Is this site easy to use?

[SmarterGroup]

Hello everyone

When I left university I founded Smarter Housing, based on my torrid experience of the student rental market, with the hope that I could address 3 problems:

1) The house hunt - information is expensive, hard to find and not very detailed
2) The houses - mostly poor, some hidden gems
3) The service - estate agents treat students like the scum of the earth

To address point 1, I went down the route of a simple to use website. Prospective tenants can quickly select an area relevant to them from the landing page, before refining search results according to various attibutes - number of bedrooms, rent, location etc - at the results page. Students can then look at potential houses in significant detail, as per the example here:

Sample Property Listing Page on Smarter Housing

What are peoples' thoughts on this page?

Prior to Smarter Housing, students in the area would be required to identify and then find local estate agents, who would produce nothing more than a paper list of house addresses. I have experienced first hand the mad sprint between houses and the frustration when you put money down on a property only to find another agent has secured a lease.

By combining photos, a location map and a detailed description, we hoped to remove the need for students to visit 100s of houses before coming to a decision (as they can do so online!) and we have found that our tenants tend to view 2 or 3 of our properties before making a decision.

Feedback from our early tenants has helped us to bring in a floorplan "navigation system" to assist in the use of our virtual tours. Previously, as per the example on this old listing page, virtual tours would pop up in a separate window, with the user having to virtually walk through a property. With some property layouts (i.e. long and thin houses) this would increase the amount of time required to view a virtual tour as rooms could only be navigated as if in real life - by walking through adjoining rooms.

We are, however, always looking for new ways to improve. Any suggestions would be most welcome.

In respect of issues 2 & 3, we only take on the best properties which far exceed minimum standards. We only take on reputable landlords and have worked with universities and local councils to help prosecute a couple of rogues. Our properties come with free broadband internet and our tenants have access to special offers & discounts through local businesses. Students can report faults in person during normal office hours at one of our brances or online/over the telephone 24/7/365.

Although I now employ property managers (all of whom are university students on a year out), I still provide my number to all tenants in the event of an emergency.

Thank you in advance for any feedback - positive or negative.

Adam

[Gaulkin]

Your site is awesome, i would use it if i lived in the UK.

ps. If you dont mind me asking, what did that website set you back?

[warrensway]

awesome site

[SmarterGroup]

Thank you for the positive comments

There is the potential to spin out to the US but we still have our work cut out in the UK. I know nothing of the market (i.e. do you all live in student housing when attending college and university?) so would be open to talks with people who do and would be comfortable with potentially running a franchise. All of our property managers are employed in an area relevant to where they attend university as local knowledge is key to providing decent housing.

Atelier Studios (based in Southampton, UK) put our site together. Originally we spent around £30k but have added to this with minor changes over time. It would certainly have been possible to get the work done cheaper but I am most satisfied with our dealings with Atelier and we will continue to use them until it is feasible to employ someone for the purpose of maintaining our website and databases.

All of the money came from start-up grants and business plan competitions: like most graduates in this country, I finished my degree with £15k of debt

[sk24iam]

I really like the layout and infrastructure of your site. What was it that made it so expensive to design?

[Yiie]

Great site! It's neat, simple and easy to navigate. Impressive how you got it all started from grants and comps.

[Tom Milan]

It looks great, a very easy to use website, with very convenient and simple functions.
good luck.