Tag: rentals

Why 2026 could be a year to rent, not buy – MoneySense

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Landlords across Canada are increasingly dangling such incentives, along with other common perks like free parking, waived pet fees, and moving allowances, to compete for new tenants. After a post-pandemic surge in rental costs, real estate watchers say the scales have tipped back in favour of renters amid falling prices, higher vacancy rates, and uncertainty in the housing market overall.

“It’s a race to the bottom,” said Marco Pedri, a Toronto-based broker with Shoreline Realty who specializes in leasing transactions. “We talk about the inventory of all these new buildings. These landlords are competing with one another, driving the prices down.”

Rental supply surges as demand shifts to leasing

That trend seems poised to continue for much of this year, especially after 2025 marked the second consecutive year of record rental housing starts in Canada. Experts say more apartment completions are also expected this year as projects wrap up, giving renters additional choice. “The math works better for rentals than for large home ownership projects right now,” said Mathieu Laberge, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.’s chief economist.

But with so many new listings and prices falling, the question is whether demand from renters will follow in 2026. Some real estate agents believe that’s already begun.

Tom Storey of Royal LePage Signature Realty said 2025 was one of his team’s biggest years for leasing transactions. He said demand for rentals gained steam as fewer clients were willing to step off the sidelines in the sales market.

“What was clear to me is that the need for real estate hasn’t changed, but in 2025, how people chose to access it was a lot more on the leasing side than the purchase side,” said Storey, adding that declining sales prices and lower interest rates have also prompted buyers to hold off as they wait for the market to “bottom out.”

“That seems to me one of the many reasons why people chose to rent for the short-term, because rental prices had dropped as well. Starting rents in 2025 were lower than they were in 2024 and 2023.”

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Rents keep falling, but affordability pressures remain

December 2025 marked the 15th consecutive month that average asking rents fell nationally year-over-year, according to analysis from Rentals.ca and Urbanation based on listings data from the former’s network. They say average asking rents in Canada fell 3.1% overall in 2025 and are down 5.4% from two years ago. In December, asking rents fell around 8% in Vancouver, 5% in Toronto and Calgary, 2% in Montreal, and 0.5% in Ottawa on an annual basis.

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But affordability concerns linger. At $2,060, the overall average asking rent in Canada last month was down 2.3% from a year ago. But that’s still nearly 3% higher than the national average asking rent of three years earlier, according to the report. Asking rents are also still around 14% higher than pre-pandemic levels of December 2019.

Rentals.ca spokesman Giacomo Ladas said property managers are now coping with a double whammy—lots of new supply available, plus a relatively shallow pool of renters. While some tenants are still feeling priced out of the market, movement has also slowed after the federal government introduced an immigration cap, which has stunted population growth. Demand also typically cools in the winter months, he said, resulting in both lower asking prices and incentive offers aplenty.

“What’s important to note as well is that we are still expecting a lot more supply coming into the market,” said Ladas, noting about 180,000 units are currently under construction across Canada. “Based on the end of last year, we were seeing negative population growth, so we don’t expect demand really to pick up any time soon, but more supply is on its way. Because of that, we see vacancy rates increase.”

Economic uncertainty cools renter and buyer movement

Meanwhile, the rental market wasn’t immune to last year’s widespread economic uncertainty linked to trade concerns, which clouded Canada’s real estate outlook. Some local real estate boards say the trade dispute led to fewer resale transactions than initially forecasted. Many potential first-time buyers took a wait-and-see approach that still lingers, holding onto their rentals instead of moving forward with plans to own.

Similarly, renters were less inclined to pay premium prices, said Ladas, even though developers pushed ahead with purpose-built rental projects, having borrowed money to build them before tariffs went into effect.

“People were staying in their rental apartments longer and we weren’t seeing turnover rates increase,” he said. The average two-bedroom turnover unit rent declined in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and Halifax last year, according to CMHC data. The national housing agency said the vacancy rate for purpose-built rental apartments sat at 3.1% in the fall, up from 2.2% at the same point in 2024 and above the national 10-year average.

2026 shaping up as renter-friendly year

Laberge said the agency believes 2026 will be another renter-friendly year in most Canadian markets. With additional supply expected from other ongoing projects, he said it will give incomes time to catch up to rent growth of previous years. “When the turnover rents start going down, there’s more fluidity in the market,” he said.

For now, the dynamic has allowed clients more freedom to pick and choose where they live, said Pedri. A more affordable environment means they can prioritize factors such as location or amenities when moving, instead of having to settle. Pedri said many are also opting to lock into rent-controlled units while prices are lower.

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The Canadian Press

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January 27, 2026
Colorado AG claims landlords are colluding to raise rents. What does that mean for Denver renters?

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An “Apartment for Rent” sign in the window of a building in Denver’s Speer neighborhood. April 27, 2023.

Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

Are Colorado landlords agreeing to artificially raise rents?

That’s what Colorado’s Attorney General Phil Weiser thinks. On Friday his office joined a number of other states and the U.S. Justice Department in a lawsuit against RealPage Inc., a software company that uses confidential data from landlords to suggest rent prices.

Thousands of Denver apartment units — maybe even yours — are owned by companies that use RealPage.

So, how does price-fixing work?

