RentHop
Alexis Ohanian Created the HipMunk ChipMunk and RentHop Wally Mascots
Updated 4 days ago
HipMunk just announced they will be shutting down next week. Back in 2010 when they
first launched, they were by far the best site for searching for
flights. They also had the chipmunk mascot - who people have told
us strongly resembles RentHop's Wally the Wallaby.
Turns out they are brothers…
Quoting Price Cuts and Discounts in Taiwan
Updated 1 week ago
First off, it turns out the Taiwanese have caught on to the
Japanese Fortune Bag concept. Even Family Mart sells fukubukuro
bags. My guess is the entire exercise is quite profitable... for
the merchant. You would think for publicity purposes they might try
to ensure a few very lucky winners…
Fukubukuro - Japanese Fortune Bags and Rental Apartments
Updated 1 week ago
Hello and Happy New Year from Tokyo, Japan. The culture here
certainly has some interesting concepts not found elsewhere in the
world. We previously discussed the ancient " Repaired With Gold" technique, hat tip to Jason
Friedman.
New Year Fortune Bags
Around New Years, shops small and large…
How Will Global Warming Impact Real Estate Prices?
Updated 1 week ago
Today, a VC named Fred Wilson discussed 10 bold predictions for
the next decade on his well-named blog, avc.com. He is the same guy
who Paul Graham once begged
to invest in Brian Chesky's Airbnb, but famously declined,
pre-Series A and then also in later
rounds. However, he got a whole bunch of…
What Does A Guarantor Actually Guarantee?
Updated 2 weeks ago
A Guarantor is similar to a lease co-signer because they are
jointly liable for fulfilling the required lease payments, but a
guarantor is not expected or eligible to actually reside in the
apartment along with the primary lessee.
So what does that really mean? We talked about guarantors in…
Make Renting Great Again
Updated 2 weeks ago
None of us on Team RentHop are particularly political. We follow
politics when things are interesting. Plus, the real estate
industry will always be impacted by political agendas from all
sides. But when it comes to red versus blue, we tend to be
accepting of all view points.
What Were Those…
Accuracy Deposit to Reactivate Suspended Agents
Updated 2 weeks ago
After an agent has repeatedly violated our advertising policies,
we will suspend the account and remove all of their listings and
credits. In our prior discussion, we prefer to suspend and ban
agents rather than apply a fine. When the problem seems firm-wide,
we will suspend the entire firm…
Ghost Banning To Stop Real Estate Broker Spam
Updated 2 weeks ago
Back in 2009, Lawrence and I were speaking with one of our early
investors about spam messages. Specifically, Craigslist postings at the time were full of
low quality ads, and for anyone with a legitimate apartment, they
would find their inboxes quickly filled with unsolicited
offers.
"Getting…
RentHop Completes The Ultimate Heist
Updated 1 week ago
Today we had our annual RentHop Secret Santa gift exchange. We
upgraded from the old "names in a hat" method to the much higher
tech Elfster (because one employee was tired of getting the same
recipient 3 years in a row, which Elfster can prevent).
Photos from the gift exchange and drinks will…
Two Sigma Ventures to Grand Central Tech
Updated 1 month ago
Last time we discussed the very early days. From mid-2008 to
2010, RentHop used co-founder Lawrence Zhou's
apartment to write code on nights and weekends, while the
founders held day jobs at Traxis Partners, D. E. Shaw & Co., and
Two Sigma Investments. The doormen must have assumed we were…
