Bro, we need Glassdoor for renting...
this post was submitted on 21 May 2024
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I'll build it, just as soon as you figure out how it gets paid for.
Get paid by landlords to remove negative reviews, like yelp. Offer to show all reviews, even removed ones, to renters that pay for the premium service.
Ew, I feel gross after coming up with that idea.
It's a lovely pattern to look out for, your efforts to show just how ugly it is, are welcome.
For anyone considering implementing this: No.
Real estate advertising, surely?
Yeah. No.
"Advertise your rental property on the page where your tenants review you."
Most retailer websites have customer reviews on them?
They could also promote houses for sale (not rent).
I think it works.
"I mean... If you really value your brand, you'll stand behind it? I can put you on the opt-out list though, so future tenants know you don't stand behind it. I'm offering value at a fraction of the cost of advertisement and you're paying for peace of mind."
shake down bad landlords to delete bad reviews.
charge landlords for priority in search results.
sell searcher info as marketing data.
sell search trends as financial early indicators to hedge funds.
expand to HOA reviews for neighborhoods.
Nonprofit ... crowd funded... build it and all you need afterward are paying for servers. Then you're just doing donations like Wikipedia. How much would would it cost to maintain such servers? Seems fundable by a wealthy liberal.
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For apartment complexes there's yelp/Google maps reviews.
I just left a building with 4.5 stars on Google that was an absolute horrific nightmare. Somehow they had gamed the system so that all the recent very negative reviews got mostly taken down or hidden. Do NOT trust Google reviews if you have any inkling the place is sketchy. (I did but the reviews and price were good)
Indeed, while this idea should work in principle, I've found it mostly useless in practice.
I don't know if all large apartment complexes are notoriously bad, but a few years ago, you'd mainly find horrifically negative reviews on those sites (likely because only people who have had issues with them actually bothered to write a review in order to get their petty revenge on them).
Nowadays, all the management companies are aware of these sites, and they likely either pay Yelp to "manage" their reviews for them and/or incentivize their tenants to leave positive reviews (even though that's technically against the rules). Meanwhile, small buildings generally aren't even listed on these sites or don't have nearly enough reviews to get an objective picture.
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Those are shit though, on average. Only the very upset respond. You're going to have to figure out a way to make the satisfied show up.
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References for renting? What sort of dystopia is that? I've never heard of that concept, luckily.
It's common in Germany to get a "reference" from your current landlord that basically just says "paid rent on time and didn't set anything on fire".
Huh. Here we have registries for people who habitually don't pay on time, with a cooldown once they're caught up. If you're not in the registry it's assumed that you're good.
Don't worry, we have that registry in Germany as well. And you have to pay to get your own data from them (although a GDPR request works once a year)
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What country are you in? I thought landlord reference is the norm.
not a thing i've ever heard of in sweden, either apartments are just expensive or you need to sign up for a waiting list and maintain your spot for like 7 years until you have the queue points needed for the apartment you want to rent
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Never heard about it in Norway
I'm a Swede living in Denmark. Not a thing in Scandinavia, apparently.
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I'm having to do that now. Three years prior renting needs to be accounted for. I left on very bad terms with my previous landlord but I had to give the information over because it showed up on my history check and they refused to let my application be complete without it. So we'll see wtf is gonna happen...
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Wait, you only have to give a reference for a place to rent? Here in Ireland (Dublin) you need a scan of your passport, government id, work reference, housing reference, and at least bank statements from the last three months.
Depends on the market. Like New York City is competitive, I think they demand references because they have plenty of options for tenants. Other places maybe not so much. Whatever people can get away with they will do.
What the actual fuck? You renting a basement apartment or applying for a mortgage?
It's basically the same process. The ideal tenant is someone that can't afford a mortgage by the slimmest of margins.
Hang the land ~~lords~~ leeches.
Room or studio apartment.
https://www.daft.ie/for-rent/studio-apartment-1-dublin-20-dublin-20/5704336
"Verifiable reference’s essential Verifiable affordability essential"
The passport, government id, and work reference are all to make sure you can "afford" to live there.
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Some landlords will give good recommendations for shitty tenants, just so they can get rid of them.
