This NYC start-up helps renters find the best landlords

Allia Mohamed, openigloo Co-Founder and CEO joins the On the Move panel to discuss the app that help NYC tenants find and rate apartments and landlords.

Video Transcript

ADAM SHAPIRO: So a lot of people are renters. And in New York City, one of the things that can be so aggravating is dealing with your landlord, especially when the hot water, which legally is supposed to be there, is not, and so much more. Allia Mohamed is the Co-Founder and CEO of openigloo, and she joins us now to talk about how openigloo can help make that process a lot easier, kind of a little bit of prevention, right?

ALLIA MOHAMED: Absolutely. So openigloo is a mobile application that allows tenants to share their rental experiences, but also access real-time city data about their landlords and buildings, so for example, open building violations, litigation history, eviction history, and more.

JULIE HYMAN: If people-- hi, Allia, it's Julie. If people wanted this information before, how would they get it? I mean, is this something that is accessible like at City Hall, for example, in terms of the data part of it? And are there any other competing sites that sort of do these kinds of reviews?

ALLIA MOHAMED: Yeah, absolutely. So New York City is really sophisticated in the way that it collects building and landlord data. So landlords in New York City are required to register with the city. Violations are documented. But of course, they're spread out over various data sets on the New York City government website. So what openigloo has done is really taken out the guesswork and compiled the important data points that we think it's important for renters to know.

There are other sites out there that have tried to collect reviews over time. But we think we're launching at a perfect time, where vacancy in New York City and other big cities are at an all-time high, giving renters the first time a chance to actually take their time, take a breath, and do research about their apartments. In the past, really, it's been a five-minute decision, and we really want openigloo to be the platform that helps renters do their due diligence and make a confident decision in their-- in their home.

- Looking at the data that you've aggregated so far, what neighborhoods in New York, in Brooklyn, and elsewhere in all the boroughs really have the highest ratings, lowest ratings? And does that at all correlate with the number of users in these areas who've actually input information into the apps?

ALLIA MOHAMED: Yeah, it's a great question. So we're really excited about the data that we've collected across the five boroughs. What we've learned, interestingly, is that landlords from Queens are the most responsive. So we ask tenants to review their landlords and their buildings on a variety of factors, so water pressure, heat, landlord responsiveness.

You know, does your landlord respond to your email after an hour or seven days? So what we're seeing is that landlords from Queens are definitely the most responsive. Naturally, the bulk of our-- our users so far have been from Manhattan, and we're seeing some interesting rivalries between the neighborhoods on who's outperforming. So it's been really interesting data so far.

BRIAN CHEUNG: Hey, it's Brian Cheung here. There's some serious Brooklyn erasure there. But I wanted to ask briefly about just what the numbers look like right now during this pandemic? It's seems like, actually, if anything, this type of information will be extremely useful, because it is kind of a renter's market right now. A lot of these buildings are desperate to hold onto tenants or find new tenants, so people might be moving around. Is they're heightened interest in the type of data and services that you're providing specifically right now during this time?

ALLIA MOHAMED: Absolutely. I mean, COVID-19 protocol is at the top-of-mind for renters looking at a home. So they want to know how did the landlord and the building management respond to COVID-19? Did they implement new sanitation measures? What have they been doing to protect tenants and staff?

Have landlords offered rent relief during this time? Were they flexible in tenants trying to get out of leases? That's all information that we've been collecting. So so far, 20% of openigloo users have said that their landlord has offered some sort of flexible rent payment plan due to economic stress caused by COVID-19. And what we want to do is we want to help renters find those landlords that have showed a lot of flexibility and compassion during what has been one of the most difficult periods in American history.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Three-part question for you, Allia. First, can you share with us the number of downloads you've had for the app, second, expansion plans to other cities, and third, the data you've got has got to be incredibly valuable, not only to the users, but someone out there, I bet, is going to want to buy it. Do you sell any of this stuff, because you're seeing things in real time?

ALLIA MOHAMED: Absolutely. So in our first six weeks of launch, we had 15,000 New York City users across the five boroughs and definitely want to keep expanding to other cities, so cities like Chicago, LA, San Francisco with huge renter populations, with a huge demand for this data and being able to find a home. What we're really trying to do is address this asymmetry of information between landlords and tenants, so landlords, all of the information, your tax returns, your statements, your reference letters, credit check.

And what we really want to do is give tenants something in return and give them the information that they need to make a confident decision. And we're not selling the data yet. We're not selling the data yet. We're really, our focus is just on tenants and building a platform that's useful for them.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Yet is the operative word. Some of us don't think there's anything wrong with selling data. So we wish you the best and continued success. All the best to you. Allia Mohamed, openigloo Co-Founder and CEO. Good to have you here.