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jay5627 t1_j0bsa5q wrote

How do you verify what someone enters as their rent is legitimate

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lasagnahog1 OP t1_j0bsm2h wrote

we have a couple different ways to check but the main way is we have third-party data on what the average rent should be (roughly) for zipcodes and beds / baths etc. So we compare user inputs to that to make sure it's within a reasonable range.

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Guypussy t1_j0c50au wrote

> we have third-party data

So Zillow and StreetEasy search results?

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virtual_adam t1_j0ct9sv wrote

So basically the only thing we can see on your site is a bunch of rents that are within ~15% range of the average we already know. Ground breaking stuff.

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intjish_mom t1_j0de3x4 wrote

average rent will miss a lot of people. there are people that's been in their apartments since the 70s so they are paying $500/rent and there are people who are trust fund babies that literally rent places for hundreds of thousands of dollars a month. if i had kept my apartment from 2016 and only paid the 2% max increase for a rent stabilized apartment, i wouldn't be paying more than $1500 right now if i did my math correctly. my same apartment is now renting for 1900 on zillow.

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jonishay8 t1_j0bt1zz wrote

This is made in good spirits but doesn’t serve much of a purpose. Apartments either rent or don’t rent. Telling a landlord you won’t pay something because someone else is paying less just doesn’t work in nyc, as there is always someone else willing to pay it. This is more helpful for less trafficked markets. Also, without verified data, a landlord can just call bullshit and you have no proof to say otherwise

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lasagnahog1 OP t1_j0btzu8 wrote

I agree with you to some extent. Ultimately, the landlord has WAAAAY more leverage then the renter. But price transparency increases the leverage of the renter. This is not to say a renter can all of the sudden walk in and name their price. But at least you are negotiating with better data.

Also in most markets, price transparency helps the consumer: mortgage data, insurance, amazon, stock market, medical care, etc

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[deleted] t1_j0buwiy wrote

[deleted]

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lasagnahog1 OP t1_j0bvoav wrote

Ok so there are a lot of questions on the email!

There are two answers:

  1. its a technical limitation - it was easier from a coding perspective to generate the output and send as an email than it was to display it on the site. We're working on updating this now
  2. ultimately we have a "good faith" dilemma here. For this to work well, we need everyone to submit accurate data. We have some error checking but one of the way we thought about it was by adding a bit of an extra hurdle. The email step provides that

On anonymous - the email is used to send you your results. Your rent data is anonymized and aggregated so that there is no way anyone would ever be able to tell what rent was associated with what user (email or not). The anonymous part is the fact that the rent data is segregated and anonymized so there is no risk of anything ever being shared.

Did that answer your question? Frankly, this is an issue we're working on fixing because a lot of people seem annoyed by the email.

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dhdhdfjffjj t1_j0d4m03 wrote

So you basically made a Glassdoor for rent lol I like it

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smallint t1_j0dmxzj wrote

We can ask here what New Yorkers pay for rent. I pay $1,600 for a roach infested 3 bedroom. What do you all pay?

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