Show HN: Smart renters disrupting real estate - The Addressory

jxrlee · on Sept 20, 2011

What's your plan for getting users?

(I'm about to generalize here) The problem I see with this idea is that only people who had bad experiences are going to sign up and post reviews/comments etc. just to spite their housing. This happens on ratemyprofessor all the time.

What are the incentives for people to join? I would assume that your target audience is for people who are looking for new housing and new move-ins. How are you going to get current tenants to come back and answer questions once they are living there already and knowledgable about everything (since this is what creates all your content and draws people to your site I think...)?

Speaking from experience my own personal opinion, when I am satisfied with my living situation, I won't go out of my way to find and join a renters network to ask questions/share experiences. Hope this helps!

sheraz · on Sept 20, 2011

That is the million dollar question.

Our main strategy is community development around Addressory. Let's build a community of renters and tenants, by renters and tenants. Let's talk about quality of life issues, like the ones discussed in the comment above.

Continuing user engagement is a problem that we are working on. Maybe it is as simple as emailing them when a new questions appears on a property they have flagged.

To your last point, I agree -- when I am happy I do not tell anyone. But would you share if I asked you to, just to pay it forward for the next person moving in?

jxrlee · on Sept 20, 2011

I would question how many people would be willing to 'flag' to receive emails (unless it's the original poster). Secondly, I wouldn't share unless I got something out of it. If I'm too lazy to fill out surveys that give store credit, I probably wouldn't share for this.

I think a good strategy might be to get landlords/owners as some of the first users. They have incentive to respond to questions and comments from potential renters so that might be a good starting point for content.

sheraz · on Sept 20, 2011

In the first version of the site we had a model for renters, brokers, and landlords. We tried to service everyone through on place. However, after we built it I realized that I would never use that site. I wanted to build a site for tenants and no one else.

I agree that there are a lot of people who are too lazy or unwilling to contribute. Our challenge is to convince them it is a good idea, and do it without some awful gamification-skinner-box methodology.

byoung2 · on Sept 20, 2011

I thought about building a site like this 10 years ago when I was living in an apartment. While I think free-form Yelp-style comments are useful, in most cases, they are going to be rants. As the saying goes in marketing, when they love you, they'll tell 1 friend. When they hate you, they'll tell 10. My idea for a site involved a more structured review process, like a survey. How much was your rent, deposit, etc,? How fast were maintenance requests completed? What percent of your deposit was returned? Rate the cleanliness of the building, friendliness of management, etc. Was there plenty of parking available on the street? That sort of thing.

sheraz · on Sept 20, 2011

Agreed -- people love to complain and rarely share kudos. But there is also a lot of middle ground. First and foemost, The Addressory is not a review site. We offer no quantitative ratings. Rather, we are a forum where people can share information.

The goal of Addressory is to give you more data so that you can make an informed decision. If a property were to have many negative comments, it at least provides a datapoint that would prompt you to ask questions to the realtor or landlord prior to moving in.

Those questions asked above are all relevant and, we hope, become topics of conversation.

Lastly, those looking for a shot-in-the-arm answer may not find the Addressory very useful. Those who perform due diligence prior to renting or buying will find this data valuable.

byoung2 · on Sept 20, 2011

I guess your site is more useful for the person who has a particular apartment in mind, and wants to know more before making the decision. My idea for a site was to help people find an apartment in the first place (hence the quantitative questions). I would love to know what apartment has the fastest maintenance response and the highest percent of deposit returned, while avoiding the ones with the least amount of street parking and the noisiest neighbors.

sheraz · on Sept 20, 2011

You nailed it. Our value comes after someone has found a few places and is looking for more information.

We have discussed building a listing engine into the site, which would aid in the search for properties. However, that is complicated and does not fit with our strategy at the moment. Right now it is all about traction.