OneRent and our Journey to Change Property Management!

[Matt Groetelaars]

Hi guys!

My name is Matt and I'm with a startup based in the Bay Area called OneRent.

We started out over a year ago with the goal of providing Santa Clara University Students more transparency as they searched for off campus housing. We were able to build a platform that allowed SCU students to search for, apply, qualify, sign, and pay the deposit for an off campus house. We handled 150 leases in 3 days- a process that used to take over a month to complete. This represented over 90% of those living off campus at SCU using our product, not a bad user adoption rate for 6 months of work.

Inevitably, in working with students and landlords, we also had to deal with another variety of person: the Property Manager. This was where we saw, in full force, just how unreliable people can be. We also saw the level of frustration this created for tenants and landlords alike.

So, as of a few months ago, we pivoted to begin doing full property management for the full market. We set out to build a transparent portal that would allow owners to see a "birds eye" view of their property at any given point in time. It would also allow tenants to quickly upload a picture and brief description whenever anything goes wrong.

I'm looking forward to getting more involved in this community and learning and meeting as many of you as I can!