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When Hurricane Rita was done roaring through southeast Texas and western Louisiana in September 2005, it left $11 billion in damages and many residents wondering how to find shelter after the storm.

“Rita was pretty devastating to the southeast Texas area,” said Houston rental property owner David Schaper. “It took a lot of apartments and a lot of homes offline. When they did give the okay for everybody to come back to the area, there were a lot of people who could not come back because they had no place to come back to.”

Thanks to a Yellow Pages ad that listed his available properties as Rita’s winds were dying down, Schaper’s business phone was soon ringing off the hook. But those calls also dialed up an idea in his mind – a central clearinghouse for apartment and homes that didn’t just feature listings in big cities, but in smaller towns and communities where people also needed affordable places to live.

That idea became OneStopRentals.com, an online apartment and home rental locator business that doesn’t discriminate against population size. If you register – at no cost – to use the site, you’ll find plenty of Houston, Dallas and Austin apartments, as well as houses for rent in those metropolitan areas if your focus is on Texas property rentals. But you’ll also find out what’s available in smaller cities and towns like Lumberton, League City and Wichita Falls. (OneStopRentals.com is also available in other states.)

“We found out as we were going through the research that it wasn’t just southeast Texas, but a ton of smaller communities were underserved or not served at all, frankly, with any kind of locator service,” said OneStopRentals.com president Eric Conner. “So our desire when we put the site together was certainly to target the larger geographies, but to really go after those smaller ones, because they need places to rent too, and they had no options of any kind of locator service – either physical locator service or the online locator service that we have.”

“We would get 20 to 40 phone calls a week right after the hurricane, and it became apparent that there was no central location for owners and renters to meet up with one another so that the owner could rent their places they had available, and renters could find a place to live,” said Schaper, OneStopRentals.com CEO.

The concept may be arriving at just the right time. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that 33 percent of all American households are renter-occupied, and one-third of all renters are in single-family homes. Throw in the fact that 74 percent of those living in North America use the internet (source: Internet World Stats), and you have the potential target audience for OneStopRental.com’s services.

Registered users can narrow their search by city/town, rental property type – apartment, home, duplex or town home – and desired monthly rent. “We try to make it as easy as possible on the renter,” said marketing manager Alicia Pyne, who added that OneStopRentals.com does not sell or give user information to any third parties.

The company, however, does give something to its users: a $50 rebate if their search on OneStopRentals.com results in signing a lease with a listed property. “They’re already searching for an apartment, they’re already searching for a rental home, so all they have to do is find it through OneStopRentals.com and we give them some extra cash,” Pyne said.

Registering on the site is also free for property owners, who can list as much information about their available homes for apartments as they want on the site, something that Schaper says is not offered by similar companies. They can also offer up direct phone numbers to potential renters rather than 1-800 numbers. “Being property owners ourselves, we want a place where we can list our property, list our amenities, what we have to offer to the renting public without it costing us a lot of money,” Schaper said. “It’s also good for property management companies as well as individual owners. Whether you have an apartment or home or duplex or town home, it’s good for all of those. You can put managers in our system, and if you have any turnover you can enable, disable, transfer people within our site very easily.”

Those property owners will only pay a fee to OneStopRentals.com if they end up getting a tenant through the website.

Schaper and Conner have plans to make OneStopRentals.com a true one-stop source for services and content that renters would need, such as information on preparing for a move and what questions to ask about security deposits, as well as links to storage companies, moving vans, where to buy packing materials. Renters could fill out standardized application forms from several property management companies on the site to save time, Schaper suggested. And property owners could offer virtual tours of their homes and apartments.

“The name ‘OneStopRentals’ – that’s not by accident,” Conner said. “We want to be a larger presence on the rental side – U-Haul, storage, everything to do with the moving process. We want to kind of own that space.”

For more information, go to www.onestoprentals.com. The company can also be found on Twitter (@onestoprentals) and Facebook.

Renay:
2005, as you may recall, was a bad year for gulf coast hurricanes. There was Katrina, then Rita. But when that last storm’s winds died down something good actually rose up.  David Schaper saw that residents in smaller gulf coast towns displaced by Rita’s damage had no central clearing house to turn to for rental property listings.  The result? OneStopRentals.com. So tell me about the user interface for the website. Any renter who is intimidated by the Internet need not fear OneStopRentals.com? Test.

Alicia:
Not at all. It’s very simple. It’s a very user friendly application for renters to be able to log on. It’s a step by step. Even registering. We say, “Step 1…”  We let them know they are going to get a confirmation email. We let them know what’s going to happen after that. They can contact somebody directly as well through our office to be able to obtain the information from that listing.

Renay:
Some new and old technology at work here.

Alicia:
And we understand that nobody wants extra spam and so you will not have any spam from OneStopRentals.com.

Renay:
Ok so you respect the privacy?

Alicia:
Absolutely.

