Idea dump

[Outige]

Idea: Location averages

Using location data to create a summary of the area around a particular address.Find all addresses within some range and find the average score for safety and other scores.

Possibly eventually a premium feature

[Outige]

Idea: Review required before viewing data

Eventually it makes sense to require a review in order for people to view data.

Possibly able to see review stars etc but unable to see comments and unable to see review text.

Cons

• If someone hasn't ever rented an apartment ie new to Dublin or Ireland then this will be a problem. Work around will be to have a request exception button which will grant the customer an exception for 6 months but then will email them for a review of their current apartment
• This will require user logins. No more ability to have non logged in users to view data.

[Outige]

Idea: Company and assets

Create a property company. The company owns the website and maybe eventually owns my flat. I don't think there's a high chance that the property company can do this. I think it might have had to get the loan to begin with.

The property company is kind of generic so any ideas can fall in it's domain.

Resource

In the past, it was generally considered that holding assets through a corporate vehicle was not advantageous, primarily due to the double exposure to capital gains tax (CGT) on the sale of the property. However, in the current taxation climate, and depending on an individual’s personal circumstances, holding property through a corporate vehicle is certainly worth considering. As with all restructuring proposals, there are both tax and non-tax issues to be considered. Tax costs on incorporation The main potential tax cost on the transfer of a property to a company is CGT. This is calculated based on the market value of the property at the date of transfer. However, given the decline in property values in recent years, it may well be that an overall loss is incurred on the transfer of the property, and hence no CGT is due. Individuals should be mindful that this loss is generally restricted so that it may not be offset against other capital gains tax the individual may have. It is possible to structure the transfer to ensure that this loss can be used against other gains, and is certainly worth considering if the loss claim is required.The other tax cost on transfer that obviously needs to be considered is stamp duty at a rate of up to 2%. On-going tax costs and other considerations One of the key advantages of holding a property through a corporate vehicle is the ability to achieve a lower overall effective tax rate on any rental income being generated from the property. As mentioned above, the marginal rate of tax (which includes income tax, PRSI and USC) on rental income on property held personally can be up to 55%. However, the rate of tax on such income within a company is 25%. One aspect that would need to be considered is the close company surcharge on such income. In broad terms, this is an additional surcharge on investment income generated in companies which are controlled by five or fewer individuals. The effect of the surcharge is to bring the overall effective tax rate on such income to c. 40%, a rate which is still lower than the marginal income tax rate of 55%. In some circumstances however it may be possible to manage the close company surcharge, thereby achieving a tax rate of 25% on this income. Another alternative worth considering, particularly for individuals with a sizeable rental portfolio, is the incorporation of a property management company which would charge a management fee to the property holding company. The management company would be a trading entity, and hence any income earned is taxable at 12.5%, whilst being tax deductible in the property holding company at 25%. Hence, an overall saving of 12.5% on such income in achieved. It also assists in relieving the impact of the close company surcharge. Of obvious concern to an individual will be the reduced level of available income in his/her hands, given that the income now accrues to the company. It is necessary to enable the individual to access any funds within the company as tax efficiently as possible. Generally the property will be transferred to the company for an amount owing (i.e. as a director’s loan) thereby enabling him/her to draw down the after-tax income within the company tax free up to the value of the property. Once this has been exceeded, any additional income will be drawn down in the normal manner i.e. by salary or dividend, both of which will be subject to income tax, PRSI and USC in the individual’s hands. Obviously the use of a company gives rise to other considerations such as the need for annual financial statements and a corporation tax return to be prepared, along with the filing requirements with the Companies Registration Office (CRO) and governance issues such as the need to hold AGMs etc. Improved debt repayment / debt refinancing An added benefit of holding a property through a corporate vehicle is given the lower rate of tax on income; the amount of after-tax income to service debt is increased. In addition, an individual may have a number of personal loans, some of which are not tax efficient. By transferring the property to the company, which in turn would borrow to fund the acquisition, hence allowing the individual to pay off his/her personal debt, non-tax efficient borrowings are converted into tax deductible borrowings within the company. Obviously such restructuring would be subject to bank considerations such as loan to value ratios, security considerations and evidence of free cashflow availability for debt repayment within the company. Tax considerations on sale It is not always clear at the outset what an individual’s intention with regard to the property may be. They may wish to hold the property in the long term either for future sale, or intend ultimately passing the property to their children. Alternatively, they may wish to sell the property in the short to medium term. On the sale of the property, the company will be liable to CGT on any uplift in the property from the market value at the date of transfer to the date of sale. It should be borne in mind that a company can avail of the recently introduced relief from CGT which in broad terms would apply to properties transferred to a company between 7 December 2011 and 31 December 2013, and is held for a period of more than 7 years. The relief applies by way of a “tapering relief” by relieving any gain on the disposal of land or buildings by the same proportion that the period of 7 years bears to the period of ownership. For example, if a gain of €500,000 is made on a property owned for 9 years, the relief is 7/9th of the gain, leaving a chargeable gain of 2/9th i.e. €111,111. The tax costs on extraction of the after tax proceeds from the company must obviously then be considered. It may be possible to structure the sale as a sale of the shares in the company, rather than the underlying property, thus avoiding the potential double CGT exposure, but this will depend on the combined preferences of both the vendor and the purchaser and may be influenced by both tax and indeed non-tax issues. It should be borne in mind that the relief from CGT discussed above would not apply to the sale of shares in the company. Estate planning opportunities Certainly for those individuals who may wish to pass the property to the next generation, it is worth planning for this at the outset, as holding a property through a company can work efficiently from an estate planning perspective. Many parents wish to retain control over the company and the rights to any income flow from the company during their lifetime, but ultimately pass value in a tax efficient way to their children on their death. One such option would be to allow the children to purchase the future interest in the company shares at the outset (i.e. they will only become entitled to the shares on the death of their parents). Depending on the age of the parents, the market value of this future interest can be significantly less than the market value of the shares. Ultimately this structure allows the parents to achieve their objectives of retaining control and entitlement to the income flow, but allows the shares to pass to the children without a tax cost on the death of the parents. Conclusion Obviously the overall financial position and intentions of the individual must be considered before any incorporation of property proceeds, in order to assess the relative tax advantages. However in particular for individuals with non-tax deductible personal loans or those considering estate planning, this strategy certainly merits further exploration.

