Students use new website to evaluate past landlords, find new rentals

Just as professors grade final exams, students can grade their landlords at www.grademylandlord.com.

The social networking website provides a hub for students to both evaluate their landlords and search for near-campus rental properties.

“It’s a good opportunity for students to help out other students,” said Michael Montesano, a May graduate of Ball State University who created the site with Jorge Galindez of Dayton University.

The site, which has been up for about two weeks, allows students to grade their landlords in six categories: party tolerance, security deposit return, contract, timeliness, kindness and maintenance.

“The layout’s pretty good,” IU sophomore Adam Arrivo said. “It’s pretty user-friendly.”

Arrivo used the site to rate a property and intends to use its search function in the future. Users can search the site by landlords, properties or schools. More than 50 schools are currently listed.

Arrivo said he thinks the site will help first-time renters know what a landlord can be like and what a property might be like.

“I think it’s going to be really helpful,” Arrivo said.

Montesano, who said he has had bad experiences with a couple of college landlords, said he and Galindez wanted to create a website that would serve as one central location for students so they wouldn’t have to drive around to see apartments.

“We all used RateMyProfessor (www.ratemyprofessors.com) in college,” Montesano said. “It did help inspire us. We kind of put our own tweak on it.”

He and Galindez came up with the website’s plan six months ago and have worked on it ever since, Montesano said.

While he has received some positive feedback from landlords, Montesano said, others are hesitant and believe some students will only provide negative feedback.

Matt Carter, landlord for Mackie Properties in Bloomington, said he finds the site interesting and hopes it goes viral.

However, he said the site doesn’t include landlords’ points of view, which he would like to see.

“It’ll help everything about business,” Carter said. “But like I said, it could hurt your business if a tenant doesn’t want to work with you.”

Montesano said he does want to see both sides and hopes the site grows in the coming months.

“We’ve had a lot of positive responses from students glad they’ve had a way to speak out,” he said.