Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Bidding Website Rentberry May Be the Startup of Your Nightmares (gizmodo.com)

Posted by msmash on from the shape-of-things-to-come dept.

Renting is already fraught with pain, from annual rent hikes to extortionate lettings fees. But if a new service called Rentberry takes off, it could be about to get a lot worse. From a report: Rentberry has been operating in test cities and angering affordable housing advocates since 2016. But with its new expansion into 1,000 cities in the United States, the rental bidding website is about to piss off a lot more people. Alex Lubinksy, founder of Rentberry, seems to be pursuing an image that's closer to Uber's vilified Travis Kalanick than the do-gooder model of Elon Musk. Lubinsky courts the controversy that surrounds his startup and is known to include negative press when communicating his vision to reporters. But one big difference with Rentberry will be that if it takes off and becomes the new standard for renting apartments, most of its customers won't be able to run a #deleteRentberry campaign because landlords will have the control. The website essentially functions as a cross between CraigsList and eBay. A landlord lists a rental space and potential tenants bid against one another to claim the lease. Tenants' personal information is available to the landlord. The landlord then makes their final decision by weighing what the best offer is along with which bidder seems like they'd be the best tenant. For now, Rentberry charges users a $25 fee, but in the future, it plans to charge 25 percent of the difference between the asking price and the agreed upon rent. Whoever received the better deal pays the fee -- every month.

8 of 307 comments (clear)

  1. Only in America by Nidi62 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Rent-seeking off those seeking rent. Oh the irony.

    --
    The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
    1. Re:Only in America by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      No, it has nothing to do with "government mandates". It refers to anyone who tries to extract profits without actually doing any more work. Monopolies (cable companies, unregulated utilities, patent holders, etc.) do it all the time.

  2. Seems like a good idea to me... by imgod2u · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It matches supply with demand. If rents are too high the root problem is there isn't enough housing being built. All of this yelling about "greed" and "rent control" and even worse -- high minimum wage -- are just bandaids that won't solve the root of the problem.

    So politicians get to "champion the little guy" with ineffective measures while enjoying their large lots for their own housing and collecting expensive property taxes. But woe be you if you're a developer seeking to build more housing units. Fees and permits alone will scare away all but the most determined (and profit seeking).

  3. Rent controls by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This service is effectively illegal in Quebec.

    Enjoy paying $3000 for a shithole in Manhattan you anti-regulation lunatics

  4. The downfall of this idea by Sydin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is that landlords have access to bidders personal information, and that the landlord gets to "choose" among the bidders who actually gets to rent the property, regardless of their offers. The article compares the service to ebay, but a key difference is that on ebay the highest bidder always gets the item, provided they can actually pay up. By putting that power instead in the hands of the landlords, the company is really shooting themselves in the foot. Some landlord somewhere will eventually turn down a higher bid from a black/latino/etc potential tenant in favor of a white one, or a male tenant instead of a female one or vice versa, etc etc. Then both the landlord and the company will be buried up to their eyeballs in litigation from every conceivable direction.

  5. Re:Want to keep property a certain way? BUY IT! by drew_kime · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Hey, if you want to maintain your view of the beach ... join together with your neighborhoods to purchase that property, and maintain it as you see fit—and pool your resources together to fend off that violently imposed monopoly (something something eminent domain).

    I did join together with my neighbors to purchase the property. It's called being a citizen and paying taxes.

    Oh, wait, did you mean to pool together with such a small group that we could be easily overruled by a corporation?

    --
    Nope, no sig
  6. Re:Don't like Rentberry? by cayenne8 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No. NYC does not have enough rental units.

    Well, at some point, a city is a finite resource, and it sounds like NYC is about full, and people need to look elsewhere perhaps, to live?

    Sure, everyone has a right to live wherever they want, but they don't necessarily have a right to "afford" to live wherever they want.

    Everything in life has a price.

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  7. Re:Apartments being too expensive is signal to bui by drew_kime · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Resources get allocated poorly, producing too much of what the economy doesn't need, and too little of what the economy does need.

    "The economy" doesn't need shit. It's people who need things.

    --
    Nope, no sig