Movebubble, an app that aims to make renting in London suck less, raises $1.6M
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
Landlord is not a criminal
Does not have rats
The Deposit Protection Scheme was introduced in 2007, and that made a huge difference. Landlords could no longer expect to steal deposits.
There's already schemes to license landlords renting a "House for Multiple Occupancy", whose definition varies by area. Typically, it's 3 or more people who aren't related to each other. This should be extended to all landlords.
I lived in an illegally converted flat for a year, though I didn't realise it. At the end of the year, an inspector from the council appeared, and said there shouldn't be a "37A", "37B", "37C", but just a "37". The house had been converted without planning permission _fifteen years earlier_.
3 million Londoners weren't born in the UK, and in my experience are less aware of the rights they do have. I don't know how to solve that one.
But 39% of Tory MPs, and 22% of Labour MPs, are landlords, so I don't expect the situation to change. [1]
[1] http://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2016/jan/14/mp-la...
Not a council house
Was not previously occupied by criminals
It doesn't have elderly neighbours
No kebab / chicken shops within x metres
Or do you really mean not a council house, in which case the question is "what letting agents are advertising current council houses?"
Agents are not incentivised towards keeping listings fresh. It's better for them if they can tell the person that gets in contact that it's "just gone" and hem-and-haw about how the market is very hot at the moment. They can then show you a selection of over-priced, not as attractive properties and try to extract a purchase from a slightly more anxious version of you.
I'm not sure if this is solvable with an app to be honest. And, you will be competing against listings with attractive-looking properties that aren't actually on the market, so on the surface-level won't look as good. Good luck!
I think a lot of the issues would be solved by moving the power from the agents and lettings management services to the tenants and landlords. OpenRent is already trying to do this, and I've had good experiences with them so far.
I know openrent.co.uk is trying to head in that direction. Universities also have their own housing departments that put students in touch with prospective landlords who have registered with them at no cost at all to either party. Maybe employers/corporates could also start doing the same.
The reference checks are just profit centres for the agents, so they actually want you to overpay for a new check each time.
There is no shortage of estate agents, in fact it's often said that there are too many. There's no lack of aggregation sites either.
Personally I'm hoping these guys launch their solution and fix the issues in the next few weeks (lol) as I'm about to dive back into that particular abyss (no lol).
Unlike other reviewed products, properties are exclusive and don't regularly appear on the market, and there are very strong incentives for people that want to bid the price up or down to lie.
If your site doesn't let them do this then they'll just list on a different site.
What makes finding a rental flat stressful and a waste of time is the process of chasing down suitable leads and getting a deposit in before anyone else does. Speeding that up for everyone is not going to make it less stressful, is it?
1. Provide automatic contract and deposit protection flows into the middle
2. Renters and landlords should both be credit-checked and reviewed by others. If guarantors are necessary, manage that process and credit check them too.
3. Provide check-in/check-out inventories that can be ticked off and checked by all parties.
This is 90% of the value letting agents provide.
The rest is about better listings themselves: commute times to key locations; what broadband options and speeds are available in that location; the average price and food safety rating of local pubs, cafes, restaurants and takeaways; crime rates; ambulance response times; council tax rates (everybody forgets these and then gets surprised unless they move to LBH&F which has some of the lowest in the country); parking details and costs; night bus routes in the vicinity; voting histories in recent elections; and so on.
All of this data is out there, and easy to build tools for and it's the only way to make things better AND get rid of the letting agency model that needs to happen almost urgently.
Just providing a veneer over the letting agent? Doomed to fail like so many that have come before it.
OpenRent is the largest agency in the UK. Why? Because it solves these pain points, and does so at scale.
There a few steps you've missed out, like giving tenants protection against bad data and rogues (not solved by typical classifieds) - and fulfilling the other legal requirements for landlords (gas safety certs, etc). So whilst perhaps not an easy problem to solve (many have tried and failed), there is a solution already in the market.
What is the number 1 tenant complaint? Admin fees. Something also solved by OpenRent, along with removing dead listings and providing a transparent process.
So this is just another aggregator like Rightmove? They're promising real-time availability information, but why would a letting agent update the availability on Movebubble and not Rightmove? What makes it more likely to be real-time than any other aggregator?
This is a problem? I've rented several times in London, including recently. Calling someone and writing a time down in your calendar is not a problem. I also don't see how feedback/review or properties is going to be useful. People have very different expectations. When moving and renting out my old room I've had people think the place was amazing and others think it was terrible. You need to see places yourself, in person. Honestly I think the whole 'renting in London is hard' thing is overblown. I'm working on a pretty low budget and I can find rooms that are good enough for me quite easily. I've also gone through the process of renting an entire apartment (as opposed to just a room) and it's even easier. You call several estate agents, tell them your budget and requirements, and when something comes up they call you. And it's free.
If there were a public 'issue tracker' for properties that would be very useful. Seeing how quickly and how well Landlords respond to things like a broken heating system or mold would be invaluable when finding a place to live, and having this information made public would also kick some of them into action.
Similarly, if renters could have their payment history tracked so landlords know that they pay on time and that previous landlords didn't have any disputes with you, that would be invaluable.
>Meanwhile, it’s not currently possible to actually rent a property through the Movebubble app
So I guess the MVP didn't include actually helping people rent a place and getting their perspective on the entire process in a "real world" sense before raising $3.5m?
Disclosure: I work for jumpshell (https://www.jumpshell.com/), where we are launched in Boston and Chicago and people can actually complete the rental process through the platform as well getting your feedback about the entire process so we can better align the incentives of the different market participants.