First things first - Why are we doing this?

What is the purpose of creating yet another rental website?

There are already a ton of rental websites available to Canadians like Craigslist, kijiji and Viewit.ca, housingmap etc... Though many of these websites boast huge amounts of traffic, they also all share some unresolved problems. We think there has to be a better way for renters to find their next home and an easier approach for landlords to advertise their properties.

OK, but how much traffic do you have?

Both Craigslist and kijiji have a lot of traffic. They offer landlords the opportunity of exposure and possibly a lot of inquiries for their ads. This may result in many phone calls in the first few hours after placing an ad, a lot of calls from unqualified renters or people who aren't seriously interested. What's the purpose of showing “3 bedroom house, $2500/month” to a student who clearly just wants a studio under $800? We believe in quality over quantity any day! For landlords that means less time responding to emails and calls, and more showings to interested and qualified renters, ultimately renting out your place quickly with minimal bullshit.

High exposure isn't always good, you need the right exposure!

At UR we use "target marketing" filtering, allowing us to deliver the right ads to the right audience. We match the landlord's renting criteria with renters who would be the best fit. When presenting the information this way your ad will attract renters who are interested and qualified. We boost the sales conversion rate for the landlords and give the renters a leg up in finding the right place.

Larger Search results are good, smaller ones even better!

What? If you are wondering if we have gone bonkers read on... At first a search that generates pages and pages of results does look promising, absolutely! It generates lots of possibilities. If you google "How to make pizza sauce" you will get roughly 591,000 results, not kidding. "WOW, that's exciting. I will surely find something in here." Granted, but will you really go through 591,000 entries just to make pizza sauce? With the exception of the clinically insane, you will do what most people do, and that is to look at maybe the first couple of pages. Actually, according to our own research, up to page 6. Assuming 10 results displayed per page, in this case a search that generated 60 results is as useful as one that generated 591,000. Even though the remaining 590,940 results aren't viewed, good to know they are there...

Rental websites are facing the same problem, they have large amounts of data to display. Craigslist for example will burry your rental ad quickly underneath new ads in the hours after your post. Some websites will use complicated searches to solve this problem or allow you to refine your search, which is a nice way of saying "search again." It basically means "Could you please be more specific so we can narrow down your search?" or "Here are 591,000 results. You sort them out!" Generally speaking, all of these solutions are good ideas, but they all require the renter to search twice. This tests the patience of the renter and many of them will just opt out.

Can't there just be an effective search?

We think yes! An effective search should generate the smallest and most relevant search results. We at UR are doing our best to present renters with the smallest number of results that best meet their needs. We give landlords credits for removing their ads when the property is rented before their ad expires; unlike some rental websites that give you a few hundred matches when you search for "2 bedroom house for rent," half of which don't tell you if the property is still available. If a landlord can't clearly state if a property is actually available it should not appear in your search results. We also periodically call landlords to verify the vacancy of their properties. This helps us keep our database relevant and compact, so we can provide renters with the most up-to-date rental listings.

If you are searching for something on UR and we don't have what you are looking for, we will tell you so. We value your time. We would rather display 2 pages of useful information than showing you 591,000 matches just to look good. At UR we are always looking for ways to by reduce mouse clicks,  minimize our user's efforts and increase everybody's happiness.