Y Combinator Backs Tenant Turner To Build Software For Landlords Managing Rental Properties

With U.S. homeownership levels back to their lowest point since 1993, rentals look set to make up a larger share of the country’s housing stock for the foreseeable future

Between the 43 million rental units in the country, it’s a fragmented market with millions of individual property owners and landlords.

Tenant Turner is a Y Combinator-company formed out of the aftermath of the 2008 financial and housing crisis. Co-founder James Barrett owned a single-family home but needed to move to a bigger place for his growing family. Unfortunately, with the soft housing market around Richmond, Virginia, he couldn’t sell it. So he decided to rent it out instead.

“I’m an accidental landlord. I bought a townhouse at the height of the market in 2005 and then I needed a bigger home, and we really just couldn’t sell it. It became a real investment in handling the sublet with finding tenants and then the legal process of keeping in compliance with fair housing,” Barrett said. “There wasn’t really anything out there in the marketplace.”

So he, Chris Stewart and Brandon Anderson founded Tenant Turner to help landlords source and choose qualified tenants while following laws like Fair Housing regulations. They’ve raised $500,000 from Y Combinator, Lighthouse Labs, Triad LC, Altron Capital, Duke Dodson, Doug White, Daniil Kleyman, and Jim Cheng.

Tenant Turner automatically lists properties on the top 20 listings sits. They also pre-qualify renters by verifying their incomes, pulling their credit reports and background checks and checking their rental history. 

They also ask renters basic questions to filter out candidates who don’t fit, like ones that have pets for no-pet properties. Then they coordinate property viewings, with text and e-mail reminders.

Their prices start at $119 per rental listing, gradually go lower based on the number of listing credits purchased.

So far, the company has about 200 listings across the site, ranging from single-family homes to condos and town homes.

Tenant Turner promo from Tenant Turner on Vimeo.

Streamline your rental process from leads to lease. http://tenantturner.com