One guy I bothered every day about his other tenant stomping across my ceiling. That landlord gave me a fantastic recommendation because he was tired of having to do any effort whatsoever instead of just receiving money for doing nothing.
I saw that tenant as I was moving out, "I don't understand the problem, I always wore my indoor boots?" Fuck apartments lol.
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Can confirm, had a friend rent a room in a house I was staying in (privately rented from the owner) after months of issues, he was given a glowing referee from myself and the owner, and swiftly ejected from the house. Guarantee it got him out the door a shitload quicker.
Catch 22 for everyone trying to move out of their parent's home when they specifically state the references can't be family.
lie through your teeth, the landlord won't hesitate to blatantly lie so neither should you.
oh no no mr landlord sir, this isn't my dad, this is my "previous landlord"!
just ask a friend and lie
Life hack: lie, steal and manipulate. Or be a honest homeless person. It's definitely not going to bother me. 
J Roc says Photoshop your pay stubs and get a friend to give you references
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It is an asymmetric relationship. The landlord only cares if a tenant can be trusted to pay rent and not trash the place. On the other hand, the tenant is getting a service (shelter and upkeep) from the landlord.
Like other service providers, an aggregate rating is probably more appropriate. Some people are fine as long as they have a roof and indoor plumbing while others rate 1-star if the water takes a minute to warm up. Some tenants care about kitchen appliances while others care about an updated bathroom. Some like to be woken up by the first rays of sun while others want a dark room to sleep in. It is important for tenants to both get a good aggregate of a landlord's quality but also understand if the landlord's faults are ones that they care about.
Being a landlord is morally wrong. Shelter is a human right, not a service. The service that they provide is not calling the cops to evict you so long as you pay them. They don't otherwise provide you with anything.
So, grocery stores are morally wrong? I mean, food is a human right, isn't it? What about hotels?
Providing a necessary service in exchange for money isn't morally wrong.
Not everyone wants to own property. It's a huge financial liability, and a pain in the ass, tbh. I actually know people who sold their homes and moved into apartments because they were sick of the time and money required to upkeep a house.
While there are absolutely landlords who are immoral, especially corporate landlords, saying that being a landlord is inherently immoral is just incorrect.
I do agree that grocery stores are morally wrong in some sense yes. People should not have to lend their bodies in order to eat. Hotels aren't morally wrong entirely, because they're only providing a place to stay temporarily. If they did provide long term stay and charged for it than yes that would be morally wrong. You'll note that I'm an anarchist.
There is no such thing as a moral landlord. And the people you're talking about downsized. The landlord does not do repairs, he hires handyman and trades workers to do repairs. The landlord collects a tax from you while giving you nothing in return. My rent is twice the monthly cost of a mortgage for a mini home in my area.
When you have a mortgage the money isn't gone when you spend it, it's used to pay off your loan. When you're done you own the property.
I will never own this property. None of my money is returned to me. It is taken by a person or entity who literally does not provide me anything.
I'll repeat, providing shelter isn't a service. What the landlord is providing you, is not evicting you so long as you provide them a taxation of your wages that goes straight into their pocket. If all landlords died overnight nothing would materially change except for all the people renting could now keep their wages, and hire the handyman to do the work themselves. Housing co-ops also cover the costs of upkeep by pooling money to spend. No, landlords are 100% immoral 100% of the time and your buddy who's a good guy and a landlord might be a good guy but it has nothing to do with his being a landlord. Some cops save dying animals and volunteer at soup kitchens I'm sure, they're all still bastards by participating in a system of militarized state violence.
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Oh no it’s worse than that. I have mandatory binding arbitration so I don’t really have rights. Mind you that’s after the application fees and paying for my own background check, commonly used to strong-arm you into accepting horrible terms.
It’s that or be homeless.
naybe its time to buy abandoned malls and convert them to dormitories with shared kitchens
You know, malls were initially envisioned as fully indoor planned communities. It didn't survive long, but it was a way better concept
https://www.shitrentals.org/review/review-a-shit-rental
Check this out. Power to the people.
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The gallows and guillotine have a nice easy solution for all that bullshit.
I think you're on to something...
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