4 ms·
Yes. Many. :-P The market for rental data has two big issues--the first is fragmentation--many rental listings only appear in locally traded publications (your
by usiegj00 16y ago
Yes. Many. :-P
The market for rental data has two big issues--the first is fragmentation--many rental listings only appear in locally traded publications (your local classified) and for only a limited time (a few weeks). The second issue is that much of the listing data is vague--"Beautiful home in Upper East Side." Which means getting detailed current and historical information is a tough problem. It's not just a tough problem for us either--it's a tough problem for Renters!
We have so many thoughts on how to bootstrap this that it's hard to start this conversation unless you're really interested in the answer. So... as a teaser, I'll tell you that we've already started a LARGE mechanical turk campaign to seed key markets. We've also started the process of importing a number of public records that don't give us rental prices directly, but will let us create a model for what the rental prices SHOULD be--given some insight we have to traditional CAP rates (what a property should rent vs its purchase price and current interest rates--to make for a good investment).
Given those approaches do you see any other opportunities for us to bootstrap?