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New Yorkers: help me defeat the evil NYC real estate market

rentenforcer.com

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Re: New Yorkers: help me defeat the evil NYC real estate market

#11

Post by rentenforcer »

zavulon wrote: post #4

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 p…

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

Re: New Yorkers: help me defeat the evil NYC real estate market

#12

Post by rentenforcer »

HaloZero wrote: post #7

Couldn't you scrape craigslist at least for some basic information about each neighborhood?

I easily could - the whole point is to avoid taking the information from the marketplace. The prices on craiglist are borderline fraudulent, and are meant to get you into the broker's office at which point they inform you "oh sorry that apt is gone, but here are 5 more that aren't as nice and twice the price!"

Re: New Yorkers: help me defeat the evil NYC real estate market

#14

Post by rentenforcer »

weeksie wrote: post #3

I love the idea, finding an apartment in this town is a harrowing experience. It's even worse for newbies who don't know the market and often get stuck with overpriced apartments like the ones Jakobson Properties rent out. What do you plan on doing with the data you're collecting? //edit: On your amenities list, you might want to add a field for duplex apartments.

I'm not 100%, and I turn to HN for ideas. I will likely be providing a free search/compare service for apartment lookers, and eventually charge the landlords to manage their page or something. But any ideas you have I'd love to hear. Ultimately I'd like to make some sort of API to the data (ie: destroy the gatekeeper to this information that makes the market so hard for consumers), but that will likely be secondary to the main product.

Re: New Yorkers: help me defeat the evil NYC real estate market

#15

Post by rentenforcer »

elai wrote: post #6

If I've never lived in NYC, or am planning to move there, there is no way for this to be useful to me. Let us see the data once you've gotten enough without putting anything in. Or do it glassdoor style where you only partially see data.

Definitely agree, this will be the next step. The project is about a day old, so I'd love to hear your thoughts on what directions it should go in.

Re: New Yorkers: help me defeat the evil NYC real estate market

#18

Post by jseliger »

zavulon wrote: post #4

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 p…

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.

Re: New Yorkers: help me defeat the evil NYC real estate market

#20

Post by rentenforcer »

dguido wrote: post #17

If you want to help New Yorker's, you're going to have to make an option for "0" bedrooms, as that is quite common around here :-).

Hmm...I figured those people would select 1 BR and hit the Flex/Studio checkbox, but I guess that's not so clear? Maybe I should make it 0/Studio -> 5+ and then change the Flex/Studio checkbox to just Flex? Thoughts?
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