Kijiji to offer automatic cross-posting of apartment ads via RentSeeker

We'll see whether this improves the quality of apartment listings on Kijiji, or whether it just makes it easier for crappy ads to get wider coverage. Naturally, we hope for the former.

Kijiji, Canada's online free classifieds brand leader, announced Thursday that it is partnering with Internet marketing company and listing service RentSeeker.ca to provide joint listing options with automatic syndication.

Something "automatic" on Kijiji? I know, my head's spinning, too!

Kijiji first offered a segment-specific listing service some time ago in its auto section, allowing dealers a more efficient way to manage their car ads. The web interface is satisfactory for most personal selling, but anyone in a corporate environment would likely bash their heads against a keyboard if forced to enter more than a few ads at a time.

The service is being pitched to landlords and property management companies. Once they put ads ads on RentSeeker.ca, they can now opt to sign up to have the ads syndicate automatically -- as an additional service -- through Kijiji.

That sounds like it's not free.

The new service will be available starting December 1, 2012.

"This partnership gives us the ability to make posting to Canada's leading Real Estate website that much easier for the Real Estate industry and Property Management community," said John Graham, Head of Real Estate at Kijiji, "and we're really excited to be working together with a company as creative and innovative in online marketing for the Real Estate industry as RentSeeker."

With any luck, there will be some technology exchange behind the scenes to improve RentSeeker's exposure and Kijiji's programming infrastructure.

"RentSeeker.ca is thrilled to be partnering with Kijiji on this exciting syndication model, which offers our clients an efficient add-on to their online marketing strategies," said Chaim Rivlin, President and CEO of RentSeeker.ca. "Kijiji has the reputation and know-how required to complement our range of services. This syndication model is going to take apartment marketing to the next level."

To learn more about RentSeeker, peep www.RentSeeker.ca.

To see some awful and funny housing ads from the past few years on Kijiji, see those, too.