Lowe's selects On-Site to defend online leasing

August 22nd, 2008

We've shown you how some companies are gung-ho about moving leasing online, but it's important to mention that to be successful, technology needs to be an extension of your on-site presence.

Real estate remains a very personal investment, and maintaining personalized, face-to-face service is key. Moreover, real estate professor John Rosenberg notes:

If a tenant is filling out information at home anonymously, they might not be as honest as they would be in person. "You can learn a lot about a residents from filling out applications with them."

We couldn't agree more. The best resident screening comes before the credit check is even pulled, as experienced landlords well know. But this whole print vs. online battle misses the point. To us, online leasing is not about replacing paper and human interaction, but eliminating wasted time and money. Most all of your leases will meet your community in person before moving; you just need to make it convenient to take the next step.

Face it: renters are online. If you're not there, they'll keep looking.

Still not convinced? Lowe's (the big box home improvement place) asked us to square off against Professor John. They report, you decide.

Meet the new leader in the fight against housing discrimination

August 5th, 2008

How did we miss this?

Over a year ago, the Feds celebrated the 39th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act by creating Franklin the Fair Housing Fox. The mascot is meant to make Fair Housing everyone's responsibility, including your kids!

Franklin even has a foxy email address and online discrimination quiz for kids; a sample:

My family saw an ad that said "Only white people need apply." Is this housing discrimination?

Franklin joins a proud legacy of anthropomorphic awareness cartoons, including Smokey Bear and McGruff the Crime Dog, but lacks that certain je ne sais quoi. Even so, we wish him luck.

Students beware: Being smart hurts some credit scores

July 28th, 2008

This Sunday's New York Times shed further light on the problem with credit scores like Fair Isaac Company's FICO score. In short, students applying for loans are penalized for shopping around for a competitive interest rate.

I find it outrageous that young consumers, most of whom are just starting to build a credit history, are harmed for exercising sound financial judgment. This is another symptom of mysterious "black box" risk scores... it's not just your payment activity or balances they look at. They try to gauge your intentions to predict how risky you are.

In this case, the score gets it dead wrong:

Lots of inquiries send the wrong signals to the formulas that create the popular FICO credit score... namely that borrowers may be applying for multiple loans because they're financially troubled and potentially going bankrupt.

The damage is even greater for young students who have a short credit history.

There's even a website, a sort of Lending Tree for student loans, that aims to circumvent the vicious cycle of:

  • Shop for a loan
  • They check your credit
  • Your score drops
  • Try somewhere else
  • They check your now-worse credit
  • Your score drops further...

The FICO creators need to come out from hiding behind the black box, where our smarter score proudly sits. Or at the least, they should overlook multiple hits to the credit file of student loan shoppers. (A similar exception exists when you are shopping for an auto or home loan; that is, when different loan officers check your credit in the same two weeks, it doesn't damage your score.)

New Yorkers welcome On-Site for annual convention

June 18th, 2008

Thanks to everyone who joined us at this year's Buildings NY conference in Manhattan, the annual tradeshow where we brave the heat, hand out mousepads and meet with clients present and future.

  See you next year!

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