Scott Kirsner of the Boston Globe wrote a great post this week asking that exact question. The point Scott is making is “…in a world where Craigslist has made filling or finding a vacant apartment fundamentally free, can Rental Beast build a significant business by trying to streamline the process?”
Well, I think that the whole “free” premise is the biggest misconception in the history of misconceptions.
In reality >95% of renters that use Craigslist end up calling and leasing through a broker or real estate agent and as a result pay a broker fee equal to 1 month’s rent.
For the most part the fee is paid fully by the renter, sometimes the renter pays half and the owner pays the other half and even when the owner pays the full fee it is almost always factored into the monthly rent bill.
What’s so “free” about that?
Remember when you had to pay an arm and a leg to buy some stock through your stock broker?
It’s hard to remember now when anyone could buy and sell stock online for $5-$7 a trade (E*trade, ScottTrade, etc) could this happen with real estate brokers?
In this economy more and more people are asking themselves, “why do I have to pay the broker fee?
Well for those who use Rental Beast the answer is “You don’t!”
Here is a link to the Boston Globe post: Somerville start-up takes fee-based approach to apartment rentals, challenging Craigslist
I’d love to hear about your renting experience.
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One Comment
Thank you a lot for sharing!