Renay:
Tell me what’s really in this for the renters?

Alicia:
One of the major things we wanted to bring to the renters with OneStopRentals.com was being able to have submarkets, the smaller markets throughout Texas or any other state, that other online services were not giving to the renter. Like Beaumont, or Lumberton, or Wichita Falls Texas.

Renay:
Some of these are like suburbs of larger cities that you would think might be served by some of these other companies. But they’re not, are they?

Alicia:
Yes. And we want to be able to give all renters the chance to find something from the convenience of their home.  To log on line and find any apartment that they need. Give us a call or give the property a call. And it would be very easy for them.

Renay:
So show me how the website works. What are renters going to see?

Alicia:
Absolutely. Right here is where they sign up and register. And right here is where they can start an initial search. Right here on the right hand side, it shows them the state and it shows them the drop down box of all the cities they can see. Right here in Texas, you see  list of all the cities. We have larger cities along with submarkets as well.

Renay:
And then we have type of properties...everything from an apartment to a house.

Alicia:
We have single family homes, high rise apartment buildings, even townhomes and duplexes. And they also have the option to say “I’m looking for apartment buildings, in League City Texas from $800 to $1000.” So it’s going to narrow down their search to exactly what their criteria is. We try to make it as easy as possible for the renter.

Renay:
That ease of use, the result of a hurricane’s hardships, comes in a free service for renters in any city, big or small, in states served by OneStopRentals.com.  And when that renter lets OneStopRentals.com know they have signed a lease, they make an easy $50.

Alicia:
They’re already searching for an apartment. They’re already searching for a rental home. So all they have to do is find it through OneStopRentals.com and we give them some extra cash.

Renay:
Help pay for the next month’s rent.

Alicia:
There you go.

Renay:
And joining us now is David Schaper to my immediate left. He is the CEO of OneStopRentals.com. And then to his left, Eric Conner, President of OneStopRentals.com. Thank you gentlemen for coming in.

David, Eric:
Good to be here. Thanks for having us. 

Renay:
Tell me a little bit more about that experience with hurricane Rita, David, and how you came to by to come up with this idea. That must have been a real eye opener for you.

David:
It was.  Hurricane Rita was pretty devastating to the southeast Texas area. It took a lot of apartments and a lot of homes off line. When they did give everybody the ok to come back to the area, there were a lot of people that could not come back because they had no place to come back to.  We happen to have an ad in the yellow pages because we are property owners. And people were calling us wanting to know if we have anything to rent. We’d get 20 to 40 phone calls a week right after the hurricane and it became apparent that there was no central location for owners and renters to meet up with one another.  So the owners could rent the places they had available and renters could find a place to live.

Renay:
Ok, the light bulb goes off there.  Eric, I’m wondering. A lot of those areas that David was referring to were smaller communities, smaller populations. Why don’t they have these kinds of locator services? I mean people there need to rent too.

Eric:
You’re right. We found out as we were going through the research that it wasn’t just southeast Texas but a ton of smaller communities were underserved or not being served at all frankly with any kind of locator service. So our desire when we put the site together was certainly to target the larger geographies but to really go after those, because as you said, they need a place to rent and they had no options any kind of locator – either physical locator service or the on line locator service that we have.

Renay:
What about what this offers to property owners. Obviously we’ve talked about what renters can get out of this. Why should property owners list with OneStopRentals.com?

David:
Property Owners, being property owners ourselves, we want a place where we can list our property, list our amenities, what we have to offer to the renting public without it costing us a lot of money.  Owners can list as much property as they want for free.  They only have to pay a fee upon actually getting a rental from our site. We also give them versatility. Lots of versatility on the information they can provide to the site. And also it’s good for property management companies as well as individual owners. Whether you have an apartment, a home, a duplex a town home, it’s good for all those. You can put managers in our system. If you have any turnover, you can enable, disable, transfer people within the site very easily.

Renay:
How do you want to see the website grow as you build momentum here?

David:
We want to do more things within the site for renters and for property owners. On the renters side, perhaps let them be able to fill out their application information on the site and have that forwarded to the properties they choose to live at so they don’t have to that at a different time. Provide them with information on what to do when you actually go to move in to a place. What should you do to protect yourself later so that whenever you move out you don’t get hit with security deposit adjustments and things like that. And on the owners side, we want to give them the ability to put some virtual tours in the site so that the renters can see exactly what they are looking for. And the other  flexibility is within the owners. We want the feedback from renters and owners to make this site viable and useful to both sides.

Eric:
One Stop Rentals. That’s not by accident. We want to be a larger presence on the rental side.  UHaul, storage, everything to do with the moving process. We want to kind of own that space.

Renay:
We shall see what happens with that. David Schaper is the CEO of OneStopRentals.com and Eric Conner is the president. Gentlemen thanks so much and good luck with the company. For Spark360, I’m Renay San Miquel.