How To Develop A Rental Search App To Solve Tenants' Problems
App Development
02Nov 2020
With the growing population, homes at an affordable price have become an ever-increasing demand in the rental market. Speaking about America, where the population grows at least 2-3 million a year, there is a massive demand in the rental market for low to mid-priced housing. Real estate agencies & startups do their best to render phenomenal services to tenants and landlords. But the pressure to boost efficiency and deliver highly customized services is compelling top app development companies 2020 to embrace new technologies.
Top real estate agencies in America, such as RE/MAX, Sotheby's International Realty, and Keller Williams, offer a wide range of online services. Meanwhile, online rental platforms such as Zillow & Zumper are on a boom.
A property rental marketplace, Zumper, has raised $143.1 million in 7 rounds of funding, while Zillow's yearly revenue in 2019 was $2.7 billion. However, money alone does not matter. Millions of landlords, tenants, and real estate agencies use online platforms even after signing rental contracts. Have you wondered why? Do they successfully solve the problems of all user groups?
Finding reasonable apartments for rent
This is the topmost problem in the real estate market. It's challenging for tenants to find housing with good infrastructure for affordable pricing. Several details are considered when renting apartments, and it can be highly time-taking to check every detail about every listing. Hence, your real estate online platform's first step is creating an advanced search and filtering feature.
Besides necessary details about location, several rooms, and prices, include details about crime levels and schools in the locality. Mobile rental apps enable users to view maps with noise, crime levels, and schools.
Favorites: Users can save the listings of their interest to view it later.
Push notifications: Your online platform can inform users of new rental offers or deals based on saved searches.
Lack of constant communication
After a thorough evaluation, it's discovered that the most common cause for complaints is a long response time or no response from the agents. An app's success in finding apartments totally depends on effective communication and cooperation between tenants, agents, and landlords.
Real-time chat:
Instant communication between landlords and tenants or real estate regents will assist users in clarifying rental details. Your mobile app can provide a real-time chat feature to let users exchange messages and media files. Both Zillow and Zumper provide this feature. To facilitate the chat feature, you may consider pre-designed hosted messaging solutions such as Pubnub or Layer.
Scheduled tours:
Another great feature to enable cooperation between agents and tenants is allowing users to schedule live tours.
You can develop a custom calendar and implement appointment scheduling to enable users:
- Fix available dates & time slots for tours
- Accept or decline tour requests
- Reschedule & cancel tours
The current trends demand cutting-edge features like virtual tours. Virtual tours gain attention; hence, adding 3D or VR tours to your search engine for rentals would be a great idea. Zillow offers a similar feature on its platform.
Rental fraud
The real estate sector is vulnerable to fraud. As per a study by Apartment List in 2018, 43.1% of US renters have experienced a rental listing they suspected was a scam, and 5.2 million Americans have lost money to rental fraud.
Strict rules for your platform:
Every service has its own set of rules that regulate interactions between hosts and guests or tenants and landlords. In your T&C, define what a scam is. Moreover, give a detail of your refund policies and when it will be returned. You can also create a FAQ page to provide users with information.
Check tenants' backgrounds:
Zillow automatically sends the landlord all the information about tenants like background checks, eviction history, and credit reports.
Zumper lets tenants prepare credit reports and apply for rental directly on the platform, whereas agents, building managers, and landlords can easily check the tenant's background and screen them.
Require security deposits:
To protect real estate agents, building managers, and landlords from loss due to house damage, it is a good idea to implement security deposits. These deposits don't have to be obligatory, so let agents specify if a listing requires a deposit. Allow filters by rentals that need or don't need a deposit.
Slow responses to emergencies
Even after offering the best to your users, emergencies can occur anytime. A real estate service provider's goal is to respond quickly to users' complaints and tackle objections.
Most rental platforms have their own problem-solving centers where users can visit if something goes wrong. Consider creating your customer support team and decide how users can contact you.
The most common problems in long-term rentals are missed payments and property damage and are usually resolved by offering landlords insurance.
For instance, Zumper enables landlords an Instarent Rent Guarantee service for a 2% fee taken from the monthly rent. In the scenario of property damage or missed payment, Zumper will help the landowner find a new tenant, then cover the missed rent or indemnify the loss.
Retaining real estate agents & landlords
Agents might get lost in information about tenants. Hence, a CRM system can help your company's agents arrange their data on potential and existing customers. If you let brokers export and import CSV files, they can quickly add their clients to the CRM on your mobile app from Excel or Google Sheets.
Moreover, a CRM system can help brokers automate tasks like entering details about users and sending bills, receipts, and notices to tenants. The CRM system allows businesses to get notifications on rental payments and overdue bills. Companies can reduce a lot of redundant costs and focus on things that really matter.
Final words
Developing a rental search mobile app can solve tenants' problems and help your business flourish. These days users prefer all the services to their fingertips, and the rental business is no exception. Hence, if you want your rental company to grow, it's absolutely a great idea to consider developing a mobile app platform for your business for ease of users.
Harnil Oza is the CEO & Founder of Hyperlink InfoSystem. With a passion for technology and an immaculate drive for entrepreneurship, Harnil has propelled Hyperlink InfoSystem to become a global pioneer in the world of innovative IT solutions. His exceptional leadership has inspired a multiverse of tech enthusiasts and also enabled thriving business expansion. His vision has helped the company achieve widespread respect for its remarkable track record of delivering beautifully constructed mobile apps, websites, and other products using every emerging technology. Outside his duties at Hyperlink InfoSystem, Harnil has earned a reputation for his conceptual leadership and initiatives in the tech industry. He is driven to impart expertise and insights to the forthcoming cohort of tech innovators. Harnil continues to champion growth, quality, and client satisfaction by fostering innovation and collaboration.
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