SF startup lets would-be tenants bid for apartments

sfgate.com

3 points·jedberg··3 comments

For those that might complain about how this will make the rental market even worse -- you're absolutely right.

On the other hand, this happens already, just much less transparently. I'm a bay area landlord, and had a bidding war for my place last year. I literally had people throwing money at me (take this $20 in my wallet and I'll be back with a cashier's check in 20 minutes!!).

However, since I have a conscience, I ended up renting to the group that I thought would make the best tenants instead of the ones with the most cash. Most landlords I suspect are not like this.

Their pricing model is strange though -- charging the tenant each month seems odd. It seems like it would make a lot more sense to charge the landlord 25% of the extra, but I guess by charging tenants it makes it more appealing to the landlords who are already getting multiple bids anyway.

Presumably this might change depending on market condition. In my experience (in Brooklyn and Cambridge), when the market is soft, landlords are sometimes willing to split a realtor's fee, but when the market is tight, those fees are all on the tenant. Similarly, landlords vary incentives such as free month's rent and other freebies depending on how tight the market is. So, when the service opens in places like Dallas, the terms are likely to be different.

Around here, there's been so much construction at the high end of the market, there's not really a shortage of rentals if you afford the top rents. Landlords won't get bidding wars for that. It's the middle-income folks who are getting the shaft.

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