The folks at RentCompass, a Toronto based start-up, aim to be a driving force in the Canadian mobile rental space.
Their app ( iphone, ipod touch and ipad) which combines location-based data with rental listings, could be the first of it’s kind for Canadians. The co-founder Samir Al-Battran claims it is. The benefit of using this app is that you can get a nice overview of rentals using maps. Mr Al-Battran filled a clear niche first but he’s got an uphill battle ahead. The problem isn’t the concept or design, but in the adoption.
Imagine you find yourself in a neighbourhood and you think to yourself ‘I could see myself living here’ –maybe they’ve got a great Apple store nearby?
In theory, in this situation you’d swiftly whip out the RentCompass app and through the magic of GPS, all the listings pertaining to the neighbourhood you’re in would appear. Sounds great in theory but in practical terms, presently, you’re not going to find much assuming your city is even listed.
Here’s where the issue lies, not with the app itself but the fact that the service is dependent upon property managers to submit their rental listings online. Canadians looking to rent out a residential space can add their listing at the RentCompass site –it’s free. After speaking with one of the co-founders, Samir Al-Battran, he told me they were even offering to input the information themselves, eliminating all the work for the owners/managers.
Using this app in Toronto is a much different experience than if you’re in Windsor. While there are over 200,000 people living in Windsor there are no listings at all, unlike the major Canadian cities.
How does a mobile developer leverage a service such as this?
Indeed, RentCompass provides free advertising but will property management companies REALLY care?
For an industry to adopt a new way of doing things, it needs a reason, similar to publishing and the iPad. Unless apartments across Canada are starving for renters it may be a case of the “ain’t broke don’t fix it” mentality.
They might benefit from approaching an online service like Craigslist to include a “mobile” option for users inputting a rental property, probably a bad example since Craigslist already has a mobile app but hopefully they’ll come up with some kind of creative synergy with someone in this space.
How does the app work ?
From the homescreen, RentCompass will determine your location and will additionally allow you to search by city. Listings are displayed on a map but can also be viewed in list format, definitely a better way to view considering the list format neatly displays thumbnail images of the property and the monthly cost.
In map-view (Google maps), the rental listings appear overlaid in the form of tiny house and apartment icons. While you will receive location specific data, you can also browse the listings all over country. The pinch-to-zoom function (when trying to view a different area/province) seems to lag when zooming out of your initial area (in the universal version).
The Verdict:
It’s a could-be-fantastic service for potential renters to receive detailed information on a property; monthly cost, images, features, descriptions, contact information and whether or not they allow pets — probably the most important factor to me. If this app continues to grow and they figure out a way to properly market this app to management / property companies, they will have created a must-have app for Canadians. If not it’ll end up on the shelf with rest of the user-generated services that didn’t catch on.
They’ve done some renovating of their user interface to suit the iPad, I’ve included the demo below.
There are two version of this app; universal and iPad (iPad version will be out in the next few days).
Get it free (iTunes Link)
Add a rental to RentCompass
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