The eBay for Apartments Is Here

A San Francisco startup will allow landlords to auction long-term rental leases to competing bidders online.

1 minute read

May 17, 2016, 11:00 AM PDT

By Elana Eden


Rent

Fireglo / Shutterstock

Rentberry, an online auction platform for long-term rental leases, is launching tomorrow in the Bay Area and New York.

CEO Alex Lubinsky says apartment-hunting is already a bidding war; Rentberry simply provides a more transparent and convenient negotiation process, while eliminating most application fees.

Prospective tenants will be able to see the highest offer and how many people are bidding, and to make multiple counteroffers until the listing expires.

Landlords can expect their rental incomes to increase by 5 percent on average, the company estimates. They'll also get the service for free.

So will tenants—until or unless they end up signing a rental agreement, at which point they'll pay $25. Soon, Rentberry will begin charging them monthly payments of one quarter of the additional income gained by their landlords.

Of course, not everyone agrees that this is "renting done right" (the company's tagline). "Some will say the last thing the San Francisco rental market needs is a middleman taking his slice when ordinary people are being priced out every day," notes SFGate.

To that concern, Lubinsky responds: "We aren’t living in North Korea… Here we have supply and demand, and we have freedom of choice."

Rentberry also plans to expand to slower markets like Dallas and Houston, where it expects landlords to accept low-ball offers in order to fill vacancies faster.

Monday, May 16, 2016 in SF Gate

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Use Code 25for25 at checkout for 25% off an annual plan!

Redlining map of Oakland and Berkeley.

Rethinking Redlining

For decades we have blamed 100-year-old maps for the patterns of spatial racial inequity that persist in American cities today. An esteemed researcher says: we’ve got it all wrong.

May 15, 2025 - Alan Mallach

Logo for Planetizen Federal Action Tracker with black and white image of U.S. Capitol with water ripple overlay.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker

A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

May 21, 2025 - Diana Ionescu

Rendering of California High-Speed Rail station with bullet train.

California High-Speed Rail's Plan to Right Itself

The railroad's new CEO thinks he can get the project back on track. The stars will need to align this summer.

May 19, 2025 - Benjamin Schneider

Flat modern glass office tower with "County of Santa Clara" sign.

Santa Clara County Dedicates Over $28M to Affordable Housing

The county is funding over 600 new affordable housing units via revenue from a 2016 bond measure.

6 hours ago - San Francisco Chronicle

Aerial view of dense urban center with lines indicating smart city concept.

Why a Failed ‘Smart City’ Is Still Relevant

A Google-backed proposal to turn an underused section of Toronto waterfront into a tech hub holds relevant lessons about privacy and data.

7 hours ago - Governing

Pale yellow Sears kit house with red tile roof in Sylva, North Carolina.

When Sears Pioneered Modular Housing

Kit homes sold in catalogs like Sears and Montgomery Ward made homeownership affordable for midcentury Americans.

May 23 - The Daily Yonder