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If you have not already heard of RentIt, you or a neighbour may soon hear of them. Their mobile app, RentIt, allows homeowners to rent their homes directly to prospective renters. If you are someone who has had the unpleasant experience of house hunting in Ghana, you will understand the need for an app like RentIt to aid renters in the house hunting process.
Just ask many of its 40,000 and growing list of users why they use it and you will likely hear one theme: it’s convenient and easy.
Aboagye recounts learning that he needed to move to Koforidua in the Eastern Region to begin working after graduating school and the genuine dread he faced when he thought about accommodation during his time in the Eastern Region.
He knew no one in the region, and so he knew his only option was to take a car to Koforidua and go on a house hunting mission with the hope of getting a home in a day. His heart was filled with dread, he recounts, just at the thought of how painful and tedious this would be.
He remembers one day strolling through a Facebook group he had joined that was dedicated to help people moving to new areas, and seeing someone post a message about the RentIt app. He was reluctant to try it at first, he says, but eventually overcame his initial skepticism and downloaded the app.
He recalls how he begin searching for homes in the Eastern Region until finally finding the one he felt was appropriate for his budget. He called to inquire about its availability, and after being told it was available, he proceeded to make payment.
“I remember feeling anxious about paying before seeing the house physically, and thinking about the experiences people had shared of being duped during the house hunting process,” he recalls. I needed the home so badly, I overcame my doubts and made payment. I remember being so shocked when I received a call from them to confirm my payment and received the contact number of the homeowner to call after payment was made.
He remembers saying to himself, “this is so easy and painless, so it can’t be true, but it was and it is remarkable.”
These experiences are what Ebenezer, the CEO and CTO of RentIt, who developed the app, says fuels the passion to continually provide a better experience for the thousands of users downloading the app everyday.
“Fundamentally, this is about helping people like ourselves, people who face difficulties with finding a home, and we will continue doing this until there is a home for everyone.”