There has to be a better way

At RentSquare, we’re trying to change the way Londoners rent by redesigning the private rental sector with service design and open data. Here’s why.

It became clear to me during the many years I spent working in both the public and private housing sectors that something wasn’t working. People who work in housing are placed in the tricky position of having to represent the interests and agendas of a third party. I was forced to wear someone else’s shoes, and at the same time, explain the interests of those third parties to community organisations and local residents. The “why” was often frustrating; trying to explain why the council wanted to knock down someone’s home or why a third party was asking for unreasonable amounts of money. It was a learning process, and it was all too often frustrating.

To that end, my colleagues and I have set ourselves the goal at RentSquare of creating a solution for everyday renters and everyday homeowners who want to strike a fair deal.

It’s an exciting but challenging goal, and we’re starting off our journey by targeting one specific demographic of the current private rental market. We’re looking for people in their twenties to forties who rent their home privately from a landlord (or wish to do so).

As private tenants, these people are offered the least amount of security and protection with regard to their homes. These ‘customers’ are, of course, actually real people looking for a home to live and bring up their family in — whatever shape or form that takes. Viewing human beings and tenants as “customers” not only affects the quality of homes on offer (double beds in wardrobes are quickly becoming a common feature in properties to let for example), but it also allows a speculative market to go wild.

Jokes aside, every single tenant knows the negative effect this has on their lives. But the joke is not just on them. People who own homes for rent — a.k.a. landlords — are also caught out in this market.

Landlords need an easier solution too

Very few people are aware that landlords who need help finding a tenant have to pay around 10% of their annual rental income in fees to find that tenant. They have to pay even more when renewing tenancy agreements. We think it’s safe to assume that most people dislike having to pay lots of money for a service they need, but that ultimately does not act in their own interests.

Landlords also lose out, of course, when their properties are left vacant because the proposed rent is too high to allow them to find the right tenant. Prices are set arbitrarily by a third party rather than on a realistic expectation based on local incomes. This leads to the loss of several months in potential rent because of a lack of suitable applicants.

Changing the status quo

Surely there must be a way to change the status quo of the current private rental market, so that neither party is caught out at the end of the day? To our minds, it’s the tenants and landlords who really matter, not the intermediary. An intermediary organisation needs the skill to make sure they can find a good landlord — tenant match, while still making a profit for the home owners. We hope to be that solution.

However, changing the status quo of a huge market means that people have to shift their perspective in well-established relationships of — I guess we can call it — power (with a little ‘p’ of course).

Calculating and sharing better rent prices that work for everyone

Changing the private rental market so that works better for all parties involved is what we are trying to do at RentSquare. Our service connects tenants and landlords around better rent prices.

Although we ourselves are just learning to walk as an organisation, we are very proud to have connected our first few tenants and landlords. These tenants and landlords have closed deals at rent prices that work for both parties, while saving a lot of money along the way.

So, does this mean we can officially call ourselves…errmm…letting agents?

We’ve got the obligatory window stickers an’ all!!

But are we letting agents? Or do we want to fill their shoes?

Fresh to the rental landscape, our team is made up of service designers intent on bringing a new perspective to the industry. We want to challenge and redesign existing practices by starting from first principles. This all allows us to do things differently — and it’s not just about having a flashy website, or our choice of clothing.

We are about finding a rent sweet spot between the money landlords need to make, and closer to what tenants can realistically afford. We plan on using openly available data and freely share with everyone what a better rent price looks like.

Transparency and information

Helping everyone get a fair deal is our aim — we firmly believe transparency and the power of information can make this possible. Once things are transparent and people have the information they need, then they can make their own choices — at least everything is out in the open.

We also know that certain, more ‘tedious’, processes must still exist even after we’ve overhauled the rental process. But, these processes don’t have to be unpleasant and rigid. Reference checks are tedious for example, but they are a means to an end. By contacting agents and landlords, even on the other side of the world, landlords and tenants can feel confident that they have all the information they need to make an informed decision.

What’s the most important thing we’ve learned so far on our adventures in real estate? We’ve found that when trying to accommodate the needs of a broad range of people, there’s a fine balance between being firm but nice. This can be challenging to achieve, but not impossible.

Our job is to understand how to redefine the boundaries of well-established practices in the sector in a way that works for everyone.

At RentSquare we’re currently looking for superhero landlords who want to get on board and change how things are done in this industry.

Do you think you are one? Or do you know one? If so, get in touch at hello@rentsquare.io and @therentsquare.

Alternatively, you can register on our website: www.rentsquare.io to help us crowdsource information about properties and fulfil our mission of defining fair rent prices.