Leasey: A Business Plan on the Development of a Platform for University Off-Campus Housing

Abstract

Leasey is a home rental marketplace that provides greater visibility and efficiency for both landlords and tenants in a $1.3 billion student housing market. Leasey was created because students lack a comprehensive tool to find and acquire off-campus housing. Landlord’s properties get lost in mass aggregators (e.g. Craigslist, Zillow, etc.). Landlords also dedicate time and resources to leasing out their properties and miss opportunities by settling on the first tenant to approach them in order to avoid the threat of vacancies. Leasey is the only one-stop shop online rental marketplace that helps students acquire off- campus housing and enables landlords to achieve the fair market value for their rentals. Through a unique blind auction mechanism, renters determine for themselves, relative to the landlord’s reserve price, how much they are willing to pay per month for a property. For students, the model eliminates first-come first-served practices associated with securing a lease and empowers them to bid what they consider a fair rate for their future home. Landlords can view multiple offers and select the right fit for their property based on bid and qualifications, instead of the first person to submit an application and sign a lease. Other long-term turn-key features include the ability to form groups, the addition of standard lease applications for prospective tenants, and an open house scheduling tool.