Company recently reached one million users
RentSpree – self-described as the industry’s premier end-to-end rental management software provider – recently engaged in a partnership with Realty ONE Group as a way to bolster its offerings, officials told Mortgage Professional America.
The alliance will give more than 18,000 Realty ONE Group real estate professionals access to RentSpree’s unique rental technology, according to company officials. The partnership comes on the heels of a 95.75% year-over-year spike in usage of its platform designed for renters – at a time when many are having to delay homeownership in light of increased interest rates and soaring property values.
MPA reached out to RentSpree CEO Michael Lucarelli (pictured) for more insights. He started by explaining how the partnership will help agents: “RentSpree offers a comprehensive platform for Realty ONE Group professionals to efficiently manage their rental transactions, providing features for agents to market their business online, quickly find qualified tenants for their investor clients, and nurture rental leads as they progress towards homeownership,” he said.
At least partially, he concurred, the platform’s demand is attributable to a lack of housing inventory that is ill-equipped to keep up with demand: “With limited inventory across the country, it’s important for agents to diversify the portfolio of services they offer to include servicing landlords and renters,” the CEO said.
He described the typical user: “RentSpree users are real estate professionals who predominantly work with buyers and sellers, but often interact with investors and renters,” he said. “They are looking for a user-friendly, online solution to quickly fill vacancies with qualified tenants while avoiding the liability and hassle surrounding the process.”
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Lucarelli illustrated the breadth of the platform in describing its offerings: “With RentSpree Listings, you can market your properties, seamlessly screen tenants, and share the listing with your network,” he said. “Our intuitive listing creation process and user-friendly listing page design ensure that agents, landlords, and renters have an exceptional experience creating or viewing a listing.”
He described the way users can manually create a listing page or connect to their MLS and opt-in to import listings automatically. Moreover, users can syndicate listings to other listing sites or share a direct link with their network and clients.
“Agents and landlords can gather applications directly from the listing page and manage the entire lead generation cycle,” he said. “RentSpree’s comprehensive feature set does all the hard work, so you don’t have to. We also help expedite the rental application process. With online tenant screening, you have 24/7 access to review complete reports from industry leader TransUnion on your dashboard wherever and whenever you want. Our rental applications are always accessible. You can view easy-to-read, mobile-friendly applications from anywhere and there is no need to be tied down to an office or computer to find the best tenants.”
A main element of the platform centers on tenant screening, Lucarelli noted.
“Realty ONE Group will also have a custom partnership page with RentSpree,” he said. “Tenant screening, rental application, rent estimation, rent payment, listing pages, and client manager. RentSpree will automatically set up accounts for Realty One Group Agents and create property pages where prospects can apply. MLS import and syndication will be available in the near future.”
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Company strides have been aided by a growing need for apartments in light of housing inaccessibility – either via financial restraints spurred by rising rates and inflation or an inadequate housing stock. Indeed, the company in May announced it had reached one million users on its platform – 50% user growth in the last year. Along the way, the firm was able to help some 600,000 renters in their search for a home.
With a valuation that grew from $620k in a pre-seed round in 2017 to $53 million in a 2021 Series A round, the platform is poised for continued growth with plans to provide more ground-breaking technology for the rental industry, officials previously said. “Additionally, RentSpree’s platform revenue has skyrocketed, growing over 6,000% in five years,” officials said in a prepared statement. “Beyond that, even despite the pandemic, the company’s headcount has grown over 1,000% over the last three years.”
“The massive demand we’ve seen speaks to the power of the platform,” Lucarelli said. “Our users value change because change means progress. RentSpree is paving a new way for rental management and the PropTech industry as a whole. We’re confident this is only the beginning and we’re looking forward to continued growth.”