[Outige]

Idea: Feedback all over + beg for data

Easy feedback all over. MVP will be google form. Put popups about how we value feedback etc.

[Outige]

Idea: Verification requests

Since reviews will be tied to users you can email users to verify.

At some point the hand collected data that we "verify" will need to be actually verified.

[Outige]

Idea: Data collection

• Put posters in appartment buildings?
• Instagram ads
• Verified review link (like /review/affiliate/outige) and then if they get 10 reviews you can get 1 free month of premium (only really valid later on)

[Outige]

Really just random thoughts

• A really good thing would be if someone is looking to rent a new apartment that they will then review their current apartment. Makes sense kind of. Another massive benefit is since this person has found a new apartment there will likely be someone new to take their current apartment which now has a review!

[Outige]

My review

• Probably avoid trivial things that people can see in a viewing
• Outlook on neighborhood?

Cycling Pros

• I'm able to cycle to everywhere (maybe cycling pros is a bad category)

Cycling cons

• Bike was stolen from the basement (maybe safety con)

? Pros

• Good bin system
• Nice courtyard
• Very family friendly
• Pet friendly
• Very quite wrt to neighbors
• Very often find that I get heating from neighbors
• Very tall and nice view from balcony

? Cons

• Flies. There are crazy amounts of flies in summer. Too hot to keep doors closed but then you have to accept crazy amounts of flies
• Very noisy with the street
• The windows feel a bit under insulated. Cold in winter
• No central heating
• There was something about the building being broken or something?
• Our parking spot is in a very difficult spot. Even for small cars but especially for big vans
• Boiler sparked and caught flame - is this possible in other rooms?
• Tiny washing machine
• Rooms next to each other. Get woken up by people coming and going and loud noises in adjacent rooms

[Outige]

Idea: Collections by Buildings, areas

The basic idea starts with apartment buildings. You can do collections of eircodes/reviews by building. This will be particularly helpful for any building specific comments or reviews left.

You could also do this by area - the liberties etc.

Obviously this will require some thinking for a db model and we will have to think how to actually do this. Might be a manual process?