In a normal economy, companies compete for customers by offering the best value for their prices. But collusion happens when companies come together and agree to all raise prices together, forcing consumers to pay more. It’s illegal.

In this case, landlords aren’t all meeting in a room and agreeing to raise rents. Instead, they submit their confidential vacancy and pricing data to RealPage individually, and the algorithm spits out suggested prices.

That could be price-fixing, Weiser alleges.

He claims RealPage has pushed landlords to end lease perks like rent discounts, and can use information about vacancies to help landlords strategically pull rentals off the market, driving up rents.

“Half of renters in Colorado spend more than 30% of their income on housing costs,” wrote Weiser in a statement Friday. “Renters should benefit from healthy competition between landlords to find an apartment that fits their budget and needs. But RealPage’s software and market dominance have enabled collusion between landlords to fix rents, set the number of apartment available in the market, and harm renters by forcing them to pay rents above competitive levels.”

Denverite has reached out to RealPage for comment. The company has generally defended its software as a way to help businesses make decisions.

What does that mean for Denver renters?

It’s no secret that high rent levels are a problem in Denver. Affordability and housing are top issues for Denverites, and nonprofit leaders say the high cost of rent is driving up homelessness.

According to a June report from the corporate watchdog group Accountable.US, the six largest publicly traded apartment companies have all faced lawsuits across the country over their use of RealPage.

The report says those six companies — Mid-America Apartments, AvalonBay Communities, Equity Residential, Essex Property Trust, Camden Property Trust and UDR — owned nearly 6,000 units in Denver as of March.

Coincidentally, Accountable.US says the landlords saw a combined $300 million in profits, nationwide, in the first quarter of 2024.

And that’s just the largest landlords. In April, Denverite reported on high rents and poor living conditions at an apartment complex in Englewood owned by Bell Partners, Inc., a company that has been sued by the Washington, D.C. attorney general over claims of price-fixing through RealPage.

The Bell Cherry Hills Apartments in Englewood. March 20, 2024.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

Does the lawsuit mean rents will come down?

It’s unclear. Weiser’s lawsuit asks courts to end anticompetitive agreements with RealPage and its customers around sharing sensitive information. It also wants to end what Weiser calls an “illegal monopoly” over this type of software. Currently, the company has about 80 percent of the market for this type of software, according to Weiser.

“[Housing] is a necessity, much like the other necessities that the public has been comfortable with regulating under antitrust statutes for a very long time and has broad public support, for utilities, for Xcel, for water, things like that,” said Jason Legg a lawyer with Justice for the People Legal Center who has worked on a number of cases involving renters’ rights.

But lawsuits can take a while, and this emerging technology raises new questions for the courts.

Earlier this year, a judge dismissed a case involving Las Vegas companies using a RealPage tool. Part of the judge’s reasoning was that the owners were using a third-party software company, RealPage, rather than coordinating directly.

Legg supports Weiser’s lawsuit, and wants to see the attorney general take action on other fronts, like junk fees that drive up rents.

“It’s been a culture of the Wild West, in our opinion, and it’s great to see the attorney general stepping in here,” he said. “I hope that the AG doesn’t stop here in being active to ensure that this necessity, like water and electricity and others, are accessible and available to everyone in Colorado.”

In the meantime, some Colorado state legislators have tried to take on “rent algorithms” with changes to state law. But a bill that would have limited landlords’ use of companies like RealPage died during the legislative session, due to disagreements between legislators, as well as lobbying for real-estate tech companies.

Work for a company that uses RealPage and want to chat? Drop us a line at [email protected].

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August 23, 2024
How the U.S. housing market got stuck in the ’80s

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The Federal Reserve’s inflation fight has been particularly brutal for anyone not already a U.S. homeowner before interest rates and mortgage rates rose to 15-year highs.

With mortgage rates around 7.2% to kick off the post–Labor Day period, the difference between the rates on a new 30-year home loan and on all outstanding U.S. mortgage debt (see chart) has not been so wide since the 1980s.

It’s the 1980s again in the U.S. housing market.

Glenmede, FactSet

“Generally, climbing interest rates curb demand and cause housing prices to fall,” Glenmede’s investment strategy team wrote, in a Tuesday client note, but not this time.

Instead, U.S. homes remain in critically low supply after more than a decade of underbuilding, and with most homeowners who already refinanced at low pre-pandemic rates being “reluctant to leave their homes,” wrote Jason Pride, chief of investment strategy and research, and his Glenmede team.

Also, while homes prices have come off their prepandemic highs, they still were fetching $416,000 in the second quarter, based on median sales prices, above $358,700 in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to U.S. Census and HUD data.

“Until the supply gap is filled by new construction, home prices and building activity are unlikely to decline as meaningfully as they normally would given the headwind from rising rates,” the Glenmede team said.

Read: Housing affordability is now at its worst level since 1984, Black Knight says

The Glenmede team, however, does expect more pressure on consumers in the coming months, particularly as student-loan payments resume in October and if the Fed keeps interest rates high for a while, as increasingly expected. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield
BX:TMUBMUSD10Y,
which underpins the U.S. economy, was back on the climb at 4.26% Tuesday.

Meanwhile, shares of home-vacation rental platform Airbnb Inc.
ABNB,
+7.23%
rose 7.2% on Tuesday, after the Labor Day weekend, and 66.4% higher on the year so far, according to FactSet.

