Find the Right Place and the Right Price
“This economy is great!”
Who’s most likely to have authored that quote?
a) Bankruptcy Lawyer
b) Foreclosure.com
c) A San Fran resident who just used Kexter to locate a new apartment at a good price
Kexter combines Craigslist listings with a Google map providing an invaluable Bird’s Eye view for apartment hunters. Map aficionados will appreciate the color coded key – the map markers indicate price by heat color (blue = good deal holding constant the number of bedrooms; red = more expensive). You can search across 19 U.S. cities in total including New York, Chicago, Washington DC, and Boston… not that you’d ever want to leave SF.
Following the Craigslist spirit, there’s no signup cost nor any advertising on the site. Kexter is unable to solve perhaps the most vexing Craigslist shortcoming—the listing information is erratic, garbled, and even specious… come on property managers, start using Postlets. But, Kexter provides a dashboard to seamlessly search by map with filters, including number of bedrooms, price, and free-text (e.g., listings with the word “view”). Each apartment listing will only appear a single time combating “top posting”—an act by aggressive listing agents who list the same apartment multiple times to always pop near the top of the search.
For residents who like their current crib and are now living month-to-month, you can use Kexter as a tool to determine market rate and renegotiate your rent. Marcus & Millichap, who provides real estate investment services, forecasts in San Francisco a 8.9% drop in rent y/y and vacancy rates approaching 5%.
Hmmm… where to live? A hill (Russian, Telegraph, Nob, Portrero) or a valley (Hayes, Cole, Noe)?
Till next time!
~Mister Archer
The Details:
Kexter.com
Proof of Concept Design
Gene Ekster
Greg Michalec
Jason Fischer
