Pay your rent with bitcoin. Here's how it works

Pay your rent with bitcoin. Here's how it works

RECBL - Real Estate News
Diana Olick | @DianaOlick
Originally Published on by CNBC

​While you still can't buy a meal at many restaurants with bitcoin, you can now pay your rent with it.

ManageGo, a Brooklyn, New York-based rental platform which offers landlords and tenants payment and maintenance scheduling services through online and mobile applications, is now adding bitcoin to the list. Starting early next year, a tenant can pay in bitcoin through the mobile app.

Here's how it works: The tenant uses bitcoin and then ManageGo converts the bitcoin to dollars using Coinbase, a digital cryptocurrency broker.

The landlord gets the rent payment in dollars. Since bitcoin is extremely volatile, the value is locked in at the time of the payment.

There has not been a lot of demand for this service, but executives at ManageGo, which has been around for seven years, say it is only a matter of time.

"We lead in innovation, so we saw bitcoin was something that's going to happen and become a standing currency sometime in the future," said Chaim Lowenstein, vice president of business strategy at ManageGo. "Right now there are types of clients we have, their tenants fit the profile, and we wanted to offer it as the new amenity beyond a fancy gym or a new couch in the building."

Lowenstein said he has already received interest from landlords, if not yet from tenants. The company is marketing the idea nationwide, hoping it will catch on as quickly as the currency has.

Toby Bozzuto said he learned of it this week at a real estate conference. Bozzuto is CEO of The Bozzuto Group, an apartment development and management company with more than 70,000 units nationally in its portfolio.

"Currently we have had zero interest in paying rent through bitcoin," said Bozzuto, who is still skeptical about cryptocurrencies in general. "You don't know who owns it, and that's the knock on it. It's been considered black market with a dirty reputation.

That said, he is not exactly closing the door on the option.

"If this becomes a consumer shift, like Apple Pay, we are always looking for ways to increase the ease of rent payments. I'm not closed-minded enough to say it's off the table," he added.

Appeals to a specific type of renter

ManageGo has approached the American Apartment Owners Association, but representatives there said they have not heard of any demand from renters or landlords for bitcoin options.

Alexandra Alvarado, a representative of the association, said property management companies and landlords have moved only slowly into online payments and tend to be quite cautious and conservative. They will not consider trying something until it is widely established in the market.

That could be years or months, given bitcoin's incredible rise and the expansion of other cryptocurrencies right behind it. To start, it will likely be a very specific type of renter."It's someone who is maybe in technology, somebody in finance, somebody who sees this as very exciting," Lowenstein said. "They got in, and this makes it real that they could pay their rent with bitcoin."




Pay your rent with bitcoin. Here's how it works from CNBC.

For more information about Bitcoin please visit Bitcoin.org, Coinbase, and CNN.com



CashBuyersLists.com                     Please like, comment and share.  Thank you.

Facebook Shops Around for Its Next Business Endeavor: Rental Listings

Facebook Shops Around for Its Next Business Endeavor: Rental Listings

RECBL - Real Estate News

Once touted as the most popular and innovative internet community of its time, Facebook is now pushing to compete with trendy social media platforms like Instagram and Snapchat. As part of its rebranding efforts to become an all-in-one service, Facebook recently added payment capabilities to its messaging service, along with various filters to its camera settings to mimic Instagram’s photo editing settings.

It is now making a move into the real estate industry by adding apartment and home rental listings onto its existing Marketplace storefront, which so far only included household items, job postings and car listings.

Adding a social media twist to a popular Craigslist service, Facebook is transforming apartment searching into an interactive experience by providing 360-degree photo capabilities and using social media profile information to reduce the chances of scams and unsafe transactions. And while consumers will be able to search for properties based on location, price, size, bedroom number and animal restrictions-information that is provided by landlords and leasing companies-a real estate agent is nowhere in sight. So, how is this going to be impact the industry?