Don’t miss: New York City cracks down on Airbnb and other short-term-rental listings

Shares of Invitation Homes Inc.
INVH,
-0.91%,
which grew out of the last decade’s home-loan foreclosure crisis to become a single-family-rental giant, were up 14.3% on the year, according to FactSet.

Dallas Tanner, CEO of Invitation Homes, said he expected “the rising costs and the burden of homeownership” to continue to benefit his company, in a July earnings call. The company recently bought a portfolio of about 1,900 homes and has been snapping up newly constructed homes. Companies can borrow on Wall Street at much lower rates than individuals.

Stocks closed lower Tuesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA
off 0.5%, and the S&P 500 index
SPX
0.4% lower and the Nasdaq Composite Index
COMP
down 0.1%, according to FactSet.

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September 5, 2023
Meet the teacher and real estate investor who has a net worth of more than $500,000

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The Internet is flooded with stories of people using some type of so-called “passive income” scheme to get rich quick, whether they’re cashing in on easy YouTube ad dollars or investing in the latest meme stock. It’s hard not to get suckered into the promise of earning the big bucks without working a traditional day job.

Many times, these strategies focus on real estate. But most real estate investors will tell you that you can’t make money just putting in minimal effort as the Internet would have you believe. Just ask Tiffanie Vendryes.

Courtesy of Tiffanie Vendryes

Lured by the idea that she could generate income from buying up rental properties, in 2015, Vendryes, now 37, bought three units in Florida that housed up to seven tenants.

But Vendryes quickly learned the hard way that passive income isn’t all it’s cracked up to be sometimes. “I was blinded by how much income [I could earn], and I didn’t realize all of that would go into maintaining the property,” she says candidly.

Vendryes says she chose properties that were older, needed work, and were in low-income areas. Instead of sitting back and raking in the profits, she was overwhelmed dealing with late rent payments, evictions, and expensive repairs, including a leaky roof and replacing the hot water heater and air conditioning units. “I failed, and I lost money,” she admits.

But Vendryes says the experience, while harrowing, taught her important lessons that helped her build up her current net worth of approximately $565,000. Here’s how she bounced back.

Playing the real estate game in Florida

After graduating from Stevens Institute of Technology in 2006, Vendryes had about $25,000 in student loan debt, largely thanks to grants and scholarships. She landed a high-paying job in tech sales—earning between $70,000 and $130,000 over three years—and lived frugally, at times having up to three roommates. Slowly Vendryes was able to start building her wealth, and by the time she turned 25, she says she saved up about $100,000.

But then the 2008 financial crisis hit, and Vendryes was laid off, prompting her to move south and shake up her career. “I moved to Florida and got into education,” she says, adding the shift from tech sales to teaching meant taking a major pay cut from $100,000 to about $40,000.

Yet with her savings, Vendryes was able to buy a house in 2010 in Palm Beach county. Five years later, the value increased by more than 60%—jumping from $118,000 when Vendryes bought it to $190,000 when she sold it.

With part of the proceeds from her home sale, Vendryes got into the real estate game in a big way, buying three investment properties over the course of 2015 and into early 2016. But the luck didn’t hold.

The fixer-uppers were within her budget, but they came with a host of maintenance issues and quickly became money pits. Not to mention the people problems: Vendryes says she had tenants fighting with each other, calling the cops on each other, and calling her about their quarrels—and being a landlord became a massive time suck and an emotional drain.

“I decided that this probably wasn’t the best investment strategy for me,” Vendryes says. Within six months, she unloaded the properties, selling at least one at a loss.

Creating diverse income streams

Although Vendryes struggled to get it right in rental real estate, she never quit her day job in teaching. And having a full-time job helped her stay afloat when this other income stream wasn’t functioning.

That’s one of the biggest takeaways she says: have multiple gigs. Vendryes, now the mother of a two-year-old, got back into the rental property game in 2019, and she opened up her own real estate brokerage. But she also keeps her teaching job.

It turns out that buying the rental properties sparked Vendryes’ interest in being more than an owner. “When I was buying those three properties, I would sometimes feel bad asking my realtor too much or going to see too many things,” Vendryes says, adding she got her own license in 2016. That way, she could go look at all the properties she wanted to before making an offer—guilt free. Not only that, it had the added benefit of saving her money as both a buyer and a seller.

After taking some time to regroup, Vendryes bought a 2-bedroom condo in 2018 situated in a nicer neighborhood with the idea that she’d eventually rent it out. A year later, it started generating income. This time, with stable tenants and minimal drama, she earns about $6,000 in annual rental income. Plus, Vendryes doesn’t touch the majority of the income. Instead, it goes into an account so if there’s some maintenance problem with the condo, the cost isn’t coming out of her everyday budget. She currently has one rental property and a townhouse that she owns and lives in.

Last year, Vendryes also opened her own real estate brokerage, Grace Realty Group. She has one agent working for her. So far this year, they’ve sold $2 million in real estate, which Vendryes says translates into roughly $38,000 in commissions for her.

And thanks to tenure and picking up extra responsibilities, Vendryes has boosted her teaching salary to approximately $79,000 a year as she works as an interim assistant principal and remote high school math teacher.

