91–100 of 593 posts
Landlords being able to require proof of no evictions in rent history makes sense (even though it absolutely makes life worse for people who fell on any form of hardship), but why are landlords even allowed to demand proof of no felonies?!
We started Seam (YC S20) a year ago to take on the problem of programmatic access to physical spaces (apartments, single-family homes, commercial buildings...etc). Basically one API that can open any door (smart locks, elevators, commercial buildings...etc). We're still in private beta but feel free to reach out if you're struggling with programmatic access. tbh, it's baffling that in 2021, this problem is still so d…
Code locks?
Landlords being able to require proof of no evictions in rent history makes sense (even though it absolutely makes life worse for people who fell on any form of hardship), but why are landlords even allowed to demand proof of no felonies?!
Probably for the same reason your employer does. Not saying it's fair to discriminate against people who have paid their debt to society but I wouldn't be crazy about having a rapist or murderer neighbor.
The idea behind that is that recidivism is best prevented by letting people be normal parts of society (=being able to work and live in peace) once they have served their term.
Would love something like this to kill (or at least severely maim) the broker industry in NYC. 0 value added at the cost of 10-15% of yearly rent.
Many software companies fix the problem, disrupt rent-seekers with reduced costs, only to later become rent-seekers that have the market power to increase costs.
We started Seam (YC S20) a year ago to take on the problem of programmatic access to physical spaces (apartments, single-family homes, commercial buildings...etc). Basically one API that can open any door (smart locks, elevators, commercial buildings...etc). We're still in private beta but feel free to reach out if you're struggling with programmatic access. tbh, it's baffling that in 2021, this problem is still so d…
Their job is to unlock a door.
Why they can make a hundred thousand dollars a year is criminal.
In my country at least, the ratio of professionalism, accountability, value-added to fees/earnings is the lowest of any occupation I can think of. It would be really low-hanging fruit for tech to disrupt, but unfortunately the real estate boards recognize this, and hold the critical data with an iron fist (from what I understand).
It would probably take some serious legal battles to pry that industry open.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sadly, our experience shows that 'the algorithm' becomes very centralized (because of the network effect), and suddenly this new middleman starts extracting fees comparable to the previous middlemen.
Please see: ticket sales: Ticketmaster, Stubhub, etc. In theory, these make sense and reduce anti-consumer inefficiency like scalping that individual venues are not equipped to deal with. In practice, they extract fees. It's not that they are bad, per se, just that if the opportunity exists, someone with a spreadsheet will spot it, likely with the best intentions but no eye to the overall impact. EDIT: To be clear, I…
We started Seam (YC S20) a year ago to take on the problem of programmatic access to physical spaces (apartments, single-family homes, commercial buildings...etc). Basically one API that can open any door (smart locks, elevators, commercial buildings...etc). We're still in private beta but feel free to reach out if you're struggling with programmatic access. tbh, it's baffling that in 2021, this problem is still so d…
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…
So the landlords just make the rent more expensive to account for having to pay the broker, what changed?