Choosing off-campus housing can be a gamble, but the website “Whose Your Landlord,” strives to give students the upper hand. The site, started by Temple alum Ofo Ezeugwu, allows student tenants to log on and rate their landlords for other students to judge. The site is currently helping students find quality housing in over 25 colleges and universities.
“You don’t know what to expect. A lot of times all you see is the beautiful pictures online, or you hear one side of the story from the landlords or the property owners that are trying to get you to rent their properties,” said Ezeugwu. “It’s important to get that feedback from your peers because they have lived through the situation before, they can tell you the good the bad and the ugly and that’s really helpful for you.”
Ezeugwu’s choice in naming the website “Whose Your Landlord” as opposed to “Who is You Landlord” gives the site its critical element: the ability for students to take control of the housing process.
“We use possessive form of the word whose because we’re giving students ownership of the situation by putting housing in their hands,” said Ezeugwu.
The site, similar to ratemyprofessor.com, is a forum where students have complete control over the content. Students don’t hold back, giving their unfiltered view of their living experience.
Senior Attiba Booker took to the site to recount the story of a negligent landlord and the results of his refusal to fix Booker’s front door.
“…During the summer, I went away for two weeks and when I came back I walked in on about four to five homeless people standing in my house. I didn’t know what to do, I just left the house, called the cops,” said Booker.
Other students, such as sophomore Danielle Grandison, logged onto the site for its reliability and safety in comparison to other public listing sites such as Craigslist.
“I think [Whose Your Landlord] would make life so much easier because the way I had to find to buy my apartment was through Craigslist and that is not safe nor is it fun,” said Grandison.
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