The early setbacks aside, Vendryes says she really likes real estate and enjoys looking at homes and showing properties. “It’s important to do something that you like so that it doesn’t feel like you’re doing a lot of work,” she says, adding that while her teaching job is flexible, she still relies on her mom for babysitting in order to juggle the real estate business, her teaching, and the responsibilities of a landlord.

All said, Vendryes calculates she’s on track to make about $123,000 this year. With her current home value (she bought a townhouse in 2021 that’s valued at over $400,000), retirement savings, and investments, she’s looking at a net worth north of $500,000. And she doesn’t have any outstanding debt.

But she’s the first to admit it’s been a lot of hard work. “My story has not been one of easy success. I got laid off from my first job. I went into education at less than 50% of what I was making before. I made poor choices in real estate,” she says, noting that through it all, she’s been able to accumulate wealth. “It’s through discipline and it’s hard work and it’s through learning from my mistakes.”

Perhaps the biggest lesson? It takes hustle. “It’s not really passive—everything takes work,” Vendryes says.

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Megan Leonhardt

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November 15, 2022
Elite Member Perks Helps Timeshare Owners Profit from Unused Travel Points

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The travel points membership service is helping timeshare owners generate revenue from their unused points with its 100%, money-back guaranteed programs.

Press Release
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Aug 24, 2022

WILDWOOD, Mo., August 24, 2022 (Newswire.com)
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Elite Member Perks, a travel points management service, has begun helping timeshare owners discover new ways to profit from their unused points. The service, which specializes in helping clients get value out of their property ownership, is now helping timeshare owners with everything from mortgage management to maintenance fee payment plans, all without putting their lines of credit or financial situations at risk.

In the post-pandemic era, online booking is the preferred method of travel, and vacation rentals are higher than ever. Those who purchase timeshares in the hopes of saving money and increasing their return on investment are often frustrated when the points that correspond to their allotted vacation time go unused at the end of a yearly cycle.

With Elite Member Perks, clients can enter into a lasting relationship with an expert team that will manage their points for them so that they may enjoy their vacations to the fullest. The Elite Member Perks team works to convert unused timeshare points into money in the form of reimbursement checks. When resorts refuse to buy timeshares back and the resale market fails to provide any value, the Elite Member Perks team can leverage its network to help clients receive reimbursement paychecks every quarter.

After recognizing the need to assist timeshare owners who were unable to take advantage of their ownership, principal owner Kyle Brown and his team set out to help individuals who were losing out on compensation from their unused points.

“We like to use the phrase ‘have peace of mind without losing a dime,’ when engaging with new clients,” said Brown. “Many timeshare owners fail to realize just how much compensation they are losing due to this issue. We work to educate our clients while simultaneously putting plans into action to reduce their losses and increase their revenue, all without ever putting their lines of credit at risk.”

Elite Member Perks primarily operates in Florida and Missouri. With physical office locations in both states, both teams have experienced tremendous growth in recent months. Both offices manage outreach and client services, and the Missouri office also oversees all reservations, customer service, onboarding, and payment processes.

Having just removed all sign-up fees from its programs, Elite Member Perks is looking to work with hundreds of new timeshare owners in the coming months. To learn more about Elite Member Perks’ programs, please visit https://www.elitememberperks.com.

About Elite Member Perks

We pay timeshare owners on their unused resort points. Points they can’t use for the year get turned into us for cash.

Contact Information

Mariah Harrison or Laura Bohannon @ (877) 600-5711

Email: Laura@elitememberperks.com

Source: Elite Member Perks LLC

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August 24, 2022
Luxorts to Accept Listings From General Public

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The online vacation company provides travelers with convenient opportunities to book stays at exclusive resorts.

Press Release
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updated: Jul 30, 2022

WILDWOOD, Mo., July 30, 2022 (Newswire.com)
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Vacation condominium rental agency Luxorts has begun accepting listings from the general public. Having helped thousands of guests find their perfect dream location in recent years, Luxorts works with resorts across both the United States and the Caribbean island to help book family vacations, business trips, getaways with friends, romantic weekends, and more.

“Luxorts is proud to start accepting listings from the general public,” said Sabrina Barlow, a manager at Luxorts. “Users can list their properties on our site and make more money on each individual booking than they would with other major vacation rental online marketplaces. We have the lowest fees in the industry in order to give our clients the most money from their rental properties.”

Typical condominiums listed on Luxorts range from one to three-bedroom properties with full kitchens, elegant bathrooms, and various shared amenities such as pools, hot tubs, activity centers, and on-site bars. Luxorts supports guests throughout their stays with 24-hour front desk staff and concierge services at most resorts. Guests can utilize these services for help with navigating the resort and finding the best local restaurants, attractions, events, and activities.

Currently, Luxorts offers guests a wide selection of getaway destinations that span the entirety of the United States. The growing vacation rental company is looking to expand its offerings both in its established regions as well as throughout new territories across the country.

On the East Coast, guests can visit one of two oceanside resorts in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Both resorts boast beautiful public beaches, as well as numerous parks, gardens, specialty stores, and gourmet restaurants. Luxorts also offers a variety of resorts that span across the warm state of Florida, including locations in Orlando, Daytona Beach, Pompano Beach, and Destin.

