It's common practice to jump from one apartment to the next, one roommate to the next, from city to city through one's 20's and early 30's. In doing so, hunting down units on sites like Craigslist tends to become equal parts infuriating and tragically funny. If the clicking on multiple links just to get a glimpse of the same shoebox – the one with the gray walls, uneven drawn shades and unmade bed – doesn't drive someone nuts, the idea of taking up some rando's roommate request will surely provoke varying levels of uncomfortable anxiety.
Here's the bottom-line: Looking for an apartment is never fun. But it would be easier, more convenient with friends – friends who always seem to be venting about their real estate problems on social media.
"We noticed that a lot of our friends were posting on Facebook or Twitter," Joe Raciti told BostInno in a phone interview.
Raciti, 31, recently launched the beta version of RoomForFriends.com, a Cambridge-based startup site focused on finding users apartments and roommates using social media.
Currently RoomForFriends only supports Facebook, so guessing as to how other sites like Twitter would be used to provide users with ideal dwellings is unclear. Judging by the way the site filters results using Facebook, it seems like Raciti has found a way to make the apartment hunt relatively painless.
How RoomForFriends works is simple: Go to the site, log in using your Facebook information, answer a few questions, enter your price range, and boom! You'll be given a list of potential roommates, some of which could be your actual friends already.
The concept of finding roommates and apartment listings, Raciti said, seemed like common sense. After he and his roommates noticed again and again their Facebook feeds blowing up with endless streams of post from people seeking roommates, looking for or listing apartments, it became clear: "There's a reason people are doing that," Raciti said, enthusiastically.
RoomForFriends' brass, Raciti and his roommates who happen to be friends from college, believe people, quite simply, just want to live with their friends. Other listing sites, Raciti and co. thought, "were missing the heart" of the renting process. Alas, RoomForFriends was born.
Once a user signs up with his or her Facebook info and answers a few particulars, he or she is directed to a page that lists other users with similar interests, likes, dislikes and price range.
"We start by listing people who are direct friends with you," Raciti said, explaining the site's filtering process. If a user's Facebook friend has posted a listing then he or she will automatically show up at the top of the list. After that, Raciti said, the site filters through mutual friends.
While someone on Facebook could continue to look for apartment leads without signing up for RoomForFriends, Raciti believes his site is more efficient because it prevents real estate requests from "getting buried in the newsfeed." It also prevents brokers from getting involved. Raciti isn't a fan of that profession.
Having moved six times in the past 10 years, Raciti and his friends would be happy if they never encountered another broker again.
His worst experience, he said, came right after graduating from Pennsylvania's Swarthmore College. Raciti and his friends were determined to live together, eventually choosing New York as their destination. There, they ran into "infuriating" brokers who always seemed to show them the worst slums first, saving the best "bargain" for last.
It was textbook "manipulation," Raciti said.
Raciti didn't want others to got through the same ordeal. For him, creating a social real estate listing site was simply about doing what he likes to do.
"I like to create things that make the world a better place," Raciti said.
Raciti isn't a real estate savant nor is he a tech guru. He just "wakes up and does stuff," like teach music on YouTube, a skill for which he's gained a loyal following.
When I asked him about what the future holds for RoomForFriends.com, Raciti stressed calm and steady growth. Once enough users – currently a mix of close friends and a few others – register, Raciti's team will look into targeting people on different platforms.
Ever the optimist, Raciti has established a personal goal of 10,000 users on his site by the end of August.
