About Rent.com

When it’s time for you to get up and move, it can definitely be overwhelming to find a place for you to live. In fact many people would much rather do..well, almost anything else than search for a new place to live. Luckily thanks to the Internet finding a new place to live is actually much easier than it used to be. Rent.com is one site that makes it surprisingly easy to find a new apartment to rent.

Rent.com was founded by Scott Ingraham and Allan Hunter and originally launched under the name Viva.com in 2000. The domain name, Rent.com, was purchased in May of 2001 and Viva.com was re-launched under the new domain name, Rent.com. The site was acquired by eBay in December of 2004 and has been owned and operated by the company ever since.

Rent.com lists over one million available apartments nationwide, and offers an array of features that consumers can use to successfully find a new residence. These features include:

• Detailed search results
• Moving center tips & help center
• Incentivized rent search
• Easy-to-post rental listings
• And More

As one of the leaders in the industry, Rent.com boasts having more visitors annually than other similar sites and has truly been a leader in the industry, especially since the purchase of the site by eBay. The purchase of the site by eBay was able to provide the site with expanded reach and therefore has resulted in more rental properties and more visitors to the overall site.

Top Features Of Rent

When it’s time for you to move, the last thing that you want to do is sift through hundreds upon hundreds of listings. You want the site you are searching to be well organized and easily searchable. With Rent.com, you won’t have any issue narrowing down your search. The property listings are very detailed, including contact information, pricing, virtual tours, and pictures as well as the ability to contact property managers directly.

In addition, consumers can sign up and have the most current listing sent directly to their email account. This allows for users to stay focused and up-to-date on the top listings that they are searching for. Not to mention, it helps keep you organized and also allows you to stay abreast on all of the latest and greatest listings that may be new to the market.

One of the biggest questions before relocating is deciding whether or not you want to have a roommate or not. The roommate feature allows consumers to search for potential roommates before they move in if one is needed. This feature also allows for people to connect through the site so that they can chat and get to know each other prior to moving in together.

During the search process, users are able to sift through numerous rental properties. The site contains all different types of units including: condos, lofts, duplexes, houses, townhouses as well as traditional apartments. There are also many sections on advice for apartment living, finding local jobs, and locating a pet care provider if you need one.

Another great feature of the site is that Rent.com offers free mover quotes, which means that when it’s time for you to actually move the site will help link you up with a local reputable mover in the area. The ability for you to find a mover through the website also helps you to get some of the best discounts around.

Lastly, consumers even have the opportunity to receive a free $100 dollar prepaid Visa debit card if they find a property using the website. Basically, this is a win-win situation and should be the easiest $100 that you’ve ever made. With millions of listings to choose from and such an easy to use site, you’ll be able to find a new place to rent in no time!

Rent Prices

While actually renting a new apartment or condo will involve the change of money, the good news is that you won’t have to spend a dime while searching for a new pad to rent! There is no cost involved to use this website; however, visitors are required to register an email address in order to use the search engine.

Criticism Of Rent.com

Though the site is easy to navigate, consumers can easily be turned off to the lack of visual stimuli on the site’s homepage. The home page of Rent.com is quite bland, and at first glance doesn’t appear to offer consumers much more than the ability to search for an apartment. Although if one gives the site some time, they will be able to see that the site has many more features. The site just puts a little more ownership on the user then they maybe should. Users shouldn’t have to dig endlessly to discover the other exciting features such as roommate search and mover’s guide.

Searches are generally fast and easy, and the filtering capabilities are good, but there are not photographs available for every listing. This is a big negative for many users since most people are not likely to enquire about a listing unless there are photographs accompanying the listing.

The free $100 prepaid Visa debit card is a great promotional tool that consumers can likely benefit from, but many users see this as a way of bribery and won’t necessarily select a place to spend the next year of their life or longer just for a lousy $100. There have also been some complaints on forums and comments boards on the Internet of people who claim that they never received this incentivized gift card even after renting through the site.

The last criticism of the site is the fact that users have to register their email with the site in order to use it. This is a detriment to some users of the site as many do not necessary want to have future emails from Rent.com clogging their inbox. However, users are able to unsubscribe to the listing through one of the emails, but this is a little annoying.

Customer Support

Rent.com does have a customer support section of the website, but one has to do some digging in order to locate the proper button. The contact section of the site appears at the bottom of the homepage and once clicked on user’s are directed to a page where they can get in touch with a representative through e-mail, phone or by filling out a generic form. There is also a self-service FAQs section of the site. This allows users to read the most commonly asked questions and get quick and easy answers to all of their needs.

Conclusion

Finding a new place to rent is really just a process that many individuals wish would be done in the blink of an eye. Thanks to Rent.com, sifting through rentals does not have to be a hardship. While the site may not be the most visually stimulating, it does have lots of information all at your fingertips.

The site really has done all of the hard work of compiling listings for you. The search feature is quite extensive and provides users with the ability to really narrow down the search results. The extended features of the site such as roommate connections and moving company assistance really prove that Rent.com goes the extra mile to help you find what you need!

So if you’re in need of a new place to rent, take some time and visit Rent.com. While you still won’t be able to snap your fingers and be moved into a new place, Rent.com definitely helps make the process a little less stressful.