Shady UX/UI practices on Streeteasy

StreetEasy includes apartments whose net rent after concessions are in your rent range, but displays the rent as the pre-concession rent. Still predatory, especially as concessions are 3-4 free months rent at this point, but it makes a little more sense on SE’s end...

They should've never moved the net effective price off the top line. Why make consumers do mental math?

5 extra listings a low threshold for being triggered especially when it is free for users.

Richard, it's relevant if the apartment has a stabilized lease. When it is not, it signals in a good-faith type way the base from which your renewal will be calculated. But this is signaling at best.

And you don't have to do mental math, it tells you both #s.

SE's new policy has the virtue of making rents seem higher in the less-transparent buildings. EQR, which has been cagey on their concessions, is now advertising units with headline rents 10-20% above where the first-year actual rent will settle out after "up to 3 months free on select units" that shows up on their website.

The downside of the new policy is that it actually encourages concessions. If I have headline rent of $10K and 4 months free, the net effective is $7500, so I pick up everyone searching for $10K rentals AND $7500 rentals even if the person wanted to exclude one or the other. SE needs to build a toggle to search one or the other.

For rent-stabilized units, I personally would rather have concessions banned. It totally goes against the idea of rent stabilization since it builds-in an above-market rent increase at the first renewal. The elimination of preferential rents needed also to establish that the net effective rent would be the basis for future renewals.