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RentHop (YC S09): Easier Apartment Hunting, Without The Broker Fee
- embeddedradical 17y agoits always san fran or nyc....damn.
- yoyomama 17y agoI'm working on a startup idea that's going to take Knoxville, Tennessee by storm. Hope that makes you feel a little better.
- padmapper 17y agohttp://www.padmapper.com http://www.padmapper.com (my hobby site) has a bunch of other cities, if you're looking for a place.
- yoyomama 17y agoLooks a bit like HousingMaps - except without all the pesky features.
- padmapper 17y agoheh yeah, heavily inspired. This was basically an attempt to fix the problems I had using HousingMaps. The features are there, just tucked away - click "Filter Listings" in the box on the lower left, or the blue bar on the right that says "Favorites".
- rufo 17y agoNice work! I don't remember which CL/Google Maps scraper I was looking at earlier in the week, but this is far better, and quite a few popular ones don't seem to scrape Rochester. Since I'm currently scoping out a new place, this'll come in real handy.
- embeddedradical 17y agodoesn't have my city (santa barbara), but the site looks good; good work, and good luck.
- padmapper 17y agoThanks! I just added santa barbara for you, it should populate with listings soon.
- embeddedradical 17y agojust tired it, it worked! thanks! bookmarked! wow, this experience rocks, especially considering i've wanted exactly this for quite some time --- thanks so much. once again, you rock.
- padmapper 17y agoGreat, glad it's working! Please let me know if you have any suggestions for improvements. Good luck with your hunt!
- drp 17y agohttp://hotpads.com http://hotpads.com has about 350k rental listings spread all over the US, and none are from craigslist.
- vaksel 17y agonot a fan of the homepage, lots of white space and a single pic of an empty apartment(9/10 refreshes). the browse listings page would work much better as the homepage
- apgwoz 17y agoAs someone who just moved to NYC, I can definitely say this would definitely have been extremely useful. We ended up paying 12% to a broker, which we did only because we didn't wanna make more trips back and forth from Philadelphia to look at apartments. In a few years, I hope RentHop is still around and has more market share so we can use it.
- wearytraveler 17y agoSorry to say but if you just moved to NYC and paid a broker fee you did not inform yourself about the rental market here. Not only could you have avoided the fee but you should also have received a few months of free rent if not a signficant discount off the listed rent.
- look_lookatme 17y agoNot sure what you are basing that off of. IME, right now you can find some decent FRBOs and haggle down price. You also can probably haggle down broker fees in some situations, but it's not like there is a glut of cheap housing to be had. I guess if you are renting a 3K month 1BR in a condo conversion downtown, you might be able to pull off a free month (but you aren't getting it cheaper). It still sucks to find a great place in NYC, it's just sucking less.
- utsmokingaces 17y agoGreat Idea. I suspect you will be do most of your marketing in NYC. I will be starting a local business startup too. I am curious to learn how you market in a big city such as NYC. PS I added the site to http://appuseful.com/app/n/Rent-hop http://appuseful.com/app/n/Rent-hop .
- mattmcknight 17y agoI'd like to see something come out for the commercial real estate market. It's really hard to shop online (without paying a monthly fee to costar or loopnet) for access to information that is freely available.
- padmapper 17y agoWould you mind sharing where commercial real estate listings data is freely available? I've thought about expanding PadMapper to include it.
- mattmcknight 17y agoFrom the leasing companies. For example, if you go the CBRE site, you can view all of their properties there, via a software service provided by loopnet. There's definitely room to start another service by getting those listings out there to a broader audience.
- vermontdevil 17y agoI saw this one a while back: http://www.habitastic.com/ http://www.habitastic.com/ looks similar. Seems like this type will heat up due to the decline of homeowner market
- merlinfantry 17y agoSo RentHop takes the place of the broker? Sounds like we're substituing one middle man for another. Manhattan Park: Broker Receives $500 AMEX Gift Card WTF?
- padmapper 17y agoI believe a lot of no-fee apartment complexes in NYC offer a referral fee to the website that refers a lease signer, which is at least part of the reason that a lot of apartment sites deal exclusively in large apartment complexes. This isn't charged directly, but amortized in generally higher-than-average rents. But did you expect that this startup wouldn't be planning on any money by playing the middle man?
- merlinfantry 17y agoNo, that's exactly my point - I fully expect that they're cashing in here and that this site is nothing more than a self-serving substitute for what's already available in the real world. Nothing earth shattering here. I think you've figured that out too. I don't begrudge him his right to make money - but let's just be upfront about it. I've had my fair share of misery in the NYC housing game so forgive me if I seem a little cynical. Regardless, better deals are available on Craigslist at the moment, as others have pointed out. Besides that, the pickings are pretty slim for someone who claims to have been working on this since a February launch.
- padmapper 17y agoEh, maybe not now, but they were apparently picked up by YC - they probably have at least some novel ideas. I just had a look at their NY Times article, and they seem to have at least one - setting up appointments with the realtors online. But yeah, I know the NYC housing game is pretty brutal, I've played it too, unfortunately.
- pokkybear 17y agoWould have been ideal about a year ago before the rental market became a renter's market. These days with vacancy rates at historic highs, even the NYC rental market is awash with choices for renters and bargains aplenty.
- cdr 17y agoThat's interesting - the rental market here (western NY) has been the opposite, at least as of the last time I looked a few months ago. I assume you mean high vacancy rates rather than low.
