MyNewPlace Blog

Welcome to MyNewPlace! After over a year from our first discussions with property owners/managers, renters and investors about our idea for a new, more advanced way to search for an apartment, we have officially launched. I thought it would be appropriate to post my first entry on our launch day, and answer a few likely questions about MyNewPlace and our plans for the business.

Why Start a New Online Apartment Service Now?
While there are many good online alternatives today for finding an apartment, we saw the opportunity to bring some of the more advanced features and functionality that consumers have come to expect elsewhere on the web to our industry. We listened to property owner/managers and renters alike about what they would like to see in a site (an Internet Listing Service, or ILS, in industry parlance), and today we launch with what we believe is the best online site for both renters and property owners.

For renters, we are delivering on the three most important things that you’ve told us you’re looking for in an apartment hunting website:

1. A comprehensive detailed database: We have over 6,000,000 apartment units listed on our site. This makes our database the largest of the major ILSs. You can refine your search to sift and sort until you’ve narrowed your list down to just what you’re looking for.
2. Detailed listing information: Our listings offer the most relevant information that renters are looking for. We have detailed information including rents and amenities on every floorplan of almost every building listed on our website. We also have over 30 searchable amenities and other relevant information such as leasing office hours, pet information, and mapping/driving directions.
3. Search results alongside interactive mapping: We are the first major ILS to offer integrated mapping with search results so that you can quickly determine the geographical desirability of an apartment.

In addition, we offer you many more features that you’ve told us you want. Such as no registration until after you’ve viewed a search result, or the ability to save properties and generate a map of just those properties. Finally, participating owner/managers offer you a rebate of $100 when you use our service to find your apartment!

For owner/managers, we have also delivered on key features and functionality you told us are the most important to you:

1. A pay for performance solution: Unlike an advertising based model, you only pay us if a renter who uses our service signs a lease with you.
2. You control your listing: Our Manager Center allows you to control your listing in real time. As soon as you make a change or run a special, it is posted on our site immediately. You can also list and unlist your listings at any time online – no 30 day insertion order lead times!
3. Sophisticated lease verification and rebate process: Our system insures that each renter who claims a rebate from one of your properties has actually used our site to view your property beforehand. And, unlike other services that can take up to 60 days, as soon as you approve their lease and they move in, we send the rebate check.

The net result of all this, (and the many more enhancements still to come) is a much more robust, cost effective advertising solution. Also, because of the breadth and depth of information displayed, the renters that contact you from our site will have already pre-qualified themselves. They will know your rents, what floorplans they’re interested in, your pet policy, etc…

Meeting the needs of renters and property owner/managers as outlined above makes the experience better for both, and in turn makes the process more efficient and rewarding for both.

How will you conduct your business relationship with Owner/Managers and Renters?
At MyNewPlace, we believe in transparency and honesty in dealing with all of our stakeholders. That is why we make it very clear on our site that we earn what is a very reasonable fee when a renter signs a lease at a property advertised on our site, and that the rebate we pay to renters on behalf of the owners is how our clients, the property owner/managers, track our performance.

In terms of privacy, you have our guarantee that we will never, ever, release your email address to any third party that you did not authorize us to (this promise is to both renters and property owner/managers). And, the only people we’re presently authorized to release it to are the properties that you, the renter, wish to contact directly via our send inquiry function.

Finally, we went about designing our site by listening to renters and property owner/managers alike, and then building what you were asking for. While we think we got much of it right, we’re sure there are many ways we can improve. So, we will be listening to you through your emails and blog posts and promise to be as responsive as we can, of course taking into account the realities of development resources, time and money.

Future Posts
I will try to post from time to time to keep you, our various stakeholders apprised of developments at our new company. I will also attempt to respond from time to time to posts on this blog as well.

Closing Comments
Thank you for taking the time to read my inaugural post. I hope I have demonstrated to you our commitment to building the best apartment search site on the web.
There will be many upcoming releases to our site containing several useful improvements that collectively will vastly improve the renter and owner/manager experience. So please stay tuned, and thanks for using MyNewPlace!

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