rentwiki.com Social Rental Search

Neighbourhood search add ons and user generated content are becoming increasingly important to househunters.

A new website, rentwiki.com, launched in January 2009 under the tagline “social rental search”. It aims to help people find a neighbourhood that is right for them, drawing on user generated content, reviews and neighbourhood information compiled in location specific “wikis”. It also contains rental listings.

rentwiki.com says that “Where should I live?” is a question 40 million movers ask each year:

“When we move, we want to know much more than bed, bath, and price. We want to know about the location, safety, walkability, social scene, etc. and get a feel for the neighborhood. Instead of starting dozens of rental sites to sort through hundreds of listings, we call a friend, family member, or co-worker and ask for advice and their opinion to help narrow down the location.

So rentwiki.com is a peer review and recommendation website to help people find a place to live. From local reviews to pros/cons about the area, we hope to make renting easier.”

Last week rentwiki.com added a Twitter integration which aims to provide renters with additional tools and information when searching for a place to live.

“Once a place to start conversations, Twitter has quickly evolved into a market research tool, wholesaler of goods, search engine, news site, and even a rental search,” said Eric Wu, co-founder of rentwiki.com, in a press release. “The goal of rentwiki is to give people searching for a place to live real advice from renters living in that area. By integrating with Twitter, we are expanding the conversation beyond just our site and into the real-time social Web.”

On the company blog, rentwiki.com explained further:

“We put a twitter feed on each neighborhood wiki. From the feeds, renters can glean the type of people that live in the area, listen in on the conversation, and interact with locals by asking for advice. We also gave users the easy ability to broadcast to 8+ million people asking for feedback or advice.”

For example:

It’s not the company’s first social media neighbourhood innovation. rentwiki.com also has integrated with Facebook Connect, Social Bookmarking Sites, Walk Score and lets users to upload widgets and videos.

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