How RadPad is making apartment renting less lonely
What was the worst part of your last apartment search?
The complaints we hear from renters about their online apartment hunt on a daily basis are almost too numerous to list - blurry photos, duplicate listings, bad landlord contact information, poorly designed rental websites, or in the worst case, outright scams.
And despite all the incredible mobile tools that have helped make our lives easier over the past couple years, the apartment rental process still seems to be stuck in a very uncool retro time warp, fraught with all the pitfalls mentioned above and more.
While RadPad isn’t the only mobile app out there trying to make the apartment rental process easier, we are perhaps the only one building a platform that is almost entirely focused on the needs of the renter.
So what does that mean exactly? In essence, it means we are laser-focused on creating an efficient, transparent, and safe way to find an awesome place to live by solving the most pervasive rental gripes.
One way we set about this is by delivering an experience that focuses heavily on photos - and requiring every listing to have at least three original pictures. We do this because a photo, next to the neighborhood and price, is the most important factor a renter uses in determining if they’re going to contact a landlord.
On the transparency front, we verify listers on RadPad so a renter knows who they are dealing with on the other end is a legitimate landlord or realtor. Also, we created robust search filters so renters only find the apartments they truly might be interested in - without any of those annoying ‘featured listings’ (aka advertisements) that are rarely useful.
Beyond just searching for your next apartment, renters can use RadPad to actually pay their rent on their phone - to any landlord - by using their own debit or credit card. The landlord still receives a check in the mail, and we take care of the rest. Renters can even split their rent amongst roommates on multiple credit cards and we’ll consolidate the payment into one check. Called Pay with RadPad, this feature finally gives millennial-aged renters a reason to ditch their paper checkbooks once and for all.
Renting can be a lonely experience, and we’re out to change that too. We are increasingly building RadPad to be more social, local and community-focused. Today, when viewing a listing on RadPad, you can see other renters that have ‘liked’ a certain pad and even see their name and photo (if they’ve provided one). Recently, we launched a feature which prompts renters, when using Pay with RadPad, to say whether they like living in their current apartment. Down the road, we could share details about what renters like and don’t like about where they live - information that could someday help other renters make more informed decisions during their housing search.
Finally, we believe that renting is local. Each city has their own dynamics that make the process a bit different from place to place. To best understand the needs of renters across cities, we’ve deployed Community teams across major markets including Los Angeles (our home), Washington, D.C., Chicago, Miami, Houston, San Francisco and San Diego to connect with renters and create ‘offline’ experiences with them.
While we can’t promise you’ll find the perfect apartment at the best price in the hottest neighborhood on RadPad, we are definitely trying - while making the process easier, more fun and a bit less lonely.