I love the 'Unlimited Units' plan for $249 which is there just to make 'Unlimited Units' plan for $69 look like a good deal.
Ask HN: Review RentPost.com
91–100 of 255 posts
Re: Ask HN: Review RentPost.com
#92I own with my father a 30 unit building. With that, let me just address the tagline: "Connect with tenants effortlessly, automate rent with online rent collection, organize work orders, and much more!" - Connect with tenants effortlessly - Not a good thing, Usually leads to excess work orders, more "asks" and petty squabbles about this and that. - Automate rent with online rent collection - Not sure how this is going…
Offtopic, but why the hell are people still using cash/check to pay bills in this day and age?
What country are you in? Do they not have modern banking?
Re: Ask HN: Review RentPost.com
#93oojacoboo this looks awesome man - congrats! What did you develop it with?
I'm also curious as to the technology behind the site.
Re: Ask HN: Review RentPost.com
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
Take it from someone who has pounded the pavement doing sales for my previous start-up, selling online lunch ordering service to restaurant owners, there is a lot of merit to what the parent's and grand parent's comments. You would be surprised how much many people despise technology. I think its because many of them were early adopters for various tech services sold to them by slick salesmen in the early days of sof…
thanks for that. We do realize for deeper market penetration we will likely need an active sales team. We are happy with healthy online, technical user, adoption at the moment though as we establish our base.
> We are happy with healthy online, technical user, adoption at the moment
I think you'd be wasting your time to focus on anything but these people, ever.
Otherwise you'd be selling to the type of person that would find 10x the complexity from introducing a computer and the internet for every bit of simplification that your service provides.
Re: Ask HN: Review RentPost.com
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's as good an advertisement for 'iterate' early and often as we'll see around here. Two years of development and that's the first response you give, I guess either you're not the target market or maybe they should have connected with actual users a bit earlier. So this makes me wonder, was this product developed on the 'they will come' methodology or was there actual end-user involvement and piloting with early a…
Take a look through their blog- they had a year of end user involvement- testing, evaluation and so on.
Ok, cool. The title and the homepage made me suspect otherwise.
What's interesting to me is that all the people that I know that own rental properties have outsourced the handling for a %age of the rent. That may be a cultural thing though, but from what I know about the market typically landlords are interested in the monthly payment, not in dealing with the tenants, if they can afford it at all they'll get someone to do it for them.
Maybe that's the market this is aimed at, agencies rather than DIY landlords?
Re: Ask HN: Review RentPost.com
#96I own with my father a 30 unit building. With that, let me just address the tagline: "Connect with tenants effortlessly, automate rent with online rent collection, organize work orders, and much more!" - Connect with tenants effortlessly - Not a good thing, Usually leads to excess work orders, more "asks" and petty squabbles about this and that. - Automate rent with online rent collection - Not sure how this is going…
My current apartment complex has a portal where one can pay via eCheck and it's pretty awesome. Do you have a "convenience fee" for paying by credit card? How well do you advertise it? > I think the last thing we would want is to make it easier for the tenant to complain about things. Kinda sounds like a place where I don't want to live. How are your ratings on ApartmentRatings.com?
You might not. Its not about not fixing things when they break or keeping the place clean. Those things are legitimate concerns and are taken care of.
Its about when a tenant complains because he wants all new appliances because he thinks they use too much electricity. Its about when a tenant wants to get 100$ off his rent every month because he now has a sick uncle living with him. Its about when a tenant wants to have huge Christmas decorations in the front of his door but his neighbors dont like it.
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Its easy for people on here to idealize a perfect "landlord and me are buddies!" dream, but its not how it works in the real world. A apartment building has costs, salaries and other expenses to keep afloat. If we listen to every complaint from a tenant (and as such, make it easier for them to do as such) we start losing money.
You might say "Well, it will be a better place to live then!" - Great, great for the tenants. But this is a product to be sold to land lords, NOT tenants. You will have a tough time selling me on "Make your tenants happier and make less money doing it" I'm fine (and they are fine) with the current situation.
- This is not a restaurant. We do not depend on referrals, walkins or other methods. Dont apply the restaurant methodology to owning a building because it doesn't work. In a restaurant, you keep everyone happy so they come back again. Spilled something on you? Free meal. Steak was cold? Come back for half off.
Just doesn't work like that in renting.
Re: Ask HN: Review RentPost.com
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Uh, ok. This is a product marketed to land lords, not to tenants. I am giving the opinion for the target. Im sure the same thing could be said about attorneys. Its the way the world works. Tenants like asking for misc bullshit and landlords hate doing them.
This is also how your units end up with leaking sinks and tens of thousands of dollars in repair costs. It depends on how you want to run your business. Many companies WANT work orders, and with the system you can read over them, prioritize and determine if you need to address or dismiss. You also don't have to take the call or deal with any of that, they just come into your feed.
You're getting pretty defensive in the face of a potential customer. If I were you I'd take the opportunity to try to understand what WOULD make the OP's life easier. There is, often times, some easy ways to turn an initial detractor into a proponent. At the minimum it won't be the last time you hear feedback like this, so use it as an opportunity to understand the REASONS the OP feels the way he does. That way you can formulate a better response than, "if you don't use my product you're a shady property manager and have a crap maintenance record", because that's basically what you just said.
Re: Ask HN: Review RentPost.com
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
you would think this is the case, and yes, an on the ground sales team will be helpful in addition to our affiliate program and partnerships, but these days are starting to phase out. These people are starting to realize they can't operate their companies the same way they did 10 years ago, and as the younger generation steps up the ladder in these companies, it's getting more attention.
How many potential customers have you talked to that said they would 100% purchase this? While I would love it if you'd prove me wrong (go, do it! be a success!), your responses here appear a little naive. Spending 2 years building something like this is very impressive, but it doesn't sound like you've talked to very many customers. (I get that just from the vague statements you're making about "these days", "starti…
Well, we have hundreds of beta accounts currently. I'd say that is something. Also, the interest has been quite high, not to mention, we aren't pioneering anything in this space, there are quite a few other competitors that do very well.
Re: Ask HN: Review RentPost.com
#99I found the pricing page confusing at first. At a casual glance it looks like most of the plans are exactly the same. Something about the design made me ignore the number of units listed at the top. It also doesn't state if there are transaction fees, which you mentioned in another comment.
Found it confusing too. Easy fix would be to add a new row in the table with the numbers so it appears in both the table and the graphic.
We'll review this, thanks for the input!
Re: Ask HN: Review RentPost.com
#100I own with my father a 30 unit building. With that, let me just address the tagline: "Connect with tenants effortlessly, automate rent with online rent collection, organize work orders, and much more!" - Connect with tenants effortlessly - Not a good thing, Usually leads to excess work orders, more "asks" and petty squabbles about this and that. - Automate rent with online rent collection - Not sure how this is going…
Offtopic, but why the hell are people still using cash/check to pay bills in this day and age? What country are you in? Do they not have modern banking?
I'm not sure where DanBlake is from, but paying rent by cash/cheque is still the norm in Canada.