Thank you all for telling me what your biggest pain point in landlord references. Based on the responses that I got from all of you, here is what I've concluded are the biggest pain points for getting and giving landlord references.
1. Verify true landlord: The biggest problem is that landlord references are hard to trust because it's hard to verify if the landlord that you're calling or faxing is truly the landlord (unless it's an apartment complex and their phone is listed online)
2. Landlords don't share references: The problem that you guys have stated is that a lot of landlords don't ask for landlord references, and a lot of previous landlords don't respond to your reference requests (especially the bigger apartments or PM companies) Or if they do respond, the information is not helpful in any way (I would rent to them "if they qualify"). There is no incentive for landlords to give references other then to help out other landlords in our industry.
3. Slow and outdated process: Many landlords send references over fax and take couple of days to respond to request.
I got to confess, I asked this question to prove the point that there is a need for "Yelp for Landlords" website. I'm a landlord and I've been frustrated with the whole tenant screening process that's in place currently. I've realized that the tenant screening process needs improvements. Since I'm a web developer, I've decided to take on a challenge to figure out a way to help landlords by building tools that could help landlords screen tenants easier and better.
Here is how this website fixes the major pain points that you guys have told me about in this post.
1. Verified Landlords: All the landlords who join the website are manually verified to be a legitimate landlord. So you are confident that the landlord references that you see on the website are from legitimate landlords, and not from fake landlords.
2. Landlords have an incentive to share landlord references: Every landlord who participates on the website by submitting references or requesting references or reporting an error are given points (stars) and show up under the landlord's profile. This can be used as a way to differentiate yourself as a great landlord/property manager. The more other landlords see that you participate on this website, the more chances other landlords would like to help you by responding to your reference requests.
3. Quick, easy, and paperless process: No more faxing previous landlords. All you have to do is enter the email address of the previous landlord who you'd like to request a reference from and enter the applicants name, date of birth and upload a release authorization document or simply take a picture of it from your phone and hit request a landlord reference. The website emails the previous landlord and requests that they follow a link and submit a reference about their previous tenant in question. Previous landlord simply answers couple of "compliant" questions and hits submit. That's it, Now you're able to see the reference and other landlords who search for the same person will be able to see the reference. (If they have a release authorization to view it)
I'd like to introduce you guys to a website called "Renter" www.renterinc.com that is a "Yelp for Landlords" that I believe will be an additional tool that landlords can use to screen tenants. It's a website where landlords can share landlord references about their tenants. I've worked very hard to make sure that this website is compliant with Federal Consumer reporting standards and Fair Housing Standards. I've had an internet attorney and a consumer protection attorney review the website to make sure this complies with all the laws and protects both landlords and tenants.
So I'd like to have couple of you guys register and try this out and tell me what you think and help me improve this website and hopefully spread the word so more landlords could join us in making this tool more useful for all the landlords out there. Or simply watch the videos of how this website works.
If this proves to be a useful tool, I'll be working on a "true landlord" feature that will allow landlords to enter an address and see if there is any records of who is the "landlord" of the address, not just the owner that's on the county records and who is the contact person who is responsible for rent related information. The person we need to contact to request landlord references.
Thanks, and looking forward to hear your thoughts on this and constructive criticism either on here or by going to www.renterinc.com and contacting me through the website.
