Opinion

Earn more in rent by charging less with RentSquare

Monday, February 1st, 2016 - By Helena Trippe, CEO at RentSquare

An inefficient housing market currently leaves landlords needlessly out of pocket as countless properties are unnecessarily left unoccupied. These void periods result from properties being marketed at prices that tenants either:

a) think are too high for the size and location, or
b) cannot afford

Sitting around waiting for an unoccupied property to fill is frustrating business, it’s also bad business. At RentSquare we firmly believe a “sweet spot” exists between what landlords need to make and tenants can afford. We are intent on finding this sweet spot, setting better rental prices from the beginning and putting an end to unnecessary void periods.

Landlords currently pay up to 10% of annual rental income for services that don’t work as well as they should. RentSquare charges a flat fee to connect tenants and landlords around better rental prices. We are very proud to have connected our first few tenants and landlords who have completed transactions at rental prices that both parties are happy with. The fact that both tenants and landlords saved thousands of pounds in the process means we have some very happy customers.

Who are RentSquare?

Drawing on our experience in housing and management, we’re a dedicated team who are set on bringing a fresh perspective to the industry. We want to challenge and redesign existing practices by going back to basics and doing things differently.

As the company CEO, I have come to understand the numerous inadequacies of the current housing industry through many years working in both the public and private housing sectors. Regularly listening to the complaints of unhappy landlords and tenants spurred me into action: how could the system work better for everyone? Surely there had to be a more pleasant and efficient way for us all to do business together? And so, RentSquare was established in order to tackle the problems landlords and tenants face using data, commonsense and a smile.

How we operate

We use openly available data to work out what a better rental price looks like and then freely share this information with everyone. Helping all parties get a fairer deal is our aim – we firmly believe transparency and the power of information can make this possible.

As a taste of what we can do for landlords (looking to let a whole property or room) for a flat fee:

  • advertise your property to our network of tenants and on major platforms
  • find a tenant who’s the right match for your property
  • run reference checks
  • deal with the contract and deposit
  • set up repeat payments
  • and more importantly, save you time and money

We cover all the necessary bases but don’t think the process needs to be unpleasant, a chore, or cost an arm and leg.

The Guardian has recently written about us, you can read more here.

Get involved

At RentSquare we’re currently looking for superhero landlords who want to help change the industry so it works better for all concerned. If you are interested in getting involved, please contact us at hello@rentsquare.io or 020 3239 4045. Alternatively, register on our website: www.rentsquare.io to help us crowdsource information about properties and fulfil our mission of defining better rental prices.