillow that Redfin has met the requirement (Section V) (FTC stipulated order). The order defines a Multifamily Rental Property as one with 25 or more units. If your Zillow agreement cannot be cancelled within 3 months, flag it and watch for that notice. Syndication changes are in ILS syndication networks.

Apartment List pay per lease: how billing is triggered

Apartment List says it is "a pay per lease partner" and markets its A-List Market product as "Only Pay for Leases" (Apartment List partner FAQ, A-List Market). Its pricing page has no rate table, only a calculator that asks for your ZIP code and communities (Apartment List pricing). Per-lease prices on third-party sites are not reproduced here: we could not confirm them on Apartment List's own pages.

The billing mechanism matters more than the price. Billing depends on "monthly move-in reporting," usually an automated feed set up at onboarding that "allows us to determine when an Apartment List lead has turned into a move-in at your community," or "an Excel or CSV file" you email.

Zumper multifamily pricing: the only published rate table

Zumper publishes its premium listing plans in full (Zumper). Plans are month to month and include promoted search placement and syndication to partners including PadMapper and Realtor.com.

Zumper asks anyone with "more than 25 listings" to contact sales, so portfolio pricing is quoted. Plans bill on the same day each month, and cancellation must reach Zumper (by email or from account settings) "before the start of your next billing cycle": miss it and the next month bills.

Eight ILS contract terms to check before you sign or renew

Most ILS overspend is a term nobody diaried, not the rate. Log the answers in one sheet per property.

1. 01

   Term length and auto-renewal

   CoStar says a majority of its subscription agreements run at least a year and "typically renew automatically" (10-K). Test: can you name each property's end date and renewal term today?

2. 02

   Cancellation notice window

   The notice period, not the end date, is the real deadline. Test: is the last day to give notice in a shared calendar, with an owner?

3. 03

   What the package placement actually buys

   Ask what position, in which searches, and whether a competitor can buy above you. Test: is the placement described in the order form, or only in a sales deck?

4. 04

   Price per property, by market

   Test: can you list each property's monthly price for each ILS from the contracts, without asking the rep?

5. 05

   How a pay-per-lease charge is matched

   Ask how a lead is tied to a lease, over what window, and what happens when the renter also came through another source. Test: do you know which PMS field your move-in feed sends?

6. 06

   Cancelled and transferred leases

   Cancelled leases and transfers between your communities should not bill as new leases. Test: does the contract say how credits are issued, and within how many days you must dispute?

7. 07

   Add-ons and platform fees

   Video, extra placements and platform fees often share the package invoice. Test: does the invoice total equal the contracted package price? If not, which line is the difference?

8. 08

   Order-based exit rights

   Zillow contracts that cannot be cancelled within 3 months get a 9-month window to exit or renegotiate, without cost or penalty, in order to deal with Redfin once Redfin has re-entered, under Section II.C of the FTC order (FTC). Test: have you flagged every Zillow agreement that qualifies?

Converting each model to cost per lease

The models become comparable only when every dollar billed is divided by PMS leases, net of cancellations, over the same months (method: cost per lease by source).

Never let one lease decide a renewal: one more lease halves the per-listing row. Widen the window for any source under three leases.

How to compare ILS pricing before a renewal

Run this 60 to 90 days before the first notice deadline at a property, so you can still act on the answer.

1. 1

   Collect every contract and order form

   For each property and ILS, record package, monthly price or per-lease fee, term, renewal date and notice window. Missing paperwork is the first finding.

2. 2

   Pull six months of invoices

   Match each invoice line to a service month and a property. Spread quarterly or annual invoices across their months.

3. 3

   Pull signed leases from the PMS

   Export leases by property, month and lead source, net of cancellations before move-in. Use one source rule for every ILS.

4. 4

   Audit pay-per-lease bills

   Match every billed lease to a PMS lease at the same property and flag cancellations or duplicates for credit. Keep disputed charges in spend until credited.

5. 5

   Calculate cost per lease and break-even

   Divide billed spend by PMS leases for each source. For subscription versus pay per lease, divide the monthly fee by the per-lease fee to get the break-even lease count.

6. 6

   Request written quotes

   Ask each ILS for price per property, per month, by package, and for the placement definition. Compare quotes against your cost per lease, not against each other's list price.

Negotiating as a portfolio

Two levers work without changing vendors:

• Price the package against the listing. In Brynson's analysis of 6,000 properties and 1.6 million units, nearly 89% of communities described themselves differently across listing sites, and although 97% of listings had been updated within the previous 90 days, conflicting mandatory fees, missing amenities and contradictory terms persisted (listing accuracy report). Higher placement on a wrong listing buys more views of the error. Run an ILS listing audit before an upgrade.
• Consolidate the paperwork. One contract per ILS per property means dozens of notice windows; mapping them starts an ILS spend audit. Then decide by property, not vendor: see best ILS for multifamily.

Brynson powers roughly 1 in 20 U.S. apartment communities. With ILS Management™, Brynson reviews every ILS package, contract and invoice in a portfolio, moves eligible packages to its preferred partner rates and consolidates partner invoices into one bill, auditing pay-per-lease charges before payment.

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