[edparry]

A mobile application to assist in the job of house/flat hunting.

Something that could tie in to RightMove (at least in the UK), access your saved properties, and provide a simple interface to schedule viewings (although I guess this would still have to be a manual process to book viewings, but the app should provide a calendar to store them in).

The app could then alert you when the viewing is soon, and provide an interface for you to rate the viewing, add comments and maybe your own photographs to remind you later on, rather than having to scribble notes down on the same piece of paper that becomes home to your chewing gum the next day.

On a social front, it would be good to see how many other people were viewing the same property, to gauge the interest, and maybe you would be able to see an overall rating of a property based on what other people that have viewed think about it?

House/Flat adverts are still relatively useless in the process of finding somewhere suitable, and until you can view and see a property for yourself, it's impossible to tell. I think it would be very useful to be able to see ratings and comments from other users, such as "the second bedroom is a lot smaller than the photos show, and the flooring in the bathroom seriously needs replacing!".

It doesn't look like there's an available API for RightMove at the moment, so I'm not sure how the integration could happen. Still, a stand-a-lone app could still be a worthwhile idea?

[rednotebook]

I agree it would be nice to bring renting (in London) etc into the 21st century but you're unlikely to ever incorporate a yelp type ratings system for property as there's no incentive for landlords / agents. They rely too heavily on spin and sales techniques - they don't want you talking to other people and discounting properties before you've seen them. They want to take you on a journey where they lower your expectations so that the one property they show you thats better than the others but slightly out your price range makes you fork out the extra cash. Estate agents and landlords want to control the market - you'll have a hard time democratising it. It really is a sellers market in London.

I'd personally like to see the use of web/tech to integrate the whole experience - so everything from deposits, rent, grievances and so on is centrally managed and moderated. Again though, hard to get traction.

[ollysb]

The rental market in London is pretty ferocious. I don't think comments could work because you'd always run the risk that somebody has decided they like a place and want out off other people from looking. In the end you'd still have to check the place yourself. I like a lot of your other ideas though and user photos could definitely work.

[edparry]

I agree with the user comments issue. Maybe a way of vetting them, possibly if other viewers agree with previous comments, they become publicly available?

EDIT: ...but even then, you might not get personal opinions. Tough one!