"I have already received fifteen messages! Florent Bazin posted an ad for his apartment for rent, a small furnished studio rented for 640 euros near the Trocadéro (16th arrondissement), less than three hours ago on the LeBoncoin site. And since then it's been an avalanche!
We risked it, by posting an ad for a furnished studio of 14 m2 at 650 euros near the Place de la Nation (11th arrondissement): in 24 hours, we received forty messages, most of them in the first three hours after publication, the first two minutes after.
"We can open the agency with already 200 contacts to process"
“A single owner can have up to 300 contacts for a single ad! ”Reveals Laetitia Caron, the director general of Individuals to individuals (PAP). Then remove those who sent a copy and paste without having read the ad, those who have found accommodation in the meantime or those whose files are not strong enough.
In Paris, and in its immediate suburbs, where supply is far below demand, the phenomenon is well known. This is even more the case for small areas with “low” rent, coveted by students and young workers.
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With real estate agencies, the same challenge. To avoid wasting time, some ask for complete files before the visits. Others come with the file. "When we arrive in the morning, we can open the agency with already 200 contacts to deal with, fallen into the night," testifies Julien Guillaume, the director of Orpi Alésia, in the XIVth arrondissement.
"With us, we do group visits, with up to 15 people each time, all selected after a telephone interview," explains Muriel Goldberg, the boss of the agency Address of the 10th arrondissement. Otherwise, we could not get out! "
Others go even further and put in place enough to sort applications ... in one click. This is what PAP offers, which recently set up a “tenant file”. Applicants for rental are strongly recommended to fill out a form, before even applying for apartments, where they indicate their income, their guarantee and their professional situation ... Information that the owner can then consult and filter according to his wishes. Select the highest paid candidates? A few clicks and here is a "ranking". Relegate all those without CDI? In two seconds, it's possible!
"A discriminating system"
"Some people look more at guarantees rather than wages," notes Laetitia Caron, however. To understand: no one is left on the side. At the CNL, an association of tenants, we look at this "innovation" from a different perspective: "It is a discriminating system, judge Eddie Jacquemart, its president. We must establish a real social mix in the private park, with quotas, and set up a universal guarantee, so that everyone is housed in the same boat.
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This system of "tenant file", they are few to have implemented it. At Nexity, for example, it is impossible to apply for an apartment to rent without having completed your file. "Your file has not yet been sent to the teams," says a message, as long as the form has not been completed. "We cannot rely solely on this information to choose a tenant, there is the human!" "Deplores Muriel Goldberg. Other real estate agents, however, see this solution as a way of optimizing tasks.
Start-ups rush into the market
Companies even specialize in this area. Hello Ding Dong, a rental platform, offers real estate agencies free of charge to set up these forms and to sort out the answers - in return, these provide announcements in preview. Time saved on the one hand, exclusivity on the other: an exchange of good practices. "Managing the flow of contacts today is wasting a lot of time for agencies that are rarely configured for," notes Greg Rouxel, one of the founders of the start-up and former real estate agent. Our tool solves this problem. "
Win time? Same fight at Clustdoc, another Parisian start-up. It provides, in particular to real estate agencies, turnkey platforms for the composition of files. "The agency sets up what it needs, the documents and information necessary for the file, and the platform becomes the tool for exchanges between the tenant and the real estate agent," explains Marie Assé, its founder. The start-up is "thinking" about making it possible to sort the files according to the information entered by the candidates. "There is a strong demand for real estate agents," confirms the entrepreneur, for whom real estate will be a priority development sector in 2020.
Hire Agile, known for its formidable alert tool, launched rental management in October, with the ambition of "renting an apartment in less than 24 hours". To help him, and "go quickly", the start-up has implemented this same system: "We select, sort and compare the files according to the information that the candidate has entered and then it is the owner who the last word, ”reveals Marc Lebel, its co-founder. And to clarify: "But the solution to this problem is the price. Rent too high: there will be no candidate, even in Paris. Too low rent, and there will be many, if not too many. "
The unpaid rents guarantee favors good files
The generalization of the “unpaid rent guarantee” (GLI), taken out with insurance companies by the lessors, undoubtedly pushes for the “automation” of the selection of files. "With these insurances, it is not the agency or the owner who chooses the tenant, but it is the insurance which did not see the candidate or discuss with him! "Regrets Hanane Zineddaine, patroness of the agency Adresse du Kremlin-Bicêtre (Val-de-Marne).
"Insurance has only a financial reading of the file and will therefore take the best financially speaking," adds Julien Guillaume, the director of Orpi Alésia. In other words: between five candidates, including two without CDI, the insurance company will choose the best paid CDI candidate. Applicants earning no more than three times the rent are automatically sidelined.
