Houser.co.nz

Houser was a rental property website that attempted to address issues in the New Zealand rental market. The main difference from existing sites was the use of persistent property profiles that could be reused between listings.

The Concept

The platform had three main features:

1. Persistent Property Profiles Instead of creating new listings each time, landlords built comprehensive property profiles that accumulated photos, details, and history over time. The system could generate legally binding tenancy agreements and inspection reports ready to print, using data from the property profiles.

2. Transport Cost Calculator Properties could be searched by commute cost to work or university. The system used Google Maps API to calculate driving routes, estimate fuel consumption based on stop/start frequency and distance, then calculate weekly transport costs for round trips.

3. Dual Revenue Model Landlords paid to list properties for rent, while existing tenants paid to advertise for new flatmates. Both services used the same property profile data.

Development Journey

The project required learning numerous skills beyond programming: PHP development, VPS management, company registration in New Zealand, GST setup, accounting, and online credit card payment processing. The 12-month development cycle included extensive user testing with family, friends, landlords, and the marketing team, leading to significant interface improvements in button placement, information layout, and user flow.

Team and Partnerships

Two collaborators joined the project: Emma Johnston and Hamish Kay, who provided invaluable assistance with business planning, marketing strategy, and real estate industry outreach. Through their efforts and direct meetings with local firms, Houser secured listings from Hamilton’s major commercial real estate companies:

Century 21
Lodge Rentals
RentFast
Waikato Real Estate

RentFast went further, funding the printing costs for marketing flyers in exchange for logo placement.

Results

The site reached 1600 monthly visits at its peak and ranked third on Google for “rental properties hamilton”. University students used the platform, though landlord adoption remained low. The site was built with PHP, Apache, MySQL, memcached, SSL, and hosted on a New Zealand VPS.

Marketing

Marketing included hand-delivered flyers around Hamilton East (timed for semester ends and summer periods) plus Google AdWords and Facebook advertising.