

RentHop (YC S09): Easier Apartment Hunting, Without The Broker Fee  - jasonlbaptiste
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/11/renthop-easier-apartment-hunting-without-the-broker-fee/

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leelin
Hello 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
You're doing a great service. Even Craigslist NYC is a nightmare with all the
bait and switch tactics.

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apgwoz
As 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.

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mshafrir
Here's a NYTimes article about RentHop:
<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/realestate/08rent.html>

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leelin
Ah, 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.

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indiejade
What 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.

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utsmokingaces
Great 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> .

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mattmcknight
I'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
Would you mind sharing where commercial real estate listings data is freely
available? I've thought about expanding PadMapper to include it.

~~~
mattmcknight
From 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.

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tptacek
The 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.

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sachinag
We 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. :)

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aberman
Wow...first time I have seen the HN community more critical than the TC
community.

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gruseom
The most critical comments are coming from several accounts that were created
in the last hour. I wonder if someone is gaming the thread.

~~~
pg
Sure enough. They were all from the same ip address, and so were nearly all
the upvotes on them.

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vermontdevil
I saw this one a while back: <http://www.habitastic.com/>

looks similar. Seems like this type will heat up due to the decline of
homeowner market

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Caligula
Looks 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.

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vaksel
not 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

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MtL
Unfortunately it is useless for me, as it is NYC specific. For us located in
other areas, padmapper is more useful.

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anamax
In what parts of the US are broker fees for rentals common?

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leelin
Every 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.

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embeddedradical
its always san fran or nyc....damn.

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padmapper
<http://www.padmapper.com> (my hobby site) has a bunch of other cities, if
you're looking for a place.

~~~
embeddedradical
doesn't have my city (santa barbara), but the site looks good; good work, and
good luck.

~~~
padmapper
Thanks! I just added santa barbara for you, it should populate with listings
soon.

~~~
embeddedradical
just 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
Great, glad it's working! Please let me know if you have any suggestions for
improvements. Good luck with your hunt!

