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Comment by zavulon | Hacker News Reader

This is a good idea, but maybe there's a way for you to display some data before signing up? Right now, there's nothing on the site at all except for the form requesting my information. After I submit it, there's a message there's not enough data for my address, and a request for email. At this point, it would be helpful to see what exactly I'm signing up for.

Maybe examples for different addresses, or average data per neighborhood? I recently was looking for a new apartment, and I found this very useful: http://www.tregny.com/manhattan_rental_market_report

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I definitely hear you - this is actually just an idea I had last night and just wanted to get some data. The response has really been pretty decent (I've got about 150 pieces of usable data).

My next step is to figure out exactly how to use the data. I will likely start with neighborhood pages, and move on to individual building pages once the data gets dense enough.

But I would love to hear your thoughts on product ideas - what info would you like to see? What comparisons/analytics on the data you know I have?

Thanks a lot for the feedback! RentEnforcer

Well, as your friendly neighborhood real estate agent: What do you feel is so "evil" about the NYC real estate market, aside from using it as a provoking headline?

Apartment prices depend on the move-in date - an apartment may be rented at significantly less than its current market value if the tenant has been there for 10 years, while someone who just moved in to the identical floorplan will be paying quite a bit more. Comparing this smattering of prices is unhelpful, and is exactly why rental reports like the one linked above are based on average and median prices for apartments currently on the market or recently rented.

"What year did you move-in" is a good question to add to this page.

Agreed. A simple one-image visualization example (can be part of design/background, even) of what you'll send me when you're done collecting data would go a long way to explaining what you're doing, exactly.

I live in Tucson, not NYC, but this definitely seems like a great idea: I'm going to put up a link in my next links post. And I hope it gets to Tucson too, although NYC, L.A., and SF are all obvious places where real estate is very, very important.

I live in Tucson too.

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