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Rental Inspection Transparency with Lydia Winkler, Co-founder and COO of RentCheck
Whether turning over a rental unit or performing somewhat regular rental inspections, the practice of keeping record of the condition of a unit can prove to be beneficial in the short- and long-term. This can help owners and managers know what is or is not in good working order and what may need to be repaired in the near future. The problem here is the time it takes driving to each building, walking each unit, scheduling with renters, and having to go through someone's living space(if currently occupied) can be a major time suck, can feel like a nuisance to the renter, and can add unnecessary expense to the management business.
RentCheck is working to solve for this. RentCheck was co-founded by Lydia Winkler, who's also the COO. She came up with the idea of enabling owners and managers to configure self-guided inspections, performed by renters, after a significant dispute with her landlord several years ago that resulted in her having to sue (and she won!) said landlord.
RentCheck provides an app to renters, giving them a step-by-step guide on what to document to complete a rental inspection. Allowing the renter to perform the inspection removes all of the friction points mentioned previously. RentCheck also has transparency checkpoints in its app, such as only allowing for photos in real-time through the app, so all photos are accurate to the time and date (vs uploading photos). All of the inspection photos and notes are then sent back to the manager's account in RentCheck, which also integrates into other management platforms.
Lydia and I talk about rental inspections, renter experience, and more throughout this episode. There's a very large potential market for RentCheck and the company has seen explosive growth in the last few years as that demand responds to the platform.
More about Lydia and RentCheck
My name is Lydia Winkler and I co-founded RentCheck in 2019. RentCheck is a direct result of a personal problem I faced: when I was a law student, I had to sue my former landlord over a security deposit that was wrongly withheld. I was successful, but realized my problem could be eliminated through the use of technology, and RentCheck was born.
We’re RentCheck, a venture-backed, New Orleans, LA startup on a mission to make renting fair and transparent.
We’ve built software that serves Renters, Landlords, and Property Managers by providing an easy to use experience for documenting rental properties and by becoming the trusted third-party for security deposit administration. We are an early stage company looking to transform the $100 billion residential real estate industry.
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