Programmer, moving to flat rental services

[joannna]

Hi everyone,

First of all – I want to say hello to all of you. I came here after I’ve finished reading TMF and I’m very glad that I did so as it really opened my eyes on many aspects of life (big thanks to you @MJ DeMarco !). I’ve been reading the forum for a while and I’ve finally decided to show up.

My name is Joanna and I’ve graduated from technical uni about a year ago. I live in Poland and I work as a programmer. I’m a bit frustrated about being a corporate employee. I’m also familiar with long-term flat renting and I see some inconveniences related to it. There are so many aspects we should take into consideration before we sign a rental contract.

First of all, flat owners can really complicate tenants lives. They should be responsible for repairs and defects but I know so many situations, where they blame tenants and ask them to search for specialist on their own. Moreover, they want to control order in the apartment and make sure nothing there is destroyed. On the other hand, tenants also can bring a lot of problems. There are so many cases when they devastate the apartment they are living in.

To overcome these inconveniences I thought about creating a platform where tenants can judge flat owners and vice versa. Landlords will have to be connected with their flats for rent. For example, I thought the best solution for tenants would be to find a flat in other platforms and then come to my page and check if it is worth to sign a contract.

Cooperation with trusted people would significantly improve the quality of rental. From my point of view, landlords will be able to increase rental fees because positive ratings will encourage tenants. On the other hand, tenants will have more possibilities to negotiate prices if flat owner rely on them. I see such page really useful in my country and I see it has huge potential. Disadvantage of this solution is the fact that ratings will start to appear in long time.

I am able to create this platform on my own, spending money only for marketing.

However, I have doubts about the legal aspects of this idea. Most of you probably heard about GDPR regulations applicable in Poland (and generally in the EU), which talk about protecting personal data. I’m not sure how much it would violate on people privacy. Currently, I’m looking for an appropriate solution.

I’m also considering financial aspects of this platform. I am aware that people will not pay for participation, at least at the early stage of development, when the rating database will be relatively small. I also thought that registration and rating someone has to be free.

Generally, I believe that this idea might have potential as similar solutions work fine in more developed countries (eg. in the US) for renting apartments.

What do you think about it? Does anyone has some experience to share in this matter?

Cheers,

Joanna

 

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