[Outige]

Idea: User suggest new metric topics

[building, safety etc]

[Outige]

Idea: Use janky sales db into platform for a more convenient user experience

[Outige]

Strategy: Data, data, data -> Users -> Monetization

There is no way to make money until you get users and you won't get users unless you have legitimate sound data. Also the more you continue to get data the stronger your platform grows and the more likely you are to attract more people and so will those people bring more reviews.

The focus early on should then be solely on how to get people to post data.

• Option 1: A review unlocks their ability to actually read reviews. Maybe they have x-many a month or something or whatever maybe they have 0 a month and a review unlocks them for 6 months or a year or something. More than enough time for them to find a new place. Maybe a year would be good because by then they can maybe be allowed to create a new review of the place since it's been a year since moving in. Another good reason for using a review to unlock visibility is that they will be getting a new apartment so when it's time for someone else to rent this old one, there will be a review for it. Also maybe do eventually offer the option for people to just buy premium and see the reviews straight up without paying. It will be a fun way to gauge how profitable premium features will be as well as at the same time putting a high value on reviews and not letting people off without making reviews. 50 euro for a years access say. That way it seems worth it for me to miss out on 1 review for 50. I think reviews have to be visible when you first sign up so that you can see their effectiveness but then cut them off after like 10 or something. Also people should be able to view a curtain number of reviews without even being logged in. We can just use cookies for these folks since most most people won't know to clear their cookies I don't think

Okay also only logged in people can review and do a check that x many months should have passed from the claimed leases

[Outige]

Premium: Comment sections

Have the comment sections premium. Similar to blind DMs. Maybe you can unlock like 4 a month or something and then they are gated behind having an account. So you get 0 per month if you don't have an account

[Outige]

Premium: Industry specialist insights

Maybe we get some industry specialists who do some research Things like:

• Up and coming areas (maybe things like this could go in a blog or something) be a kind of promo and then eventually gate kept?
• Price trends in the areas things and things

[Outige]

Premium: Aggregated data points

For example similar reviews in the area aggregated or the holy grail wold be same building reviews. Aggregate them and suggest them. That way even if the exact apartment wasn't registered then you could see this.

This is definitely a handy feature for before premium. Makes the website much more useful.

[Outige]

Idea: google maps integration

[Outige]

Idea: Scrape myhome and daft for latest available apartments

[Outige]

Idea: Prevent reloads by storing results in js

This is kind of a horrible idea. Since it is only useful before scale.

The main idea was that we would save all the results in a js variable then just compare against that variable on future filters. This will work but I assume it becomes redundant at scale. So it's only useful before scale but isn't needed before then

[Outige]

Idea: MyHome/Daft integrations

Both sharing our api with them and them sharing their api with us. Could be good

[Outige]

Premium: Evaluations of building on behalf of customers

I think this one could work. Basically once offer accepted they can have one of our pro staff go in and review the building for electrical and whatever else and offer there evaluation.

If it's cheap enough then we do it for free just so that we can log the data for a premium membership.

[Outige]

Idea: Viewing reviews

Similar to an idea above about there being an open review just for general comments but maybe you could design this review so that you could leave a kind of specialised viewing review - problematic if people do so to prevent people from buying.

This does beg the question of redesign to how reviews are displayed and how comments are displayed

• do you want all comments on this anchor review? Or are we cool with review specific comments? I guess I'm imagining a Reddit design where properties are boards and reviews are posts and this anchor review is a kind of pinned post.

I think it is a little far out to be worried about grand redesigns and I doubt it's actually important.

But I do like the idea of people being able to leave as much data as possible and that's what general comments are and viewing reviews are a great way to do this - likely not mvp as there's quite a bit going on there the

[Outige]

Idea: Reward engagement

Reward users who reply to comments on their review

Comments are good data points and data is the goal

[Outige]

Ideas: random ideas while on e-bike

1. Characters left per review section
2. Likely today: fix model. Fix prod. Better button placements. Shit form. Working reviews
3. Likely soon. Look into views and indexes so we can get review data in a sain way. If not possible then we can just create the routes and add a legitimate prod fix me for a cashing strategy (possible ddb or similar)
4. Logins and levels of privelage and feature flag for blurry reviews?