"... Janet Portman, a lawyer and an expert in landlord-tenant law ... said her doubts about the viability of Mr. Takle’s business model remain." Her concerns s

"... Janet Portman, a lawyer and an expert in landlord-tenant law ... said her doubts about the viability of Mr. Takle’s business model remain." Her concerns seemed a little strange to me. How is his model fundamentally different from a traditional property management company, or perhaps it's closer to the software companies that support that industry already? Both models are well established. Some Web-based conflation of the two sounds viable to me. He also offers a tenant screening service, which already exists as well. “His jaunt to India to look for legal assistance is further evidence of his failure to understand the complexities of the legal world he was wading into.” Where's the complexity? I owned a rental property for a few years, and apart from the initial purchase and subsequent sale, I never needed a lawyer. Of course, you could get sued, but that's hardly routine. My biggest concern would be that I believe there's already a fair bit of competition in this space, at least for the individual services that he's packaging together.