‘Cheap’ advertising tries to consolidate rental postings for off-campus housing

Last year as a freshman, John Bade lived in the residence halls and noticed a problem when it came to searching for off-campus housing for the following year. \nThere seemed to be a problem between students and off-campus property owners reaching each other, he said.\nSo in July of 2006, Bade decided to start up his own business, www.iuliving.com. He launched the Web site to provide better services for students looking for off-campus apartments and houses, while simultaneously offering a cheap way for property owners to advertise.\nBade said the logic behind the site was to eliminate the high cost of advertising that companies face and to offer these companies low prices to encourage them to list on the Web site. \nCurrently the site receives about 3,500 hits a month and about 17 companies use the site to advertise.\nThe company will be completing its first year this summer, and Bade said the site so far is doing very well.\nBut the School of Public and Environmental Affairs business marketing major isn’t too concerned with profit.\n“I am more concerned with service than the profit I will receive,” he said. \nLori Abram, owner of Choice Realty & Management, advertises on the site and began using the service when it first started.\n“I did it mainly because it was affordable advertising with the potential to reach IU students,” Abram said, noting that more than half of her clients are IU students.\n“It’s broadened our marketing ability,” Abram said. “It’s just a very inexpensive resource for us so it has just helped us to add to what we do.” \nDave Kerber, manager of Varsity Properties which provides off-campus housing to mostly IU students, said he doesn’t use www.iuliving.com to advertise primarily because advertising through newspapers is “always going to be there.”\nKerber said sites such as Bade’s are frequently started by college students.\n“I understand that they are pretty excited about doing something and to make an impact, but there are so many Web sites out there that many of the management companies are leery to put a bunch of money advertising through them,” Kerber said. \nKerber said some advertisers are questionable about college students’ Web sites because of the accountability of such sites. They don’t know what will happen when the students graduate, he said.\n“Everywhere you go, every year there is a new Web site that comes up for advertising and everyone is trying to make money,” Kerber said. “A lot of times it doesn’t work out. It’ll be there for one year with big promises but it never lasts for more.”\nBade said he plans to have his site around for a long time, even after graduation. He said in the near future he wants to expand www.iuliving.com to other colleges. \n“This is what I want to do,” Bade said. “I want to provide it for universities in the future. Especially in this day and age when students use technology for the key source of information. Online advertising will be the new market, and newspaper (will be) old news.”\nBade said property management pays $200 per year for unlimited advertising and is encouraged to list all the houses they have trouble getting exposure to.\nAs his company continues to expand, Bade hopes more students use his site to find off-campus housing and communication between them and property owners will increase. \n“When students think of off-campus housing they need to think of iuliving.com,” Bade said. “I’m trying to gain a majority of property in Bloomington for the most official unofficial off-campus housing Web site for IU.”