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Tinder for apartment hunting

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What do you think? …

Anuj Adhiya
Just wondering whether I'd use this as a pre-check before getting onto zillow or not. Given how serious home buying is, im not sure whether Tinder-like behavior translates as well to this activity.
Michael Lisovetsky
@AnujAdhiya Thanks for posting us! It's just for renting (for now). We have a lot of resources planned for sales.
Anuj Adhiya
@_Liso_ Thanks for that correction. But I still have the same question even with renting. Renting in NY is clearly a big ticket item and not a decision taken lightly. Is tinder-like behavior, where people make snap judgments based on pix, amenable to home renting which requires more consideration? I guess I'm just having a hard time reconciling the 2 behavioral patterns.
Michael Lisovetsky
@AnujAdhiya Great question! The goal for the Tinder interface is for users to be able to process a large amount of information in an efficient manner. The current way of doing things is to go through apartments in a spreadsheet-like manner, but that's inefficient, and leads to inaction. Breaking down user decision into "bite-sized pieces" enables users to quickly shortlist their favorites, and revisit them later. The demand for NYC apartments is so high that most renters don't have many options (~1% average vacancy rate). They are happy to find a deal within their price range and preferred neighborhood.
Brent Mulligan
@_Liso_ NYC apartment hunting is a nightmare regardless of method but I do like the speed in which this lets me roll through listings. I feel like one of the harder problems in relation to NYC real estate is ensuring the integrity of the listing data. Real estate agents flood the major sites with fake listings to solicit leads, if a good percentage of what we see here are inaccurate photos it would clearly be a major problem.
Michael Lisovetsky
@brentmulligan Great point. That's one of the major issues we're addressing. We're very picky with our data sources to ensure integrity, and we have some proprietary algorithms that weed out the duplicates. We're still learning how to do it in the best way, but we're working hard to keep out the spam.
Geoffrey Weg
Great work, @_Liso_! Really impressed. You should come to the NYC Real Estate Tech Meetup on Thursday. We would also love you to demo at the next one. :)
Michael Lisovetsky
@GeoffreyWeg Thank you Geoffrey! The team and I will be away this Thursday, but we'll be sure to attend the next one :)
Geoffrey Weg
@_Liso_ Where do you get your listings from? If you "like" an apartment, do you have to talk to a broker? Or is there another next step available?
Michael Lisovetsky
@GeoffreyWeg We're getting our data from multiple sources. Liking an apartment does not tie you to a broker -- it's a self curated shortlist. You can chat with an agent by opening the detail view and tapping "Chat With An Agent".
Frank Denbow
I like this a lot. Its the right UX for searching on mobile for apartments (which is always a pain in NYC)
Michael Lisovetsky
Thanks @FrankDenbow! Please let me know if you have any feedback for improving the UX.