Renter Resume growing rapidly for Rent.com.au

Rent.com.au Limited (ASX: RNT) announced this morning its rental property website Renter Resume feature had exceeded 175,000 resumes.

Created less than 12 months ago, the Renter Resume feature has enabled prospective tenants to provide “an incredible level of detail” to home owners and real estate agents, according to Rent chief executive officer Greg Bader.

When creating a Renter Resume, prospective tenants can include references, employment information, identification, and previous rental history.

Growing at an average rate of 500 new resumes a day, this number is increasing as ongoing functionality improvements are made to the website.

“We’ve seen that through these enhancements, renters are using our products more,” Mr Bader said.

“If we look at the rate of RentChecks and RentBonds per Renter Resume created over the past three quarters, the attachment rate of these revenue generating products increased 4% from Q3 FY17 to Q4 FY17, with a more substantial 10% increase in attachment rate between Q4 FY17 and Q1 FY18 – the most recent quarter,” he added.

With many prospective tenants creating Pet Resumes, the company noticed another revenue path and inked a deal with a specialist pet insurance provider. The insurer offers renters a discounted policy. In return, Rent gets a fee for every policy taken.

The website offers a platform for renters and landlords alike to find the best-fit. As well as Renter Resume, people have access to RentBond which is a 12-month loan and enables tenants to pay the bond back in instalments. Other tenant aspects include RentCheck where people can review their tenant status, and RentConnect where tenants can access extra services such as cleaning, removalists and truck hire.

Real estate agents and landlords can use multiple features such as RentCheck, which provides information on a tenant’s rental history, identity and any relevant court or bankruptcy proceedings.

The site also offers agents and landlords management leads, and real-time and detailed data on rental markets.

“With the proportion of people renting already more than 30% nationally (about 7.5 million people) and increasing each year, we, as a community, need to accept that for many people, renting is a valid and logical choice that suits their circumstances at a point in time,” Mr Bader said.