[wilbo]

Latchel (https://latchel.com) | Engineering Manager + Other Roles | 100% Remote (Western Hemisphere, North American time zones) | Full-time

At Latchel we understand that renters today expect better service, more perks and faster maintenance than most property managers can afford to provide. Latchel is a software platform that enables property managers to be more responsive and offer better perks while also creating a new revenue stream so property managers don't have to choose between happy tenants and a healthy bottom line.

We currently have 7 engineers and an interim manager. We are looking for a more permanent leader that will advocate for the team while driving the company forward. Learn more and apply at https://latchel.com/jobs/engineering-manager/ Latchel is a Y Combinator (W19) company, post Series A (led by F-Prime) with participation from Metaprop, 1984 Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures and more. Additional roles (primarily sales) are available here: https://latchel.com/careers/

[wwalexander]

What a horrifying business model to add to an already horrifying, parasitic line of work!

[slickdork]

For real, it seems this business asked "How can we make living harder for the majority of the population?"

And found an answer.

[wilbo]

We initially started as software to improve the maintenance process for rental homes, then added a 24/7 emergency answering + dispatching component. With those we found that a) residents loved having a service that actually answered and quickly handled their maintenance, particularly emergencies, and gave them full and complete visibility into their maintenance progress. We see typical companies move from days or weeks to get maintenance scheduled to having maintenance scheduled within minutes (and visible and traceable by the resident). And,

b) property managers can't afford this service. Property owners can--but there aren't that many people or corporations that own hundreds or thousands of units in the single family rental space. It makes distribution and scaling particularly challenging unless you target third party managers. Your average rental property owner in the US rents out fewer than 2 units.

Our customers are almost entirely third party managers, not the property owners. Property management generally gets a bad rap, but the truth is, these are extremely low margin businesses. They have this great pain where they want to provide good service to renters and owners, but they simply don't have the resources to do so. Our current business model is the best vehicle we've found to be able to deliver 4.8/5.0 star maintenance service to renters (and getting better). We want to make it easier for property managers to deliver great service. The feedback we get from the hundreds of thousands of renters on our platform makes me feel like we are providing a valuable service. I, for one, would rather rent in a place that has a program in place that ensures my maintenance calls are answered and will offer specific guarantees for service.

[slickdork]

It sounds like you found a problem you're improving. I don't want to stop you. But to me it feels like a bandaid fix, a short term stop gap for a larger issue.

The reason it got a negative response from me is that I look at the problem from a renters point of view, and not an owners. Housing is in short supply, REITs make billions of profit, homelessness is on the rise. And here your selling point is "get a new revenue stream from your tenants".

The solution of negligent owners shouldn't be renters paying more money for yet another middle man just to get their apartment fixed.

[wilbo]

I do agree we are missing the mark on our messaging of how the revenue model works, particularly from the renter's point of view. The specifics of billing and charges are complex in the third party property management space (much more so than for owner-operators). I'm happy to discuss the specifics further via email if you'd like to get into that nuance.

Housing availability, pricing, and supply is hard to solve. Institutional buyers such as REITs do add more challenge to this difficult landscape. We don't target institutional clients and the vast majority of our customers are small mom-and-pop third party managers.

[verall]

Bringing advertising to your most captive audience - your tenants. This looks ghoulish.

[getoverit]

Maybe you should break off a piece of that six-digit cheddar you're making as a high flying software developer and buy yourself some real estate with it, sport. Then you won't be on HN crying about eeeeevulll landlords anymore.