We've all been there. (Or at the very least, I have.)You are about to vacate the property you rented only to find out that your landlord won't reimburse you for your security deposit.It was the first time I rented a property in the late 1990s. I was shocked but, more importantly, angry at the injustice. I knew the landlord was lying. She was speaking for me and my roommates. We took her to small claims court. Not so much to get the $800 she wanted to keep, but to prove her wrong. We won the case in the end.It was hard work and took a lot time. We would have been able to make our case if there had been some technology.Today, there are. RentCheck, an innovative startup that aims to solve these problems with an automated property inspection platform has raised seed money of $2.6 million.Marco Nelson and Lydia Winkler started the company in 2019 after Winkler, who had experienced a similar situation as mine, sued her landlord in small claims court. At the time, she was pursuing her JD/MBA from Tulane University.TechCrunch told her that it was unfair for me to not pursue it. I took detailed photos of the apartment's move-out conditions. It took 18 months. However, not everyone has the knowledge or time to go to court.Nelson was then her friend. He had purchased several properties and ended up renting them out. He also had problems with security deposits, but not the opposite. He was required to resolve disputes about deposits and he had to document the condition of properties at the time of move out.Nelson said that he met Lydia after he realized that we were both passionate about the same issue.RentCheck, a New Orleans-based company, was thus born.The United States has an estimated 48 million rentals units. An average deposit is $1,000.Winkler stated that a good portion of this money is being spent on aggregate. Many people need the money to deposit a deposit on another unit.RentCheck created a web application for property managers to address this problem. They also believe it benefits tenants. RentCheck's digital platform allows property managers to conduct guided, remote property inspections. The company experienced increased demand after the COVID-19 pandemic. This was due to the fact that the platform was completely automated and contactless. The platform saw a 1,000% organic growth in terms the number of properties.Winkler explained that we use a guided inspection process to prompt users and guide them through each room, showing them where to take photos and telling them what to do so floors, ceilings and windows are all covered.All inspections are done in the app. Users can't upload photos from their camera roll. This ensures integrity and time stamping. After the inspection is completed, everyone who did it signs off that they have done it correctly and honestly. It can then be signed off by the property manager so that both parties can agree on the move out condition.The company is a SaaS-based business and charges property managers a subscription fee based upon the number of properties they have on RentCheck. Nelson says they can conduct as many inspections of residents as they wish, regardless of whether their internal teams or third-party vendors are performing them.Since its inception, the startup has attracted many large-name investors. It first caught the attention of James Jim Coulter (founder of TPG Capital), when the company won New Orleans Entrepreneurship week. Coulter was one of the first investors in the $1 million pre-seed round.Cox Enterprises participated in the company's seed round. They also included angels like Jim Payne, who sold MoPub and MAX to AppLovin; Ken Goldman (ex-CFO of Yahoo), who runs Hillspire, Eric Schmidts family office; Mark Zaleski, John Kuolt, of BCG Digital Ventures; and Brian Long, founder of Attentive. Long was the original founder of Attentive and sold TapCommerce to Twitter. It also included institutional investors like Irongrey Ventures, Context Ventures, and Techstars.RentCheck's unique technology is what we love. It automates and solves the industry's greatest problem in time and money for property managers and tenants. Kuolt, who was a former managing director at BCG Digital Ventures, and a RentCheck investor, stated that RentCheck uses very smart technology. A technology-based solution is needed to the deposit deduction problem. Nearly everyone has felt that they have been cheated by their landlords at one time or another. RentChecks makes it easy to wonder: How did I not think of that?
