PC: Fox 11 Online
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — The city of Green Bay is considering having its own searchable online database of housing units available for rent.
Landlords and property managers say they have a lot of questions before they’d commit to using the site.
“It’s difficult to find all the best options out there,” said Jeremy Schmidt, co-founder of CityWise, a Milwaukee-based software company that has partnered with 10 Wisconsin cities in about the last year to create their own websites for rental units.
Under CityWise’s model, the communities don’t pay anything, but lend their logos and online domains — helping the sites be the first to pop up when people are searching for places to rent.
Schmidt says these sites are needed, even though there are other sites like Apartments.com and Zillow that provide similar services.
“I think those solutions have been in place for over a dozen years at least, and I think we still hear all the time people saying it’s still very, very difficult to find housing,” said Schmidt.
Schmidt and his partner at CityWise had another company that they have since sold that basically did the same thing, but with college rental housing. College Pads paired with 150 schools across the country, including the UW schools.
“Typically, we were seeing 80% to 90% of landlords engaging and involved in that process,” said Schmidt. “It was a huge success.”
Smaller and government subsidized landlords can list for free, but to help fund the site, buildings with 20 or more units would pay a monthly fee of up to $500.
“That’s very expensive,” said Jared Fink, owner and vice president of Goldfinch Management.
Goldfinch Management has about 700 units in Green Bay, including the Whitney School Lofts, which has 23 units — just enough to be charged to use the city site.
“For a property that is 120 units, it’s probably more feasible to add that cost,” said Fink. “There’s already a lot of apartment sources online where you can find available units. Are we just adding another step for landlords to do to get their property seen?”
Schmidt says the fee would be small compared to other options. He also says CityWise would approve any listing to avoid fraudulent posts.
The city council will vote on a three-year agreement with CityWise next week. CityWise has already partnered with South Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha and other communities in southern Wisconsin.
Green Bay leaders have said city benefits would include having data on which types of housing people are searching for.
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