Problem
As a student or young professional, there is already a lot of information to keep up with regarding academics, work, networking, and social events. Why should housing contribute to this burden? Not only is it difficult to find housing due to lack of guidance for those whose living situations are no longer attached to a larger institution, but it is also difficult for a student planning to live in a dorm who must consider their options. Housing information involving layout, neighbors, custodians, landlords, rules and events in common spaces, and more can be overwhelming. This is especially true for people who need to think about this information for the first time. Lastly, communication in living spaces is lacking, and it therefore prevents these students and young professionals from building a true housing community. Many of these people will even live with roommates due to limiting entry level incomes or unemployment as a student, so they need a way to select someone to live with and communicate with them as well. Social engagement is an important aspect of many young peoples’ lives but they are not experiencing this with the people who live closest to them.
Motivation
There are online real estate databases such as Zillow or StreetEasy that are not completely accessible for young first time renters. These databases also do not provide the resources for students and young professionals to conveniently find roommates. Many young people use messaging apps such as GroupMe, WhatsApp, or imessage to engage with each other in their housing communities. These chats often get spammed with messages, and as a result many messages don’t actually get read. This increases the chance of missing out on social engagement in the community. According to Push Notification Statistics researched by Push Crew, 73.47% of their users said that they consider push notifications as spam once there were too many notifications (Figure 1). While these real estate databases and messaging apps are useful, they do not completely cater to the needs of students and young professionals seeking housing.
Photo by Hacker Noon. (Figure 1).
Idea
We want to create a platform that can solve problems of information overload with housing. A single platform to find housing, find someone to live with, and communicate with your housing community (including those in administrative roles) will specifically cater to the needs of students and young professionals who are experiencing all of this for the first time. This platform will include a space for this demographic to learn about the options available to them, as well as the people and events around them.