In the Midwest, guests can explore the Wisconsin Dells area while staying at a Luxorts-supported resort located right on water park grounds, or stay in Williamsburg near all the local attractions that are sure to make any history buff happy. Other Midwest destinations include resorts in Tennessee (Nashville and Sevierville) and Missouri (Branson).

The list does not end there – Luxorts also provides guests with convenient booking opportunities in the southern region of the U.S. With luxurious locations in areas such as New Orleans, San Antonio, and downtown Austin near the Market District, guests can enjoy a myriad of restaurants and attractions while getting an authentic southern experience wherever they choose to lodge.

Western retreats can be found in both Sedona and Flagstaff, AZ, as well as along the exciting Las Vegas Strip, where guests can always find shows, attractions, and activities. Luxorts also supports destinations in Colorado, in areas such as Steamboat Springs (right by Routt National Forest) as well as the slopes of both Sunshine Peak and Mt. Werner.

Luxorts turns West Coast dream getaways in Oceanside Pier and Ventura, CA, into realities. For those who truly want to get away, spectacular island vacations are also made possible through Luxorts’ resort located in downtown Waikiki, Hawaii.

To learn more about Luxorts and its unique listing opportunities for property owners, please visit https://www.luxorts.com.

About Luxorts

Luxorts is a vacation company that specializes in high-end resort bookings.

Contact Information

Check out our Facebook and Instagram pages for further details, announcements, and exclusive discounts, or you can reach out to us directly by emailing us at reservations@luxorts.com or by calling 833-564-6896. Adventure is waiting for you!

Source: Luxorts LLC

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July 30, 2022
Austin Pets Alive! | This Is a Call for Innovators and Entrepreneurs…
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Mar 11, 2022

An estimated one million pets will be dying in shelters this year because they haven’t been adopted—or weren’t kept out of the shelter with safety net programs to support people and pets.

Meanwhile, in some parts of the country, there are not enough cats and dogs for the people who want to adopt them. See the issue?

There is a veterinarian shortage, exacerbated by more people bringing pets into their homes during the pandemic. Vet prices are going up to meet the increased demand. This is leaving more and more people and pets behind.

Underfunded government shelters can’t compete at all. Most are funded at just .2% of city and county budgets. That period is in the right place: .2%. It’s far from enough, given the literal life and death stakes. In this time that veterinary costs are rising, it means—among other things—that pets in shelters are not receiving enough medical care, and sometimes no care at all, which leads to more unnecessary death.

We’ve got a quarter of pet owners saying they’ve had to move because of their pet, and 14% of renters have had to give up their pet because they could not find pet-inclusive housing, that they could afford. We could save millions of pets, with more rentals that are affordable and welcome pets.

These are among the problems that pets, and people, need the brightest minds to solve.

Dr. Jefferson recently spoke with Triple Pundit about how companies and individuals can help end pet homelessness. Read the interview here!

We need tech innovators, entrepreneurs, and pet lovers looking to make a huge impact.

These are not quick or easy projects. These are real global issues that, if solved, will mean a completely new world for pets and the people who love them.

Here are some of the areas where we need your energy and expertise:
- Tech to connect more people to pets in shelters, especially to help people adopt from shelters in another city or state. This is harder than it sounds—but we know with the right minds at work, excellent products and apps can do this critical job.
- Tech for shelter resident flow tracking, like the systems used to track hospital patient flow. That will allow shelters to better manage their populations, and develop and meet goals for animals’ survival.
- An app that will let people use their cell phones to scan pets for microchips, instead of needing to use a specialized device often found only in vets’ offices, police stations, and animal shelters. This app would make it significantly easier to get lost pets back home.
- Other tech solutions for reuniting lost pets with their families, that anyone of any income can use—such as a free crowdsourcing app that pinpoints a pet’s location.
- Tech and law to solve for too many vet patients and not enough veterinarians.
- Business analysts to predict foster and adoptive capacity in any community—then build software to better facilitate pets going into foster and adoptive homes. Especially in communities with more capacity than their local shelters need, this is another instance where tech can save lives by connecting people to pets outside of their local community.
- Tech support to build industry report cards that help any community see how they are doing in terms of pet ownership and pet equity.
- Legislative support to overturn laws that allow for adoptable and treatable pets to be euthanized in shelters.
- Legislative support to overturn laws that stand in the way of lifesaving cat programs like Trap Neuter Return, and to overturn breed-specific legislation—harmful laws that regulate or even prohibit dogs by breed, type, or appearance, and that lead to dogs being unable to find homes, which in turn leads to these dogs’ unnecessary death.
- Funding for research into treatment for common diseases like distemper that affect hundreds of thousands of pets every year, but are largely overlooked by drug manufacturers.
- Developing affordable pet products to keep pets occupied while a foster or owner is at work.
- Affordable, healthy vegan pet food. The pet food industry is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, responsible for the rough equivalent of driving 13.6 million cars per year. Yet there is still not a good, cheap, healthy vegan pet food alternative.
- Entrepreneurs to greatly expand the pool of affordable, pet-inclusive housing, and tech to connect people with rentals where they and their pets can live.
The majority of Americans own at least one pet. And if there is one thing we know, it’s that people LOVE their pets. In a recent national study, 98% of pet owners described their pets as family members who are as important as their human family members.

The pet industry has been growing exponentially to meet those families’ wants and needs. For the past two years, Americans have spent more than $100 billion annually on their pets.

