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We replaced rental brokers with software and filled 200 vacant apartments

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Re: We replaced rental brokers with software and filled 200 vacant apartments

#381

Post by __sy__ »

azdle wrote: post #304
__sy__ wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes I remember our convo! Also, i really don't like to be the bearer of bad news, but I was talking to their Venture team and unfortunately that ship has already sailed. They've sold the hardware business to Aeotek and are progressively scaling down the team :( Ping me at sy@getseam.com and lets see if I can get you going with some beta units.

lol, no. We're hiring as fast as we can right now for software devs: https://smartthings.pinpointhq.com/

ah! I stand corrected. I swear I had two calls in the last 3-4 months with some Samsung Next folks where it was like, "yeah, we're kind of outta this game."

Re: We replaced rental brokers with software and filled 200 vacant apartments

#382

Post by xeromal »

subpixel wrote: post #365
bko wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> On average, in certain locations. In others, not so much. And let's not forget surge pricing. Or people living, or wanting to get to a place, along low-profit routes. Or people with disabilities. You can always take a regular cab. Low profit routes were pretty much impossible to get pre-Uber. I am almost certain that Uber is more likely to obey disability laws than "Joe's taxi" with a few cars. > Depends. Regular t…

> Low profit routes were pretty much impossible to get pre-Uber. In cities, that's absurd - car services existed for decades serving just this part of the market, and they let you schedule in advance! In the suburbs and exurbs, probably less so, but this is where everyone has a car as a prerequisite for living in a house with a multi-car garage.

Something something rose-tinted glasses.

You could schedule in advance. Now having them actually show up? That was debatable. lol

Re: We replaced rental brokers with software and filled 200 vacant apartments

#383

Post by pishpash »

xadhominemx wrote: post #374
pishpash wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never seen it go towards first month's rent, but that's not the point. The money isn't going to the landlord or the tenant, but to the data aggregators.

A lot of it is highly manual on the back end, calling and faxing random state agencies. It’s not like it’s a 90% operating margin business or a lot of companies would be getting in and driving pricing down.

Pretty sure it's infinite% margin when the same report is sent again for another application fee.

Re: We replaced rental brokers with software and filled 200 vacant apartments

#384

Post by colinmhayes »

yunohn wrote: post #356
colinmhayes wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not really right at all. The percentage of fees that are passed on is completely dependent on elasticity. >All fees are passed onto customers is not even close to correct.

Most business only absorb the minimum amount of margin loss they can, and for very short terms. No business aims to operate at a loss unless propped up by outside investments. All businesses will increase prices to maintain the profits they need, up until what the market will bear - which is why taxes will also not end up pushing it too far, the gov isn’t stupid.

Again, it depends on elasticities. Businesses can't just raise prices and expect demand to remain at old levels. People quickly substitute goods and services in the face of price changes. In the case of mcdonalds price increases cause people to cook or eat food that doesn't need to be prepared. In the case of rent, supply is fixed, so landlords are already charging monopoly prices. There is very close to zero wiggle room for landlords to raise prices.

Re: We replaced rental brokers with software and filled 200 vacant apartments

#385

Post by llampx »

compsciphd wrote: post #324
gentleman11 wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The purpose of the medallions, in theory, is to improve the chances that the average cab driver can make a living wage. Can the average Uber driver live a middle class income from this “gig”? > When accounting for the ride-sharing company’s commissions and fees, vehicle expenses and a modest health insurance package, Uber drivers end up earning just $9.21 in hourly wages, according to a new study from the Economic Po…

the average cabby can't buy a medalion, he therefore has to pay a fee to someone who owns a car with a medalion to rent the car for a period of time (+ probably paying the owner a percentage of his take). As opposed to using his own car and keeping everything that uber lets him to keep which might be less than what the medalion owner would have taken. hence, increase in money into pocket for the uber/lyft driver. wit…

The sharecropper / feudal lord model.

Re: We replaced rental brokers with software and filled 200 vacant apartments

#386

Post by foobiekr »

icholy wrote: post #240
dralley wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>- It is now cheaper for the average person to get a ride to an airport/bar than it was before. Is it? Or are venture capitalists just footing the bill? Whatever model of "price" you use needs to take into account the fact that not only are Uber and Lyft lighting enormous piles of Saudi money on fire to "gain marketshare" but that the actual drivers are being paid peanuts. This isn't pure win, it's more like Nestle h…

I never understood why uber needs 2000+ engineers on staff.

In order to pretend to be a tech company.

Same reason they pretended to work on flying taxis and self-driving cars. The multiple for high tech companies is greater than the multiple for taxi companies or even basic Web2.0-style one-trick app companies.

Re: We replaced rental brokers with software and filled 200 vacant apartments

#387

Post by majormajor »

colinmhayes wrote: post #296
tenpies wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spoiler: the landlord is just passing that cost to the tenant. It's like in Canada where tenants can hire a broker for "free" to find a rental. However the broker just collects 1 month rent from the landlord. Do you think the landlord just absorbs the cost? No, the quoted rent was just 8.4% higher when the broker mentioned he was a broker.

Landlords can't pass costs to tenants. The rental market is completely supply inelastic. Landlords are already charging the maximum renters are willing to pay.

Do you mean at this moment in time because of Covid, or in general?

Because in general, there have been easy-to-find examples in the past couple decades of rents going up 5-10% every year for folks in certain places with aggressive landlords. Were they willing to pay 5-10% more suddenly in year n+1, or were they charged less than the maximum they would've been willing to pay in year n?

Re: We replaced rental brokers with software and filled 200 vacant apartments

#388

Post by sib »

an_opabinia wrote: post #76
literallycancer wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the landlords just make the rent more expensive to account for having to pay the broker, what changed?

> So the landlords just make the rent more expensive to account for having to pay the broker, what changed? Nothing. Clearly brokers are doing something or else people wouldn't pay for them. My theory is the broker fee has positive selection for wealthier tenants, which for every property - low or high rent - makes for an economically better tenant. Raising the rent has the same effect. We care that there's cheap ren…

They're also creating an implicit discount for longer-term tenants (which is good for landlords).

When I rented my place in NYC some years ago, the broker fee was meaningful to me. Once I paid it, I was less likely to want to move since I'd have to pay it again vs renewing my existing lease which did not involve another broker fee.

Re: We replaced rental brokers with software and filled 200 vacant apartments

#389

Post by why_only_15 »

e1g wrote: post #297
albedoa wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your own link says that NYC landlords are required to mitigate damages by seeking a new tenant.

Yes, as of July 2019, which is not the context of the OP discussion and why I said "at the time..."

July 2019 was pre-covid?

Re: We replaced rental brokers with software and filled 200 vacant apartments

#390

Post by vanusa »

Nice (maybe) but the "filled 200 vacant apartments" is meaningless - it not outright deceptive.

"Filled N apartments" compared to what baseline? That is, what is the comparative rate of success? And what is the total transaction cost? What about the inventory that couldn't be rented? And what about all the tenants getting dissed by the algorithm (read: discriminated against, perhaps unlawfully), per a sibling comment to this one?

Then again, these are realtors, so we expect them to blow smoke up our... nevermind.

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