It gains popularity amid growing housing unaffordability
RentSpree, an end-to-end rental management software producer, is celebrating a milestone – its expansion in Florida by virtue of its sixth multiple listing service partnership in the state.
The partnership with Miami Association of Realtors will provide more than 60,000 real estate professionals with access to the software platform for simplified rental processes, the company’s CEO, Michael Lucarelli, told Mortgage Professional America.
The new MLS partnership exponentially expands RentSpree’s presence in the Everglade State where it has supported the real estate industry by facilitating more than 75,000 rental applications over the past two years in one of the nation’s hottest markets for multifamily.
“Miami is such a hot rental market, and so many people are renting within the city and even the county there,” Lucarelli told MPA during a telephone interview. “It’s something that will be really exciting to see how we can assist with the housing situation there in helping people secure housing when they need it.”
The multifamily sector has gained in strength as the single-family housing market softens. Soaring property values have prompted many would-be homeowners to delay their purchases, which has bolstered the multifamily sector as a result. The booming sector is in full display in Miami, one of the nation’s fastest-growing cities.
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“Home prices seem to go in tandem,” Lucarelli said. “It’s very expensive to purchase a home in Miami. That really relegates people to rents because, hey, you still have to live somewhere. That’s when renting is the only viable option. People have to secure housing, but if you’re not in a certain socioeconomic status, it’s very difficult to buy a home.”
The city’s multifamily sector has also benefited from an influx of tech-savvy workers in what’s fast developing as a hub for that industry sector: “Miami is becoming more what most people might consider an up-and-coming tech hub, so there are a lot of people moving there, a lot of businesses relocating there,” Lucarelli said. “That’s been kind of ongoing. We’re just now starting to see the housing impacts of that – catching up with people moving there and business relocating there – that normally might have started up in Silicon Valley or elsewhere in California or even New York. But now a lot of them are really starting to look at Miami.”
Official government statistics yield evidence of the state’s growth. Between 2019 and 2020, Florida added 10.1 million housing units even as nearly all states reported modest growth in that realm. Only California and Texas exceeded Florida’s housings gains, with 14.5 million and 11.9 million units added, respectively, in those states, according to US Census Bureau data.
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As a result of the partnership, members of the Miami Association of Realtors can now seamlessly offer RentSpree’s tools, such as tenant screening, providing access to background and credit checks in a matter of minutes. This will help expedite realtors’ processes and grow their rental business in a market where interest in rentals is exploding.
“As an association that is committed to choices for our 60,000 members, we are pleased to add RentSpree to our suite of services – to support and enable our agents with top-of-the-line proptech rental tools,” Teresa King Kinney, CEO of Miami Association of Realtors, said in a prepared statement. “We are excited to offer RentSpree and appreciate their deep MLS integration and commitment to the industry.”
Lucarelli noted that technology continues to prove itself as the most impactful way to support booming rental markets such as Miami and South Florida. He added that the partnership with one of the nation’s largest and most prominent realtor associations “…shows what a significant role proptech will continue to play as rental demand grows and intensifies.”
The company, in July, secured its fifth MLS partnership in Florida with the Space Coast Association of Realtors, officials announced. The partnership was described as a coup for RentSpree given Florida’s status as a record-setting larger coastal rental market, now officially one of the top three fastest growing rental markets in the US.
That partnership enabled members of the Space Coast Association of Realtors to access RentSpree’s tenant screening directly within its member site FLEX, which gives users access to reports, such as background and credit checks, in a matter of minutes, once a rental application is submitted, officials described.
