Rentberry: revolutionizing the rental market with AI

AI Business

August 5, 2016

2 Min Read
Just last year, Alex Lubinsky spent four weeks trying to find a place to rent in San Francisco – a relatively long time for anyone in need of a home, let alone someone with an already-hectic schedule.
Alex identified the problem: the application process.
“Landlords weren’t calling back, brokers were being unhelpful – the system didn’t work,” Alex told AI Business.
Alex’s new company Rentberry offers the solution – described on its website as a ‘transparent platform for uniting landlords and tenants’, with the mantra: ‘Renting. Done Right. Finally’.

So how is renting done right with Rentberry, and what the role does AI have to play in the system?  Alex explains:

“The unique proposition of Rentberry is to cut out all the hassle of a third party, and allow for complete transparency between landlord and tenant. Each party has their own profile in the platform – so when a potential tenant submits application with the price offer for place they love, the landlord immediately gets notified. Landlords then can analyse all applications, together with credit and background reports, of the potential tenants in a very user-friendly format.

“Using AI, the system is able to analyse each applicant individually based 30 different factors including information on their job, education, roommates, social profiles (if any), credit report and feedback (good and bad) from previous landlords with natural language processing, to produce an overall ‘Recommendation’ for the landlord. It will also give them updates on prices in neighborhoods changing in real-time – very important in an expensive part of the world such as the San Francisco Bay Area.”

“From the tenant’s perspective, they can also see the feedback on the landlord, and the system will tell them the demand for the property – providing them an opportunity to submit an educated offer”.

The Rentberry business model is simple but effective: they take from the landlord 25% of every dollar that is above the rental price that was initially published for the property, and $25 from the tenant when they secure the property – much cheaper, of course, than the nowadays standard application fee of $45.

Rentberry launched less than two months ago, and after a ‘phenomenal reception’, including TV coverage on CBS and Fox, they had more than 13,000 users within the first fortnight.

They already have two offices – one in the Bay Area and one in Europe – as well as 14 employees, and after a flying start, it sounds like there will be a lot more to come.

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