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Ask HN: Review RentPost.com

rentpost.com

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Re: Ask HN: Review RentPost.com

#111

Post by MrFoof »

vaksel wrote: post #5

the problem is that most property owners aren't tech savvy. Most of them don't even have a webpage. And I'm not talking about the 1-2 unit owners...I'm talking about multi building companies with $600K in yearly revenue who haven't even bothered to setup a 1 page site with their phone # and hours of operation. If you are going to take on this market, you are going to need a direct on the ground sales team.

A lot of that has to do with the fact that people tend to be short sighted. i.e. What can you do for me "right now". They're not as concerned of the benefits over 3 or 6 months -- for example, having a tenant be happier because a work order was made and taken care of more quickly doesn't have an immediate, measurable return... hell, it might scare people off out of the fear that they'll get a deluge of inane requests (valid, how do you address that). Getting their money faster? That has an immediate measurable return. Possibly being able to see if a prospective tenant always pays on time? That might as well.

I'll agree that some form of pounding of the pavement and sales are going to be required. Just be picky in that regard -- there is a massive range in the quality of sales people, and the ones that genuinely care about the customer (instead of themselves) are also in the minority.

Re: Ask HN: Review RentPost.com

#113

Post by flatline »

axod wrote: post #92
DanBlake wrote: post #50

I 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?

Modern banking, and the expenses that go along with it. I'm not sure that it's actually legal to do this but almost any service like this (particularly rent and school payments) includes a "convenience fee" to offset the service provider fees, or for the middle-tier provider to make a profit, or both. Checks, electronic or physical, don't incur fees beyond whatever your agreement is with your bank.

Re: Ask HN: Review RentPost.com

#114

Post by kleinsch »

axod wrote: post #92
DanBlake wrote: post #50

I 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?

Banks charge 1-2% as a credit card fee, but no fees for using checks. In my building, they pass the fee along to me (the tenant), so it's in my best interest to pay by check.

Re: Ask HN: Review RentPost.com

#115

Post by Lewisham »

axod wrote: post #92
DanBlake wrote: post #50

I 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?

My wife doesn't trust automated debit systems. "If they take too much of your money, then what do you do?!"

I pay everything by CC, but she writes a lot of checks. She's not what I would call a luddite, she just doesn't trust other people with her money.

Re: Ask HN: Review RentPost.com

#116

Post by LiveTheDream »

DanBlake wrote: post #50

I 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…

You have an option to allow tenants to pay rent with a credit card?!? I am shocked about two things. First, doesn't it hurt you to lose the processing fee off the top? Second, why on earth are tenants still paying with a check when they could pay with a credit card and reap insane rewards points. Getting airline miles for such a large, regular expenditure is a free flight per year (not to mention charging and paying off rent each month probably would help increase your credit limit and credit score).

Re: Ask HN: Review RentPost.com

#117

Post by oojacoboo »

jacquesm wrote: post #95
droz wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

We're targeting both, landlords are smaller, and property management companies are larger. Their needs a very similar though. To get our base established, we are mostly targeting somewhat tech savvy landlords and small property management companies. We'll grow into larger and larger property management companies over time though.

Re: Ask HN: Review RentPost.com

#120

Post by dimitry »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #103
DanBlake wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 h…

" 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." It could work like that if there was Yelp For Landlords.

It depends on the rental market. Here in Pittsburgh, more landlords in the city are bad because it's such a heavy student population. What's the incentive to be good or to update apartment features? Every apartment gets rented out anyways.
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