I've been thinking about this a lot ever since I moved out of my parent's house as a kid. In fact, it's probably my most promising startup idea at the moment,

I've been thinking about this a lot ever since I moved out of my parent's house as a kid. In fact, it's probably my most promising startup idea at the moment, and I've done a little bit of research into it. (Of course, everything changes once you start in earnest.) The whole apartment renter experience is abysmal, and the existing solutions on the internet provide little if any help in most metropolitan areas. Of course, the experience for the owners is usually not a cakewalk either; they face a very competitive market, often with thin margins, high risk, and abusive tenants. One reason why they often don't accept CC payments for rent is that they simply can't afford to! It's a very regional kind of market, involving a lot of hand-holding and shit-shoveling. Perfectly suited to a small rag-tag group of hackers, imo, but definitely not a quick turnaround "next facebook" kind of startup. Google is unlikely to buy you out ever. A lot of money changes hands between renters and property owners. My gut says you could make a good living if you could figure out how to tackle this problem in a way that makes the experience suck less for everyone involved. At lest, that's one sketch on my whiteboard. I'm looking forward to having some competition. ^_^ In the short term, if you're like me and simply cannot accept the PITA of remembering to walk downstairs with a check every month, you can probably have your bank mail out a certified check every month for a pretty reasonable fee, or perhaps even for free.