But this boom leaves out a lot of families. Sixty-four percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. Almost 1/3 of pet owners can’t afford an unexpected vet bill. Many even struggle to buy food or supplies for their pets.

The government-funded animal shelters there to support pets and people, and to take in pets whose owners can no longer keep them, are drastically underfunded for the role they are there to serve.

In a world where pets are often the most important connection we have in the world, this system is needlessly cruel and inhumane to people and the pets they call family.

So how do we bring the awesomeness of the pet boom to all pets, since we have a shared belief that pets are family? That is where you come in. We know the problems. We need your help developing the tech, entrepreneurial, and legislative solutions that will keep people and pets together, and save pets’ lives.

Link to form/registration
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March 11, 2022
Rentals.ca Network, Inc. Launches, Bringing Together 6 Rental Marketplaces in Canada
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The new alliance will provide exceptional value to renters and landlords across Canada

Press Release
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updated: Sep 30, 2021
TORONTO, September 30, 2021 (Newswire.com)
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Rentals.ca Network, Inc. has announced its launch, which includes six Canadian rental marketplaces offering the most traffic and leads for landlords to list their properties and providing the most listings for renters to find their next home in Canada.

The Rentals.ca Network consists of Rentals.ca, Rentfaster.ca, Louer.ca, Rentboard.ca, RentCanada.com and TorontoRentals.com.

The network features map-based search, neighbourhood scores and commute times, 3D virtual tours, floor plans, open house dates, and artificial intelligence to detect fraudulent listings.

“We are passionate about offering renters an exceptional experience through intuitive design on mobile, tablet, desktop and voice devices,” said Matt Danison, CEO of Rentals.ca. “With an understanding of the next generation of renters, we are focusing on interval searching, where renters might only have five minutes to scan our rental inventory while waiting in line, commuting on the subway, or during a lunch break.”

More efficiencies are on the horizon as technologies are integrated, and best practices and key features are applied to all marketplaces. The Rentals.ca Network has already achieved synergies by merging sales, human resources and billing, which provide cost savings across the network.

The Rentals.ca Network is a game-changer for renters and landlords.

For the renter, the new network will provide more quality listings, intuitive design, and a safer search experience which will make it easier for renters to find their next home.

For the landlord, the new network will drive more quality leads, save time in posting and editing listings on multiple websites, and offer exceptional customer service.

“By consolidating under the new rental network, we will be able to provide a better experience for both landlords and renters,” said Mark Hawkins, president of Rentfaster.ca. “We will be able to deliver better technology, a seamless experience and better data, which will allow Canadians to find a home and rent a home — faster.”

Although the network works with major REITs and property managers across Canada, most of the property listings comes from small landlords posting their apartments, condos, townhouses, detached homes and basements for rent directly to one of the six market-leading brands.

BY THE NUMBERS
- In August, the network received 26 million page views, 4.3 million sessions and 2.3 million users.
- In the last 12 months, the network has generated 50 million sessions, with 24 million users resulting in 5.4 million leads generated for landlords across Canada.
- The network ranks in the top three positions on Google for 53,980 keywords.
- The network has installed 17,500 branded “for rent signs” for landlords in 18 cities across Canada.
- Since 2019, 110,000 small mom and pop landlords have listed properties with one of the six rental marketplaces resulting in over 240,000 listed properties through our easy-to-use e-commerce experiences.
Rentals.ca Network has the most data on vacant units in Canada. This will allow the company to better predict trends, and help clients make better decisions in developing new rental housing.

Rentals.ca Network is a trusted source for media outlets for news, data and information on rental rates, trends and insights in Canada producing the monthly National Rent Report, the Toronto GTA Rent Report and the annual Canadian Rental Market Predictions Report. The reports are created in collaboration with long-time housing data analyst Ben Myers, president of Bullpen Research & Consulting.

In August, among the 165 stories and media mentions of Rentals.ca, were rental news pieces done by The Globe and Mail, Global News, Global News Radio, The Canadian Press, CBC, CTV, Toronto Star, The Daily Hive — Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Vancouver Is Awesome, Narcity, the Winnipeg Free-Press and The Hamilton Spectator.

“Rentals.ca Network pledges to stay on top of the latest news, trends, insights and data to help keep media outlets and their audiences well-tuned to the rental heartbeat of Canada,” said Paul Danison, content director of Rentals.ca Network. Danison has over 40 years of experience as a reporter/editor/journalist.

Funding for the Rentals.ca Network, Inc. is made possible by Rentsync, formerly known as Landlord Web Solutions, a St. Catharines and Toronto-based firm. Rentsync is a leader in rental housing marketing, advertising and software solutions in North America.

“This transaction creates opportunities to pool resources and provide a more sophisticated set of tools for renters and landlords in Canada,” said Steve Cowan, CEO of Rentsync. “We are tremendously excited about the opportunities ahead.”

Rentals.ca Network offices are in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Calgary and St. Catharines.

Information: Paul Danison at paul@rentals.ca

Source: Rentals.ca Network, Inc.
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September 30, 2021
Steamboat Lodging Properties and www.Vacation.Rentals Join Forces to Combat Online Travel Agency Booking Fees

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A seasoned property manager has had enough and has made the switch to a new vacation rental platform.

