#renthackr

The word is out about RentHackr and we're growing fast: over 15,000 users and climbing! We've demoed far and wide from NYC BigApps to the Queens Tech Meetup, and we're even pitching at Fenway Park on August 6th with WeWork. 

Behind the scenes, we're hard at work making RentHackr better-faster-stronger based on the generous and supportive feedback from RentHackrs all over the world. Thank you! Every day we're using your smart suggestions to make finding great apartments easier and more transparent. Here are a few of the big changes we've rolled out.

Room Search Finding an available room in an apartment can be a pain — but it shouldn't be. In the past, if you were looking to share an apartment your best options were Craigslist, Facebook groups, or your real life friends. Craigslist is sometimes sketchy, and often disorganized. Facebook groups involve manually looking through tons of posts to find the right room, in the right neighborhood, for the right price. And going through friends limits your search considerably. RentHackr is changing all that. In June we added room search. You can search individual rooms and list the room you're leaving. You can also post photos and communicate directly with the renter who's moving out. Finding the right place has never been easier. 

Nearby Photos Layout and square footage aren't the only important considerations when you move. Culture, amenities, and neighborhood play a huge role too. But it's not easy to find out about an area until you spend time there. So we're using shared photos to give you a better peek at what's happening nearby. The kind of photos people post on social media can tell you a lot about a neighborhood: Are the neighbors more likely to gravitate toward a classical concert in the park or a karaoke tournament on the weekends? Are they more likely to post pictures of their favorite street art, or of their kids devouring cake truffles at Momofuku? On RentHackr, each time you click on a building we show you the most recent photos from social media posted at or close to the address. This way you can get a feel for who's in the neighborhood already and what they're into.

Direct Messaging

The Put Me In Touch button now lets you message other RentHackrs directly from the beginning. It used to be that when you clicked Put Me In Touch we sent an email introduction to both you and the other RentHackr at that address and then let the two of you take it from there. We've taken out an unnecessary extra step, so users can talk directly to each other right from the get go. Have a question? Just wanna say hi? Send that RentHackr a quick message and kick off a conversation.

New features

We're adding new features and improving the old ones every day based on the great feedback we get from RentHackrs like you. For instance, you can now filter apartments and rooms based on who's moving. In the coming weeks keep an eye out for new filters, more intuitive design, and a better mobile experience. Have suggestions of new features you'd like to see? Let us know. 

  That's it for now, keep the feedback coming! We're a small team and a new product, so we're super grateful to users like you who bear with us while we're rough around the edges.

Keep hackin'!

@renthackr is a better way to find an apt in NYC and they are hiring! #TSJFair @techmeetupsNYSA pic.twitter.com/QF1758WIWe

— Sam Young (@youngsam_218) April 15, 2014

We're grateful to our audience for voting us the winner of WeWork Labs Demo Day.

.@Zeb from @renthackr gives us a look at which apartments around your area are available & how much they go for! pic.twitter.com/Jcm0IJ5Aog

— WeWork (@WeWork)

February 25, 2014

It was a not an easy win, with some great - and dare we say sexier - apps in the lineup like Rukkus, GoChime, Pagevamp, and ChromeDash. 

A big thanks goes to WeWork Labs and their sponsors for our prize – an iPad Mini. Here's what the new RentHackr looks like on an iPad mini 😄

We hope to see y'all when we demo at the New York Tech Meetup on Tue March 4th. 

And if you're working in RE tech, join us for the NYC Real Estate Technology meetup in March 5th at WeWork Fulton Center. 

Keep Hackin'

We’re proud to announce that the new RentHackr has arrived to help you find and connect with the best apartments first, with help from your fellow renters.

On the new RentHackr, for the first time you can:

See when apartments will become available months in advance

Search for apartments through your social network

Subscribe to get notifications from the buildings you want to live in

Message renters that you share a social connection with to learn more about a place

See what apartments all around you cost

Use RentHackr anywhere in the world

RentHackr gets out in front of other services and gives you the straight story from renters. Renters share if they’re moving or renewing, when their lease ends, how much rent is, as well as their apartment’s location and amenities. This collaborative effort helps RentHackr provide a marketplace for apartments like no other.

At RentHackr, we believe that people will use technology and networked information to help make the decision of where to live a lot more than they do today. Instead of going to look at a hodgepodge list of apartments culled from craigslist, broker and apartment search sites, and maybe from an agent; we believe people will filter down to a select few apartments that they're sure are very good or great, and just go visit those.

The RentHackr platform is our first step to deliver the tools people can use to make smarter decisions and find better apartments where they want to live. If you signed up during our first beta, you’ll be familiar with our goals, and pleasantly surprised at the new features and design we’ve put in place to support those goals.

RentHackr enables renters to make smarter decisions and find better apartments where they want to live. We have a lot more great feature we're working on, including a way to grant access to users who don't currently rent. 

Please let us know how we’re doing – like what’s working and what needs improving – via our support widgets on the site. With your valuable feedback, we’ll continue to get better. We’re just getting started to change the way we rent. 

Keep hackin' — Zeb and Team RentHackr

10

Disruptor: RentHackr is the name of this piece by Debra Borchardt for TheStreet.com. We're thankful and thrilled for the coverage, which was distributed across a lot of outlets like USA Today (pictured above). 

Thanks to Debra for noticing and covering us, and thanks to Projective Space LES for the location! 

An all-new and dramatically improved RentHackr is almost here.