Updated November 6, 2025
Zillow believes that searching for a new rental should be an empowering experience, not a frustrating one. That’s why we’re committed to helping make rental costs more transparent, giving renters a clearer understanding of potential fees upfront so they can better evaluate their options before signing a lease. At the same time, we’re working with our housing provider partners to build the tools that allow them to easily share this information, creating a smoother process for everyone.
Incomplete pricing information has long been a challenge in the rental market. Nearly all renters (94%) agree that listings should clearly display all fees. Additionally, over half of renter households in the U.S. are cost-burdened, spending at least 30% of their income on rent. Unexpected fees can create financial stress, making it harder to budget for a move.
To support renters and housing providers, we’ve improved our rental listings to give renters a more complete view of total costs including move-in, monthly recurring and situational fees that could impact their budget. At the same time, we’ve introduced self-service tools that let property managers and landlords easily enter and manage detailed fee information, and support large-scale syndication through data feeds.
To support renters and housing providers, we’ve improved rental listings to give renters a more complete view of total costs including move-in, monthly recurring and situational fees that could impact their budget. At the same time, we introduced self-service tools that let property managers and landlords easily enter and manage detailed fee information, and support large-scale syndication through data feeds.
Costs & fees calculator helps renters understand costs
To help ensure that renters can easily assess affordability and better compare listings, we display a costs & fees breakdown across the Zillow Rentals marketplace.
- Detailed fee breakdown: When property managers or landlords provide the information, renters can now see move-in costs, monthly recurring charges and other applicable fees directly within a listing.
- Clearly labeled fees: Required costs, such as monthly base rent, security deposit and application fees, are always displayed first, followed by optional costs, such as parking, pet rent and storage fees, for example.
- Customization options: Renters can tailor their estimated total cost by selecting optional services, such as those pet, parking and storage fees.
New Total Price display provides up front price clarity
Zillow now displays a “Total price” which means the rental cost shown includes the base monthly rent plus any required monthly fees. When a housing provider has provided complete fee data and turned on the “Total price” feature, renters will see an updated all-in price marked with a badge and checkmark across the Zillow shopping experience — search results, detail pages, saved listings, emails, push notifications and more. With the new total price display, renters will have fewer surprises, an easier way to compare listings and more confidence that a home fits their budget.
This new feature helps housing providers meet a key renter expectation and comply with state laws (such as in Massachusetts and Connecticut) that require rental listings to show the total monthly cost.
Empowering housing providers to share and display complete costs and fees data
Providing renters with complete and accurate pricing and fees starts with our partners — the property managers and landlords who list their rentals on Zillow. We know housing providers need flexibility to manage and customize their listings, so we’ve invested in fee syndication integrations with major feed providers and launched Zillow self-service fee management tools for both multifamily property managers and single-family landlords.
For multifamily rental partners: Fee syndication with property management software
Multifamily property managers can syndicate fee data through their property management software (e.g., Entrata, RealPage, RentCafe), a custom Zillow feed or through Engrain’s fee data API. Multifamily property managers can find more details about fee data syndication to Zillow here.
For multifamily rental partners: Zillow Account Portal self-service fee tools
Multifamily property managers using one of Zillow’s multifamily advertising solutions can manage fee data for their properties through the Zillow Account Portal. Each property’s Costs & fees section allows users to review fee data provided through their feed, manually enter fee information and enable the Total price display for listings. Zillow’s step-by-step guide walks multifamily partners through how to update fee data directly in their account portal. Key features include:
- Ability to add, edit or delete any fee directly in the Zillow Account Portal.
- Custom fee labels, tooltips (for descriptions) and disclaimers to provide renters with additional details about property-specific costs in the Costs & fees breakdown on listings
- Ability to turn on a “Total Price” to display as the advertised price across the Zillow shopping experience (base rent + fixed, monthly mandatory fees). “Total Price” is available at a property level anywhere nationwide.
For landlords of single-family homes: Zillow Rental Manager self-service fee tools
For landlords utilizing Zillow Rental Manager to list their properties for rent, fee management tools include:
- Ability to add, edit and delete fees when creating or updating a listing.
- New customizable fee categories, including administrative, parking and utilities fees.
- Flexible pricing options: Landlords can indicate whether fees are required, optional or included in rent.
- Capabilities to confirm Total Price for display (currently available in states with regulation requiring a total price, soon to be available nationwide).
For landlords of single-family homes: Fee syndication through feeds
Single-family property managers operating large portfolios of homes can syndicate fee data through Zillow’s feed format. “Total Price” display can be supported at scale across homes by reaching out to your Zillow sales professional.
What’s next?
Zillow is committed to advancing fee transparency across the rental industry by working closely with housing providers, policymakers and technology partners to establish clear, standardized practices for rental fee disclosure.
We continue to collaborate with key players across the industry in RETTC/NMHC’s MITS working group, most recently supporting the implementation of the multifamily rental industry’s new listing syndication standard (MITS 5.0 standard).
We are working alongside our industry partners to help shape legislation that ensures renters have the clarity they need while also being practical for housing providers to implement. At the same time, we continue to refine our products to create a consistent and seamless experience for renters nationwide while enabling property managers and landlords to easily comply with legal requirements and consumer expectations.
As our tools roll out and industry standards continue to evolve, Zillow remains dedicated to building a more transparent, efficient and renter-friendly housing marketplace.