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Datamining a Flat in Munich

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Re: Datamining a Flat in Munich

#91

Post by fiatjaf »

dazbradbury wrote: post #87
fiatjaf wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not really "open" if you have to pay, right?

You don't have to pay to use the site, apply for properties, or advertise properties - the fact that wasn't immediately clear is something we probably need to work on! We charge to advertise on external websites only (who charge us), to conduct referencing (because it costs us), and to set up tenancies (again, because it costs us) - rental transactions complete daily on our site completely for free.

Sorry for the misunderstanding. Now that you explained it, I think this is a GREAT business model.

Thank you for existing.

(Does it work great? Do you have a lot of paying customers?)

Re: Datamining a Flat in Munich

#92

Post by tomek_zemla »

lordbusiness wrote: post #49
erikb wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you could say some more about it, to make it useful for people who haven't read that book?

It's a significant portion of the book so to summarize in a tiny comment will likely not do justice to the concept. However, I'll try. :-) In essence, maven comes from Yiddish, and it means "one who accumulates knowledge". Economists spend a lot of time studying mavens and their habits. Mavens are the people who will analyze every big screen TV on the market, pouring over data, correcting consumer report articles on…

You just made me want to read this book... Thank you.

Re: Datamining a Flat in Munich

#93

Post by fiatjaf »

anvarik wrote: post #82
fiatjaf wrote: post #60

I'm in the business of renting out flats. Not in Munich. Sadly, I'm in a lower-demand market, and I wouldn't rush to classify this as "discrimination". It is very very difficult to deal with bad tenants. They exist, a lot of them. And it is very very difficult to know who is a bad tenant through these websites and Facebook groups. The problem here is an information problem. If these sites gave the person applying for…

Why the heck shouldn't I classify this as discrimination? He tried Hans, an Italian female name, and his own, I believe is Karim. And he gets less replies than any other. He probably wrote a pretty darn good e-mail saying how educated and well-behaved he is, bla bla from Paris have degrees etc, but guess what, no replies. Just because of his name! That is what I call discrimination, and in Germany it is pretty common…

Maybe "discrimination" is other name for "bad decision when good information about the other part is lacking".

Re: Datamining a Flat in Munich

#94

Post by [deleted] »

dazbradbury wrote: post #84

I'm one of the founders at OpenRent (UK rental site [1]), and loved your post. We face this kind of problem daily, and have tools in place to make sure our landlords reply to all tenants - even if it's to provide a reason why they're not suitable. We're constantly looking at better ways to solve this problem and improve the tenant experience - and your post will prove an excellent bit of anecdotal insight for us. Our…

[deleted]

Re: Datamining a Flat in Munich

#95

Post by yock »

netcan wrote: post #39
sauere wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anti-discrimination laws do not solve any problems, they make them worse. If someone is not willing to hire a person because of their ethnicity/color/sex/age/whatever, a law will not make him do it. Finding an excuse is too easy and it is basically impossible to prove such things in court. I recommend watching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzXXvUjg8Fo

I really dislike this mentality. I think it's counterproductive, and I hope you change your mind. Laws play their role. Sometimes they walk fine lines between usefulness, uselessness and harmfulness, but they are not unequivocally useless in all such cases. Consider the gay awakening. When I was in high school the world was a qualitatively different place for homosexuals. A worse place. The axis around which culture…

This feels like pie-in-the-sky sort of thinking. Sure, you can make certain kinds of decision making processes illegal, but it doesn't change the hearts and minds of the people making those decisions. As has been said here already, this only pushes those processes out of the public eye and into the private space. Those who would discriminate on illegal grounds will always be able to manufacture plausible deniability, which the posted article clearly demonstrates.

We'd all like to think we're better. That's what leads us down the path of legislating out way out of prejudice. It's not a solution. To me, the article suggests an alternative way to fight it: information. Forget equal opportunity, affirmative action, whatever label you want to put on it. Publishing the data, putting a name with the prejudice on display for everyone to see, is the proper fight. Then the people who profit from the prejudice, and those who participate in the system, can be pressured to change. Failing that, society can marginalize them.

Re: Datamining a Flat in Munich

#96

Post by fiatjaf »

dazbradbury wrote: post #84

I'm one of the founders at OpenRent (UK rental site [1]), and loved your post. We face this kind of problem daily, and have tools in place to make sure our landlords reply to all tenants - even if it's to provide a reason why they're not suitable. We're constantly looking at better ways to solve this problem and improve the tenant experience - and your post will prove an excellent bit of anecdotal insight for us. Our…

Would you care to share how did you overcome the network effect when starting OpenRent?

Re: Datamining a Flat in Munich

#97

Post by ivancamilov »

Kurtz79 wrote: post #38

"Reasonnable means that the rent doesn’t exceed 800€ for a 15m² flat" Is living in 15 m² reasonable ? I live in a studio of about 30 m² and I find it claustrophobic at times.

My thoughts exactly. Here I was, complaining that it's hard to get an affordable apartment in my city, and they live in teeny tiny rooms in Europe!

Re: Datamining a Flat in Munich

#98

Post by dazbradbury »

fiatjaf wrote: post #91
dazbradbury wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have to pay to use the site, apply for properties, or advertise properties - the fact that wasn't immediately clear is something we probably need to work on! We charge to advertise on external websites only (who charge us), to conduct referencing (because it costs us), and to set up tenancies (again, because it costs us) - rental transactions complete daily on our site completely for free.

Sorry for the misunderstanding. Now that you explained it, I think this is a GREAT business model. Thank you for existing. (Does it work great? Do you have a lot of paying customers?)

We have over 15k landlords, and let a property on average in less than a week - so yes, I think it works pretty well. :-)

The more people using our platform, the better it gets, so really we just need to work on our marketing - starting with making sure people understand our concept from the word go. Would you mind explaining why you thought there was a charge, and what pages helped you understand the business better?

Re: Datamining a Flat in Munich

#99

Post by MrBuddyCasino »

freyfogle wrote: post #52
MrBuddyCasino wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wish I knew it when I was moving to Munich 6 months ago. Sounds like a tough job, some of those sites aren't structured very well. I thought about automating it too, but it seemed like too much hassle back then. I have to say though, when you are a german couple, have a double income with no children/no pets, its not that hard to find something. I don't envy the rest though!

One of our biggest challenges is making the service known. The problem is real estate is a low frequency category. When you are searching, you care a lot, when you aren't you couldn't care less. As a result, even if we do a great job, once you find a place you gone. We've been doing it for many years and have tried many things, but if anyone has further suggestions always happy to learn.

I imagine, real estate keywords are probably very expensive. Also, I have an ad blocker.

In cities like Munich, speed is very important - is your search real-time or at least near rt? If so, I'd advertise that. I need to be sure I'm not missing any offerings, and that they aren't slower to show than when going to the 'real' site.

Re: Datamining a Flat in Munich

#100

Post by gambiting »

anvarik wrote: post #79
gambiting wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it has more to do with age than to do with origin. When I was looking for a place in the UK after getting my first job and earning decent money I was straight up told by an agency that many landlords wouldn't even consider me because I was "too young to rent a house", even though I had the money for it. Age discrimination is perfectly legal everywhere(apart from job interviews maybe) - think car insurance - s…

OP says a german guy named Hans gets answer all the time. So has nothing to do with age.

Could it not be both?
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