For many real estate agents, being fully entrenched in the rental business is a great way to transition into buying and selling. This is especially true for greener agents that don’t yet have the real estate experience, and need to build business by working primarily with renters. After all, it’s safe to assume that many of those renters will become buyers someday. Not only is it a great way for agents to familiarize themselves with the industry, but it’s vital to building a contact database that they can grow.

Not only is Facebook looking to list its consumer’s properties using Marketplace, but it is also pulling property information from partnered sources-Apartment List and Zumper-which will integrate hundreds of thousands of listings. Although only in the early stages of adoption, the industry could see this as a direct challenge to Zillow and other popular home search sites. Unless Facebook decides to go the lead marketing and agent branding route with brokerages, as Zillow does, the real estate industry may see this as an unwelcome addition. So far, it doesn’t sound great for the industry overall. But here’s why it won’t be an overnight success:

Consumers Want Simple
The more capabilities are added onto an app, the more complex it will be come. Yes, consumers expect a one-stop shop for services that make sense together, such as ordering food and getting it delivered; however, Facebook is primarily a social media site, and thats what it will always be known for. While some community aspects like groups and neighborhood tag sales are successful, trying to condense an entire rental industry into an apps subcategory may be a stretch.

It’s Free, but at a Cost
While Facebook maintains that the service is free of charge, putting a rental listing on the market is well worth the commission paid. When using a real estate agent, the rental commission goes toward listing services, such as photography and staging, as well as marketing, consulting and vetting renter prospects. While working with a real estate agent may be more expensive, the money paid goes further in providing clients with piece of mind and ensuring a quick and smooth transaction. And while the partnered companies say they are relying on brokers, agents and other property managers to fill out the housing section, Facebook has not yet clarified how it plans to involve industry professionals in the process.

Transactions Won’t Be So Easy
The problem with marketing a rental outside a multiple listing service is visibility. A brokerage will be able to promote the listing, making it visible to its own set of renters, as well as the clients of other brokerages. By using the Marketplace platform, landlords will have to settle with renters who are primarily on Facebook, which may lengthen the renting process. There is also no vetting by an experienced agent involved. Landlords will have to deal with all credit types, and will have to request and go through references and rental histories on their own. Unless landlords find renter candidates from their own friends list, they will still be interacting with strangers, regardless of being members of the same social media site.

It will be interested to see how Facebook fares in its latest endeavor. But the industry will have to keep a watchful eye for signs of this social media enterprise involving itself in buying and selling real estate.

CashBuyersLists.com                    Please like, comment and share.  Thank you.

‘Rental Inform' Dashboard for Property Managers, Marketers

‘Rental Inform' Dashboard for Property Managers, Marketers

RECBL - Real Estate News

Zillow Group has introduced a dashboard for property managers and marketers, Rental Inform?, now in beta for selected users, the company recently announced. The cloud-based dashboard helps property management companies make more informed decisions by offering the companys exclusive, real-time rental market and aggregated consumer insight data.

"Rental Inform will provide our valued property management partners with exclusive data to help them understand real-time consumer and economic trends, customized for their local market," says Michael Sherman, vice president of Rentals at Zillow Group.

"The first of its kind in the rental category, this platform offers access to Zillow Groups proprietary search data to help marketers make more informed decisions about their business. This level of competitive and consumer intelligence is unmatched in the industry today, and were excited to bring this new dataset to our clients."

Powered by aggregated search data from millions of renters on Zillow Groups Rental Network, as well as by Zillow Groups unique economic insights, Rental Inform includes a wide range of data to help marketing professionals and property managers identify business opportunities. The platform includes tools to help marketers better understand consumer preferences-for example, what type of floor plan, amenities or price point is most desired in an area-as well as insights to the current rental market and pricing trends.

Rental Inform allows marketers to view and compare currently listed apartments by type and location. This competition view shows marketers traffic volumes across listings in a given region, helping them understand what type of community prospective renters are interested in within a given geography.

The company announced the dashboard at its third annual Multifamily Forum in Miami. The dashboard will be available soon to all who participate in Zillow Groups Rent Connect.

For more information, please visit www.zillow.com.

CashBuyersLists.com                                       Please like, share and comment.  Thank you.