The Boston rental market can be difficult waters to navigate. It seems almost daily that the city's various neighborhoods are in the midst of a new trend of some kind, whether it be micro-units, lofty-style housing or transit-oriented development to name just a few.
One locally-based startup aptly called Rental Beast provides prospective renters and landlords a free platform to find and list units in a centralized database for the utmost efficiency and cost-effectiveness. With access to roughly 70-80 percent of market listings, it's safe to say Rental Beast and its personnel have their fingers on the pulse of Boston's real estate scene.
To get a better sense of how Rental Beast works, as well as a glimpse into some emerging trends, for those still in the thick of their respective searches with September 1 looming on the horizon, we caught up with the company's founder Ishay Grinberg.
Nick DeLuca: What prompted you to start Rental Beast back in 2009?
Ishay Grinberg: Finding an apartment is painful! Consumers and real estate agents struggle to answer the following question: “What is available and for what price?” I wanted to change that and Rental Beast does. Unlike the process of buying a home, the rental process is very fragmented. After 13 years in the real estate industry and in an effort to simplify the process for renters, landlords and brokers, I decided there needed to be a centralized database for the rental market. We spent years building the necessary technology and process to gather and maintain inventory for the Rental Beast database, which now has access to 80% + of all rentals that are available in Greater Boston.
ND: How exactly does Rental Beast work?.
IG: Rental Beast connects renters and landlords through local expert brokers. Renters can go online or speak with a live expert and search more than 400,000 apartment listings in Greater Boston and over 1.5 million listings nationwide, which have been thoroughly vetted by the Rental Beast team. Not only do we have access to all of these listings but we constantly refresh them so that listings remain fresh and current.
ND: Since Rental Beast is free for both renters and landlords, how does it generate revenue? Is the site venture backed?
IG: Rental Beast is FREE to landlords and consumers, we are funded through partnerships with brokerages. We take great pride in our partnerships with market leading firms. Locally we partner with NRT New England LLC, which is the parent company of Coldwell Banker Residential brokerage, Century 21, Corcoran Group Real Estate and Sotheby’s International Realty. Outside of Massachusetts we partner with firms like Berkshire Hathaway Fox & Roach Realtors and others.
ND: What are some emerging trends you're seeing in the Boston market?
IG: Boston, like most primary markets, is seeing two main trends driving the current rental market:
- Declining homeownership rates that are the result of many socio-economic factors are generating a continuous and growing demand for rental housing. (50%+ of the population rents in many primary markets)
- Inventory influx at the very high end of the market but slow/no movement of inventory in the mid- market. We see thousands of class A buildings coming online offering luxury units and very high prices but not many, if any, mid-market “reasonably” priced units being developed.
As a result of these two trends, we see rents continue to climb for the foreseeable future, albeit at a slightly slower pace than they did between 2010-2013.
ND: Describe a rental horror story you’ve had or one encountered as a broker.
IG: As a real estate agent during the mad rush of September 1st, I found myself trying to pick up and deliver keys to 20 different clients and from 20 different landlords. Between missing forms, jam packed hallways, hundreds of moving trucks and U-Haul’s, 16 long hours and 5 parking tickets later I survived another “move-in” day in Boston.
ND: What's next for Rental Beast in Boston? Are you looking to secure more funding, office space, grow staff, etc.?
IG: Rental Beast’s goal is to make more Bostonians happy while helping them find a great place to live and by helping local landlords find their next great new tenant/s. We are currently hunting for new and bigger office space downtown and are in the process of completing a funding round. The Beast is expanding and hiring! Currently, we have offices in Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, DC and just last month we opened a new office in Miami. We are working to open additional offices in Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas and Atlanta by the end of the year.
