PadMapper, a popular rental search site, was acquired by another big rental website earlier this year, Zumper.
Together, these two brands hold the largest monthly audience among residential rental startups, according to Zumper, and the now-subsidiary to Zumper is modernizing thanks to its parent brand.
First up: A major change to ‘Post a Pad’
PadMapper facelift is more than cosmetic
PadMapper’s future updates include Post a Pad for the iOS and Android apps.
Unlike the current enterprise-focused product that allows Zumper Pros to showcase listings to both audiences and screen tenants accordingly, the Post a Pad update will be geared toward consumers who want to list their homes.
The first launch is planned for the consumer-facing iOS and Android mobile apps.
Instead of posting spare rooms or sublets on Facebook toward a limited audience, Zumper CEO Anthemos Georgiades explains, the upcoming tool allows consumers to add a pin to a map, much like a professional listing. To protect both sides of the transaction, the upgraded Post a Pad includes an identity verification process.
“This wasn’t just a user request on PadMapper, it was also the intuition of teams,” he said. “The trust issue is going to be central to this product.”
Other design updates to PadMapper include a fresh sidebar with available listings that match pins shown on the map, allowing users to chart the exact location when hovering over prospective listings.
The integration eliminates the need to open a new tab and search individual addresses while minimizing time spent sifting through rentals in unfavorable locations.
Current PadMapper website
Listings can now be easily organized by time on the market, relevance to search and price point. In addition, the search tool displays the number of listings per city and a location search auto-complete interface.
Prior to the relaunch, PadMapper’s code dated back seven years, when real estate websites were not nearly as interactive. By implementing a new codebase and crafting uniformity, searching, saving and applying for rentals will be cleaner, according to Georgiades.
More about PadMapper
“They were this much loved brand, with millions of users every month,” Georgiades said. “We were able to help the PadMapper team execute all of the ideas and feedback they have seen for several years — with the necessary resources.”
Although the two brands have relatively separate consumer bases — PadMapper skews toward college-age millennials or recent grads while Zumper appeals to young urban professionals with a lengthier renting history — they are synchronizing gradually, Georgiades says.
Georgiades says the overlap between brands is around 2 percent — meaning a large majority of users show preference to one or another. However, both brands cater to renters across major U.S. cities, including San Francisco, New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Washington D.C. and Houston.
With the new release, users are no longer forced to create separate login credentials between PadMapper and Zumper. Saved rentals and message history are coordinated across platforms, also.
Zumper’s Instant Apply feature still lives on its domain, but PadMapper users face fewer hurdles to access it. Georgiades says they may explore an Instant Apply feature directly on PadMapper depending on demand.