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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

#461

Post by tut-urut-utut »

e12e wrote: post #201
tut-urut-utut wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The assumption that software can solve this problem is simply wrong. It's the regulation change that needs to happen if you don't want that renter pay the broker "services". For example, a new law in Germany to apply the "who hires pays" principle for brokers in the renting market basically made the renting "broker fee free" for renters. Previously, the landlords would hire a broker that needed to be paid by the rent…

> "who hires pays" principle for brokers in the renting market basically made the renting "broker fee free" for renters. How can that work? Landlord (absent regulation) set the rents as high as they want/can get away with. What's the difference between 100/month rent + 50/month broker fee, and 150/month rent + "zero"/month broker fee?

Landlord already charges as much as they can. Increasing his cost will not magically mean that they can suddenly charge more than they can.

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

#462

Post by KingMachiavelli »

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.

> In the suburbs and exurbs, probably less so, but this is where everyone has a car as a prerequisite for living [...]

Sure but that doesn't work very well for when you want to spend the weekends drinking. The cities in the US that have grown the most over the last 10 or 20 years are still very much suburban and lack good public transportation. The lack of low cost and convenient transportation services quite literally resulted in fatal accidents.

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

#463

Post by anitil »

AJRF wrote: post #415
literallycancer wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not ask the bank to confirm that you make enough, without revealing how much you make and your whole spending history?

In competitive rental markets, there will always be another tenant who will not be "difficult" in the eyes of the agent who will snatch the place up from you if you start going off the beaten path. Before I got my place there were 3 other apartments in the same complex I verbally agreed to and then agent called back to say it had been taken. Not sure if you've rented in likes of London, NY or SF before but the compet…

So often this is the case. Someone asks something unreasonable, and pushing back gets you marked as difficult. It acts as a filter, even if done unintentionally

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

#464

Post by wanderingmind »

AJRF wrote: post #302

I recently moved house. I was previously living with my friend, and we had an agreement I pay sometime before the end of the month. He gave me a contract and said you'll need this, just because when you go to the next place they will ask you for your previous contract. He found it online, it was boiler plate and we agreed verbally I pay him whenever during the month. We we're really good friends, and I lived there fo…

I had the experience other way around. I did my graduate degree developing solvers and algorithms to analyze mechanical and civil structures. Heck, I even did TA for one of these grad level courses. However, when it was time to find a job, software screening cleared me but it was impossible to find a job because I could not convince the HR and hiring manager that I have the necessary experience using softwares that run such algorithms to design structures. I would happily adapt a software system that has less bias (or atleast bias normalized from different viewpoints and quantified) that having to deal with human bias that is not easily identifiable or quantifiable. Also such human bias is particularly harsh against poor and marginalized groups.

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

#465

Post by vineyardmike »

dralley wrote: post #233
handmodel wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber and Lyft are 100% a win though. - It is now cheaper for the average person to get a ride to an airport/bar than it was before. It is safer, more predictable with timing, and more predictable with pricing. - Uber drivers make more money today than taxi drivers used to/or do today. There are also way more job openings in this than there used to be, with less friction to get involved. The world is not a zero sum ga…

>- 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…

> are venture capitalists just footing the bill?

Since they're public, its any shareholder and the public market. But that also means they're probably not still raising rounds like they were.

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

#466

Post by bobsmooth »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #421
AJRF wrote: post #302

I recently moved house. I was previously living with my friend, and we had an agreement I pay sometime before the end of the month. He gave me a contract and said you'll need this, just because when you go to the next place they will ask you for your previous contract. He found it online, it was boiler plate and we agreed verbally I pay him whenever during the month. We we're really good friends, and I lived there fo…

> They said they couldn't override the software - which I don't believe at all. This is why I'm worried by - no, I hate - the automation of bureaucracy, governmental and business alike. Software is giving bureaucrats the perfect escape hatch. "I'm sorry, but The System won't let me". The System won't let a low-level clerk fix the mistake some algorithm made. You escalate to the manager, but The System won't let them…

>Software is giving bureaucrats the perfect escape hatch. "I'm sorry, but The System won't let me".

Kafka would be proud. Or horrified. One of the two.

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

#467

Post by KingMachiavelli »

yawaworht1978 wrote: post #423

Economically a great result, that is indisputable. A small "but" however, did you also improve the customer experience? I am asking as someone who has lived long term in many Airbnb and similar platforms, and almost every single on of them has problems, uses every trick not covered by terms and conditions and has an evasive and unresponsive customer service. Too many to list but I've experienced: No car parking avail…

Given the system has no way of knowing if the lister/landlord is just lieing or being misleading (beyond maybe users reporting the entire post as fraud).

However this platform does is make it easy to visually inspect the unit. Since these are long(er) term rentals, the whole point is that you can inspect before you lease so checking things like parking, WiFi, and air conditioning should be pretty easy.

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

#468

Post by monkeycantype »

mathgladiator wrote: post #432
TeMPOraL wrote: post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They said they couldn't override the software - which I don't believe at all. This is why I'm worried by - no, I hate - the automation of bureaucracy, governmental and business alike. Software is giving bureaucrats the perfect escape hatch. "I'm sorry, but The System won't let me". The System won't let a low-level clerk fix the mistake some algorithm made. You escalate to the manager, but The System won't let them…

Computer says no: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n_Ty_72Qds

can I tell you something crazy about that. We know that joke is from little Britain , because you tube gives us the video. But the joke was actually in a different show first, i think it was called 'people like us' and the scene was in a real estate agent

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

#469

Post by solveit »

hguant wrote: post #347
nly wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why did you pay him on willy nilly days instead of just setting up a recurring standing order and being done with it?

Because for certain professions income is reliable but not set to a 14 day pay cycle. Could be that OP is a freelance author and is paid depending on when stories are picked up, or is contracting for multiple employers and has an irregular payment schedule depending on their invoicing. Not everyone conforms to the same set of employment/fiscal assumptions we (here meaning "educated white collar US tech workers") may…

So OP is illiquid? Then categorising OP as a risk is perfectly correct.

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

#470

Post by thaumasiotes »

> On search, we decided that self-tour viewings on an apartment ought to feel like 2-day shipping on a product on Amazon. Knowing that you can get a given product tomorrow or the next day vs. an alternative a week from now can drive purchasing decisions - for good reason.

That's how Amazon used to do shipping - when you go to checkout, they offer you a menu of shipping speeds, you can pick the speed you want, and then the item will arrive by the time you picked.

It has nothing to do with how Amazon does shipping now. Today, Amazon offers zero choice in shipping speeds, provides an estimate of when your item will arrive, and won't honor the estimate.

Don't try to emulate Amazon's shipping "options". They couldn't offer a worse shipping experience if they wanted to.

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