Press Release
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updated: Jul 24, 2018

BRANSON, Mo., July 24, 2018 (Newswire.com)
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Vacation.Rentals and Steamboat Lodging Properties are teaming up to combat the burdensome fees charged by the major online travel agencies. Suzie Spiro and Tom Reagan owners of Steamboat Lodging Properties and longtime residents of Steamboat, Colorado have managed upwards of 20 vacation property rentals over the years by ascribing to the “hands-on approach.”

As “chief cook and bottle washer” Suzie became tired and frustrated with the ever-changing dynamics of online travel agencies, the loss of control of who stays in the homes they manage for their Owners and their commission based structures and began to look for a better alternative to VRBO™, AirBNB™ and FlipKey™. She believes she has found it with Vacation.Rentals – a new platform launched in May 2018. This new website returns control to Suzie who is again able to “hold their guest’s hands” from booking to departure, by enabling the guest to find the best fit for their needs – much like the original format of these large OTAs.

They simply have changed and made the experience for the traveling public and Owners/Property Managers a maze of incomprehensible options which has ruined what was a very good thing at one time.

Suzie Spiro, Owner

With www.vacation.rentals owners and property managers can list their vacation homes for rent on the website with nothing more than a basic annual subscription. There are no fees or commissions and never a charge to the travelers. Although brand new to the industry, the owners of the website and Suzie believe they have an absolute winner with the combination of an instantly recognizable URL, unique branding, and an eager owner base to work with.

“We were with VRBO™ for years and years before they were bought out by Expedia™,” said Suzie. “They simply have changed and made the experience for the traveling public and Owners/Property Managers a maze of incomprehensible options which has ruined what was a very good thing at one time, and we have had enough. We believe that www.Vacation.Rentals has what it takes to succeed in the short-term rental market, and it is the main reason we chose to list our rental properties in Steamboat Springs with them.”

“Our vacation properties in Steamboat have been very successful over the years, and we have a large repeat base to work with. Without our repeat clients, it would be extraordinarily difficult to receive bookings and pay these exorbitant fees the online travel agencies are charging.” Suzie continued.

“We are honored that Steamboat Lodging Properties decided to give us a shot to prove ourselves. But, we are offering the same to all vacation homeowners. Right now, anyone can list their Colorado vacation home for rent on our site and get six months free. We are so certain of our future potential we are willing to forgo immediate payments to grow the base and improve the product.” said Mike Kugler “Working together we hope to see the time when every homeowner is back in charge of their listings and travelers get a great deal on their reservations. It will take some time – growth in our platform – and for people to drop their dot-com addiction. Once they do that, they will immediately see better options and savings.”

About Steamboat Lodging Properties

Suzie and Tom have been both property managers and real estate investors for over 30 years. Starting out with purchasing and renting their properties on a long-term basis, they fell into managing homes for others “by mistake.” While renting one of their vacation rentals in Steamboat, Suzie doubled booked their home over the holidays, she managed to scramble finding another Owner to rent their home. Saved the day, and suddenly they were hooked on the business of renting vacation homes for others as well as themselves. Their philosophy is very much a “hands-on approach.” Suzie is the front desk handling all the calls for potential guests, asking as many questions as needed to make sure the guest finds the best place to stay and has the best experience they can when visiting Steamboat. Be it making sure they can purchase discounted lift tickets at the best price, or buying flowers for that particular person on Valentine’s Day, we can do it all. Over the years, Suzie and Steamboat Lodging Properties have an incredible return guest rate, and many of our Owners and our Guests have become our longtime friends.

About Vacarent, LLC
Vacation.Rentals is a project that has been pursued for the past three years by the owner and developer of the site, Mike Kugler. Mike and his wife Handan own Hunters Friend Resort in Branson, MO. and have been in the short-term rental market for 14 years. During this time, they noticed a strong trend towards taking more of the owner/property managers’ revenue from listing sites, while giving less in return for owners who did not pay for premium listing services. In August of 2015, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) released new gTLDs to the marketplace in the hopes of spreading out some of the competition for highly lucrative domains. For the past three years, we have pursued and finally won the right of ownership for Vacation.Rentals. Vacation.Rentals launched live to the internet on the 30th of March, 2018 with the desire to bring a more affordable, user-friendly experience to the short-term, nightly rental market. This effort took months of hard work and commitment from a dedicated staff, along with a sizeable commitment in investment. It is our strongest desire to grow this site to over a million listings worldwide, and we will not stop until we have achieved this. We will accomplish this by demonstrating a commitment to owners as well as travelers. We do not collect any fees or commissions on bookings, just a simple annual membership fee for each home listed. We will not strike out contact information from either side and encourage our owners to interact with us directly, to let us know what other features they would like to see added. With this, we will launch a forum for https://vacation.rentals and encourage everyone to use it.

Source: VacaRent, LLC

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July 24, 2018
Palm Springs, CA Residents Will Finally Get to Vote if STRs Belong in Residential Neighborhoods

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Press Release
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updated: Feb 22, 2018

PALM SPRINGS, Calif., February 22, 2018 (Newswire.com)
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The local citizens’ group, Palm Springs Neighbors for Neighborhoods, has announced that June 5 will be the voting date for their ballot initiative to limit absentee-owner short-term rentals (STRs) in R1 zoned residential neighborhoods.

