rentenforcer (u/rentenforcer)

rentenforcer commented on New Yorkers: help me defeat the evil NYC real estate market rentenforcer.com... · Posted by u/rentenforcer

theashworld · 15 years ago

1. opensource it (the code, so people can build their own website) 2. provide an api

You'll soon face spam issues though. what's your spam strategy?

rentenforcer · 15 years ago

Likely community moderation.

rentenforcer commented on New Yorkers: help me defeat the evil NYC real estate market rentenforcer.com... · Posted by u/rentenforcer

MichaelApproved · 15 years ago

Am I being a nitpicking nerd or does "(100% anonymous & confidential)" seem wrong when asking for my street address and probably logging IP and possibly other data?

I haven't tried to use it but what I've read in the comments here you also ask for email address.

Confidential, maybe. Anonymous, unlikely.

rentenforcer · 15 years ago

Wrong and wrong.

I don't log any data other than the date besides what you put in the fields. I also don't connect the email address to the listing, it just goes onto a mailing list.

For now it is confidential, though I'm not sure how to reconcile the idea of an API with confidentiality - even when anonymity is involved. Perhaps I should just change it to 100% anonymous?

rentenforcer commented on New Yorkers: help me defeat the evil NYC real estate market rentenforcer.com... · Posted by u/rentenforcer

asanwal · 15 years ago

Like the idea. Think you need to figure out a way to get people who are happy to submit data. Like Glassdoor, I'd guess that the unhappy are more likely to provide data. Especially true for folks in the city who feel they have a great deal - why would I advertise that and tell others about that?

Beyond that, didn't like the fact that I provided data and got a "no data available" page. I understand your building up the dbase, but it didn't leave me with a great feeling (not a biggie). Perhaps you could show me some data for close by areas so at least as a user, I feel like I benefited somewhat.

On amenities, would add -- Doorman building

At some point, you could perhaps mash up data you get about buildings with a lot of the data NYC has opened up about the city as part of its gov2.0 efforts. This way, you can provide a sense for the "value" of an apartment alongside stats like average income of neighborhood, crime rates, etc.

But of course, building up your dbase is priority one. Good luck.

rentenforcer · 15 years ago

All great ideas, especially the gov2.0 data stuff. Thanks!

rentenforcer commented on New Yorkers: help me defeat the evil NYC real estate market rentenforcer.com... · Posted by u/rentenforcer

dguido · 15 years ago

If you want to help New Yorker's, you're going to have to make an option for "0" bedrooms, as that is quite common around here :-).

rentenforcer · 15 years ago

Hmm...I figured those people would select 1 BR and hit the Flex/Studio checkbox, but I guess that's not so clear? Maybe I should make it 0/Studio -> 5+ and then change the Flex/Studio checkbox to just Flex? Thoughts?

rentenforcer commented on New Yorkers: help me defeat the evil NYC real estate market rentenforcer.com... · Posted by u/rentenforcer

elai · 15 years ago

If I've never lived in NYC, or am planning to move there, there is no way for this to be useful to me. Let us see the data once you've gotten enough without putting anything in. Or do it glassdoor style where you only partially see data.

rentenforcer · 15 years ago

Definitely agree, this will be the next step. The project is about a day old, so I'd love to hear your thoughts on what directions it should go in.

rentenforcer commented on New Yorkers: help me defeat the evil NYC real estate market rentenforcer.com... · Posted by u/rentenforcer

weeksie · 15 years ago

I love the idea, finding an apartment in this town is a harrowing experience. It's even worse for newbies who don't know the market and often get stuck with overpriced apartments like the ones Jakobson Properties rent out. What do you plan on doing with the data you're collecting?

//edit: On your amenities list, you might want to add a field for duplex apartments.

rentenforcer · 15 years ago

I'm not 100%, and I turn to HN for ideas. I will likely be providing a free search/compare service for apartment lookers, and eventually charge the landlords to manage their page or something. But any ideas you have I'd love to hear. Ultimately I'd like to make some sort of API to the data (ie: destroy the gatekeeper to this information that makes the market so hard for consumers), but that will likely be secondary to the main product.

rentenforcer commented on New Yorkers: help me defeat the evil NYC real estate market rentenforcer.com... · Posted by u/rentenforcer

wildjim · 15 years ago

Where's the London version? ;-P

rentenforcer · 15 years ago

Just started this project this morning, but the goal is soon! Once I get a decent product working for NYC it shouldn't be difficult to branch it off into other cities.

rentenforcer commented on New Yorkers: help me defeat the evil NYC real estate market rentenforcer.com... · Posted by u/rentenforcer

HaloZero · 15 years ago

Couldn't you scrape craigslist at least for some basic information about each neighborhood?

rentenforcer · 15 years ago

I easily could - the whole point is to avoid taking the information from the marketplace. The prices on craiglist are borderline fraudulent, and are meant to get you into the broker's office at which point they inform you "oh sorry that apt is gone, but here are 5 more that aren't as nice and twice the price!"

rentenforcer commented on New Yorkers: help me defeat the evil NYC real estate market rentenforcer.com... · Posted by u/rentenforcer

zavulon · 15 years ago

This is a good idea, but maybe there's a way for you to display some data before signing up? Right now, there's nothing on the site at all except for the form requesting my information. After I submit it, there's a message there's not enough data for my address, and a request for email. At this point, it would be helpful to see what exactly I'm signing up for.

Maybe examples for different addresses, or average data per neighborhood? I recently was looking for a new apartment, and I found this very useful: http://www.tregny.com/manhattan_rental_market_report

rentenforcer · 15 years ago

I definitely hear you - this is actually just an idea I had last night and just wanted to get some data. The response has really been pretty decent (I've got about 150 pieces of usable data).

My next step is to figure out exactly how to use the data. I will likely start with neighborhood pages, and move on to individual building pages once the data gets dense enough.

But I would love to hear your thoughts on product ideas - what info would you like to see? What comparisons/analytics on the data you know I have?

Thanks a lot for the feedback! RentEnforcer