From retail and restaurants to tech and media, contractors to coworking spaces, large, small, and everything in between, a diverse array of businesses call Alexandria home. In our blog series, Growing in Alexandria, we sit down to talk with businesses around the City to learn more about who they are, what they do, and why they love it here. Have an idea for a business in Alexandria to talk to? Email us!
For our first December Growing in Alexandria post, we sat down with Corey and Liz Tara Losinski, Co-Founders of BaseRent. BaseRent is an app for landlords, and we got to learn a little more about the couple and the company this month.
AEDP: To start out, can you please tell us a little bit about BaseRent?
BaseRent: We’re making landlording fun and intuitive for small rental business owners across the country!
Part-time landlords have it tough enough already. But then you add outdated systems, file folders, excel spreadsheets and papers galore. Many landlords just feel like calling it quits!
BaseRent allows mom and pop rental businesses to operate their processes – from vacancy to move out – from their smartphone or computer. Features in the first release, available now, will allow landlords to complete five main components of on-boarding new tenants.
Using the mobile web-based app, landlords can:
- Post rental vacancies to Craigslist and manage viewing requests;
- Screen applicants through the pre-screening tool;
- Receive, review and approve/deny electronic rental application submitted by applicant;
- Conduct background checks and receive vital information from SmartMove on prospective tenants within minutes; and
- Track maintenance tasks associated to rentals.
BaseRent has ambitious plans to build on these initial features to provide a whole-product solution that will move the landlord’s entire rental business to one simple application.
AEDP: How did you get started?
BaseRent: As we planned for our wedding, we looked for short-term vacation homes where our families could stay during our wedding weekend. It was a mess! It took months of using many different vacation home platforms whose calendars didn’t sync with each other. It was confusing and frustrating to have to use so many different tools. The owners of those rental properties must have been frustrated while attempting to keep track of all of these different platforms, too.
Corey’s background is in managing long-term real estate. One night he had a eureka moment of sorts. He realized that long-term landlords without property managers have to deal with these exact same issues – year after year – managing all kinds of different platforms as well as excel spreadsheets, files and papers. Then it hit us – it’s time to build a one-stop app for landlords’ entire rental business!
AEDP: Looking forward, what’s next? What’s the big project or goal on the horizon?
BaseRent: The next big milestone we’re working on is the game changing electronic rent collection! Our landlords are chomping at the bit for this key feature to go live in our app. Stay tuned!
AEDP: In a few words, how would you describe your company culture?
BaseRent: BaseRent is a work hard, but have fun doing it type of company. We tend to work quite a lot but try not to take ourselves too seriously. We hope our vibe gets passed along to BaseRent’s landlords – we already know they are hardworking, long hours type of people too, but we hope they catch on to the fun part!
AEDP: What’s the best piece of professional advice you’ve received?
BaseRent: We just had to say two!
- Listen better and listen more.
- Follow your passion.
AEDP: Last thing: what’s a fun fact about BaseRent?
BaseRent: Our founder Corey has an irrational fear of sharks. Guess an appearance on Shark Tank is not in BaseRent’s future! We initially (informally) named our company Synergy before our lawyer told us we should pick a company name that isn’t actually a real word.
To learn more about BaseRent, visit their website.