- pokkybear 17y agoYes, I meant historic highs. As a renter, I never thought I'd see the day. Too bad I'm locked into a lease at the moment or I'd be looking around.
- prawn 17y agoAnyone ever looked at flipping the relationship? e.g., people looking for accommodation post their budget, basic details (no name or photo, just rough indication of job status, industry, pets, etc) and then owners would try to get the best tenants from those available?
- indiejade 17y agoWhat is most interesting about this startup idea is the actual structure of the renting / real estate biz and how much commissions are a part of it. If these "brokers" have so much time to spend spamming craigslist (not just in NYC, but everywhere), there is something VERY wrong with the industry. Of course, I've been saying this for a long time. Happy to see a company actually doing something about it. Good luck guys! I will be rooting for you.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- mshafrir 17y agoHere's a NYTimes article about RentHop: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/realestate/08rent.html http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/realestate/08rent.html
- pie 17y agoThe comparison with RDNY.com (a 14-year-old competitor) is fairly illuminating/discouraging, if somewhat brief. Regardless, I certainly hope these guys succeed. The more services to help New Yorkers avoid abuse from real estate brokers, the better. The interactive free-broker-service angle that the RentHop guys are taking is perplexing to me, but I must say it helps them stand out. I hope the approach does not hinder them from scaling up to the point where they can offer a better range of listings.
- leelin 17y agoAh, I'm glad we're not in the Wayback Machine because our site back then was pretty embarrassing! I'd say over 80% of what you see today was done after we left our jobs to do this full time.
- jackholborn 17y agoAnyone can log in and post a listing. Unlike how it's represented in the Techcrunch article, there really is not much protection against brokers here. Particularly as RapidRealty is one of the "management companies" listing rentals on the site. Anyone who knows the NYC rental market should be able to draw their own conclusions from the presence of Rapid Realty on this site. Disappointing - got my hopes up that this really represented a change for NYC housing.
- timjain 17y agoRentHop advertises itself as "apartment hunting without the broker fee" but if you live in NY, you know the idea of a no-fee apartment is mostly a mirage, as it is here.
- aberman 17y agoWow...first time I have seen the HN community more critical than the TC community.
- gruseom 17y agoThe most critical comments are coming from several accounts that were created in the last hour. I wonder if someone is gaming the thread.
- fallentimes 17y agoAmateur spammers are behind it. Edit: Wow and the comments keep appearing. The Rent Hop guys must be doing something right.
- leelin 17y agoIf only we could post some of the comments we were getting from brokers right after the NYT article! select * from feedback; was definitely NSFW Nowadays it's our hab.la live chat that's getting all the juicy stuff.
- leelin 17y agoHello HN, and thank you for the kind comments! I'm one of the founders of RentHop.com. To clarify, there are many honest brokers with exclusive no-fee listings, especially in certain neighborhoods such as West Village and Midtown East. If we banned even these brokers, then we would be missing out on a legitimate subset of the available no-fee apartments. Our current policy is that we will only accept brokers with no-fee exclusives to post on our site (as opposed to a broker with an open listing, which is easy to detect). In short, the legal landlord gave that broker the exclusive right to be the rental agent and-or property manager. Think of them as mom & pop versions of the big corporate leasing offices; the real landlord specifically does not want to be involved in the leasing process and paid to outsource it.
- fallentimes 17y agoYou're doing a great service. Even Craigslist NYC is a nightmare with all the bait and switch tactics.
- pageman 17y agoI'm going to recommend RentHop to my NYC contacts! :)
- jakewolf 17y agoDon't forget there are plenty of small building owners and managers who don't have the time or capacity to be showing apartments to prospective tenants. Some have even resorted to hiring brokers and paying their fees to get units filled. Sure there are plenty of unscrupulous brokers out there, but some do provide an invaluable service.
- Caligula 17y agoLooks very slick. I wonder if they are allowed crawling other sites like craigslist to add content to theirs. I realize most craigslist ad's for NY dont list addresses but some must.
- MtL 17y agoUnfortunately it is useless for me, as it is NYC specific. For us located in other areas, padmapper is more useful.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- tptacek 17y agoThe Chicago rental market --- the third-largest metro market in the country --- is nothing like the NYC rental market. Brokers here are free, paid by developers and landlords. I've had extremely excellent luck working with them, landing 3 excellent places inside of a week each time, at Craigslist-competitive prices. I'm sure there's a long-term play here in NYC and maybe SF and LA, and I'm sure that's a find bootstrap to a long-term offering nationwide, but I just want to chime in with the observation that the NYC rental market is an anomaly. I don't think we have the pain RentHop tries to solve in Chicago.
- sachinag 17y agoWe don't, but Boston, Washington DC, and many college towns do. Hell, I'd say that even Evanston is a bit skewed that way. In the city, certain pockets like the Southport Corridor probably exhibit some of the cutthroat nature of NYC because we're so over-condo'ed in those areas. But Chicagoans, we just drive everywhere. :)
- leelin 17y agoIn other markets landlords and developers pay the broker fee, but maybe that opens the door for Redfin-like model, which touts discount brokers. I'd argue that discount rental brokers, who mainly show apartments and screen tenants, are easier to commoditize than sales brokers, who play a significant role in a very expensive transaction.
- anamax 17y agoIn what parts of the US are broker fees for rentals common?
- leelin 17y agoEvery rental broker charges a fee for their services, the difference is whether the renter or landlord pays for it. It's a matter of local custom and market conditions, and New York City has traditionally been very heavily skewed towards renters paying.