Cribspot (YC W15) is a search engine for college housing • Hacker News Board

Re: Cribspot (YC W15) is a search engine for college housing

#11

Post by chralieboy » Mon, Mar 23, 2015, 9:51 PM UTC

A couple of questions that came to me after reading through this:

The interface looks great, so much better than Craigslist. What advantages do you provide for landlords that Craigslist/Lovely do not have?

I'm guessing that college students are a much less attractive market. Youth means no/less credit or rental history, students have lower income, and are more likely to damage property. As a landlord, why would I want to specifically target a less-desirable market? Or do you think that, in large college towns, they've already accepted those conditions?

Re: Cribspot (YC W15) is a search engine for college housing

#12

Post by timjones » Mon, Mar 23, 2015, 10:23 PM UTC

chralieboy wrote: post #11

A couple of questions that came to me after reading through this: The interface looks great, so much better than Craigslist. What advantages do you provide for landlords that Craigslist/Lovely do not have? I'm guessing that college students are a much less attractive market. Youth means no/less credit or rental history, students have lower income, and are more likely to damage property. As a landlord, why would I wan…

Thanks for the compliments on the interface!

College students don't use Lovely for off-campus housing - the best properties don't need to be advertised beyond a property manager's website. We've been more heavily focused on solving the renter's needs to-date, and focus on bubbling up those properties that other websites don't have. For now, we provide free leads to property managers, so that value is obvious.

College landlords often rely on co-signers (parents), and many perform background checks on both the renter and the co-signer. There are certain areas in college towns where literally every property is rented by a student. If a landlord purchases a house in that area, they understand that their renters will almost definitely be students. Demand for these properties is so high that they are almost guaranteed 100% occupancy every year, so it's still an attractive investment.

Re: Cribspot (YC W15) is a search engine for college housing

#13

Post by tiffanygk » Thu, Mar 26, 2015, 5:19 AM UTC

I am wondering how you are planning to handle the legality of subleasing and enforcement, especially seeing as almost all landlords for college towns do not allow subleasing, but it happens. Which also leads to an alarming amount of subleasers skipping the last month of rent or stealing from the property since they know they are living there in secret from the landlord and therefore their rent collection is unenforceable. As a college renter this is the biggest problem I would like to see fixed, given the 12 month lease for a 8 month school year and study abroad opportunities becoming commonplace.

Re: Cribspot (YC W15) is a search engine for college housing

#14

Post by timjones » Fri, Apr 03, 2015, 8:59 PM UTC

tiffanygk wrote: post #13

I am wondering how you are planning to handle the legality of subleasing and enforcement, especially seeing as almost all landlords for college towns do not allow subleasing, but it happens. Which also leads to an alarming amount of subleasers skipping the last month of rent or stealing from the property since they know they are living there in secret from the landlord and therefore their rent collection is unenforce…

Sorry for missing this!

Right now, it is up to the student to make sure they abide by the rules set forth by their landlord for subleasing. Typically this is just filling out a form telling them who will be living in the property, and in some cases, an additional fee. We would prefer to keep the legal responsibilities on the student, but will work towards making it as easy as possible to facilitate transactions and contracts with the subletter online.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!