If it passes, the Measure:

As is, residents have no protection from the proliferation of short-term rentals in their neighborhoods.

Steve Rose, Organizer, Palm Springs Neighbors for Neighborhoods

✓ Will limit absentee-owner rentals to a minimum of 28 days or more per stay in residential R1-zoned single-family neighborhoods.

✓ Will give STR owners two years to adjust their business model or relocate their business to an area not zoned R-1.

✓ Will not affect home sharing or owner-hosted vacation rentals.

✓ Will not affect Condos which have HOA’s that set their own rules. And it won’t affect Apartment Renters. In 2016, Palm Springs passed an ordinance stopping apartment units from converting to short-term rentals.

This initiative represents the first time residents of a major tourist city have taken this issue to the ballot box.

Palm Springs, with approximately 2,000 STRs, has more single-family short-term vacation rentals per capita than any other city in the country. It has become a mecca for out of town investors to own and operate full-time commercial mini-hotels throughout the city’s many residential neighborhoods.

Steve Rose, the group’s organizer said, “I was shocked when I read the City’s Impact Report. It states that 467,000 visitors stayed in short-term vacation rentals in 2017. This is an outrageous number of strangers to inject into R1-zoned residential neighborhoods, which house fewer than 28,000 residents. Everyone deserves somewhere safe and secure to call home, that is what living in a neighborhood is all about. As is, residents have no protection from the proliferation of short-term rentals in their neighborhoods.”

“It should not be the responsibility of residential neighborhoods to generate business tax revenue. Palm Springs has a multitude of hotels, motels and boutique inns for our tourists to stay in – and more in the works. Citizens’ requests for reasonable restrictions on STRs have been dismissed for the last time. It is time for the residents to have their voices heard,” said Rob Grimm, PSN4N Campaign Manager.

Residents of Palm Springs will be able to vote on the ballot measure in the California state primary on June 5.

More information can be found at the group’s website www.psn4n.org

For media inquiries, contact PSN4N campaign manager at RobGrimm@psn4n.org or (760) 464-1724.

Source: Palm Springs Neighbors for Neighborhoods

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February 22, 2018
New York City-Based Diggz Rolls Out Its Popular Online Roommate Matching Services Nationwide

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Diggz Officially launches its platform in 12 new major markets nationwide with aim to expand it’s national market share.

Press Release
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updated: Mar 14, 2017

New York City, NY, March 14, 2017 (Newswire.com)
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Diggz, a popular New York City-based roommate finder app, is officially expanding its services into 12 major metro areas and cities nationwide. Diggz has been operating successfully in New York City for over two years, and is now rolling out into new markets.

“We considered expanding into new markets earlier, but we really wanted to make sure that our product and strategy were solid before going nationwide. Today, we’re very pleased with what we’ve created,” says Ben Blodgett, Diggz’s co-founder.

We considered expanding into new markets earlier, but we really wanted to make sure that our product and strategy were solid before going nationwide. Today, we’re very pleased with what we’ve created

Ben Blodget, Co-Founder

The 12 new markets now available on Diggz include Los Angeles / Orange County, San Francisco / Bay Area, Chicago, Miami / South Florida, Washington DC / Baltimore, Houston, Austin, Dallas, Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Toronto with more major cities planned to be rolled out this year. Roommate seekers in these cities that are looking for a roommate or interested to sublet a spare room can now register for free on Diggz.

Diggz is an online marketplace for finding roommates that share similar lifestyles and preferences. Via Diggz, users can post their vacant rooms for rent, find a room, or link up with others to go apartment hunting together. What’s unique about Diggz is that it’s a dynamic marketplace, “We wanted to enhance the roommate search experience and allow those renting out rooms to be more involved and proactive in the process. They don’t have to sit and wait for someone to contact them. They can browse through those looking for a room and pick out the ones they think will be good fit” says Ben Blodgett, Diggz’s co-founder.

Diggz utilizes a proprietary algorithm to provide users with personalized search results of prospective roommates which takes into account a user’s preferred neighborhoods, work schedule, cleanliness, smoking and drinking habits, mutual friends and other attributes. Like on Tinder and other popular dating apps, users that have both indicated an interest (a “match”) can then talk directly and safely on the platform without the need to exchange personal contact information until they are comfortable to do so.

Unlike other roommate matching apps that make claims that they verify each profile, Diggz actually has a robust behind-the-scenes fraud detection tools as well as actual humans reviewing suspicious profiles, keeping the platform scammer and spammer free. In addition, Diggz is the first and only roommate matching app that enables users to request a tenant screening report from prospective roommates within the app. This feature is extremely helpful for those users who want that extra piece of mind.

About Diggz

Diggz is based in New York City and was founded in 2014 by Avi Burstein and Ben Blodgett. After both founders personally experienced bad roommate situations they found on craigslist, they decided to create something different and solve one of the most painstaking experiences New Yorkers have to endure, an experience that has almost become a rite of passage. Their aim was to make the roommate search experience efficient, fun and safe that will deliver a roommate that meshes with your lifestyle and preferences. Diggz is available on desktop and is mobile friendly, so it is easy to use at home, work or on the go without needing to install anything.

For more information please contact:
press@diggz.co
Or contact us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram

Source: Diggz

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March 14, 2017