You Rent We Split - DFW's Premier Apartment Locator

We've done it! As of this morning http://www.YouRentWeSplit.com, DFW's Premiere Apartment Locator, is now officially open and ready for business (tell your friends).

Since this is OSS' first "official" press release, and in an attempt to answer the many questions that are surely buzzing around in your head, I thought I'd conduct a brief Q&A.

Feel free to ask any further questions in the comments.

1. Why start YouRentWeSplit.com? Isn't apartment locating already pretty crowded?

Yes apartment locating is a very crowded market, but I believe that we have built a platform that drastically improves upon what our competitors can offer. Not to mention the fact that the inspiration for the site actually came out of my own frustrations from changing apartments multiple times in Dallas.

With every move I used one of the "free move" locators that currently dominate this space, and each time I grew more and more frustrated with their antiquated websites and incessant phone calls. Not to mention all the email spam. At the time, I put up with this treatment simply because well, a free move is a free move. All the while hoping that something better would soon come along.

Now I believe it has.


2. That's quite a vision, but how does your site improve upon such a well established industry?


My experience with other locators is that they operate like a traditional real estate agency. Rent an office, staff it with agents, track down viable leads, and then contact them repeatedly until a lease is signed. From the start they are forced to engage in certain industry practices that maintain their bottom line, yet fail to deliver higher quality to the client. 

My idea brings apartment locating into the 21st century by leveraging the power of the internet to both open up and simplify this proces. And then we agree to split our fee 50 / 50 with each new tenant.

Using http://www.YouRentWeSplit.com virtually ensures that your next move will be your most rewarding.


3. So how does it work?

(Click here for all the details)

To explain what I mean when I say that our site opens up and simplies the process, take a look at this screen shot from the http://www.YouRentWeSplit.com homepage:

This means that 1900 McKinney is currently offering 120% payout on any 12+ month lease. So on a $1000/month lease, THEY PAY ME $1200 and I PAY YOU $600!!

It's as easy as that.

But wait. There's more!

We've gone the extra step of calculating all of this out for you, so you have to do is:
 1) Find an apartment
2) Write "YOURENTWESPLIT.COM" down on the lease as your apartment locator, and
3) Click "Claim Reward" on the appropriate apartment (see below)

 

We do all the legwork to bring you the apartment shopper AND the apartment complex together. Everything from creating the listing, to keeping the pricing up to date, to contacting each apartment to find out their current specials. And so on and so forth.


4. How Can I Help?


1. Email your friends

2. $1 Will Be Donated to Donorschoose.org if you complete any of the following


- Follow us on twitter: @YOURENTWESPLIT
- Tweet the following: "RT @yourentwesplit is now officially up and running!!! $1 PER RETWEET will be donated to @donorschoose - http://bit.ly/aK1qpO"
- Click "Buzz" at the top of this post
- Share http://www.yourentwesplit.com on Facebook.


3. Submit this post to any social media site by clicking on the "share" button at the bottom of this post

4. Click over to our site if you currently need an apartment locator in Dallas Ft. Worth!

Thanks and God Bless,
Michael Ivey
Founder
http://www.YouRentWeSplit.com
mike (at) yourentwesplit.com

The Mathematics of Doing Good

Happy Monday!



(via Experimental Theology)

Book of the Month - What is the What?

Cover via Amazon

This month's book selection came from the one and only Matt Wood of Into the Woods fame. After mentioning that I wasn't sure what to read next, Matt described "What is the What" as "One of the best books I've read."  He also mentioned that it was written by Dave Eggers, so naturally I was intrigued.

And you know what? This book did not disappoint... at all.

Rather than try to woo you into buying the book however, let me simply state that every penny made from “What Is the What” is channeled to a new foundation dedicated to building and funding a high school in Valentino's hometown in Sudan. A school which began operating late last year.

In case you still aren't convinced, who better to hear from than the story's central character, Valentino Achak Deng. Here he is in the preface to the book, taken from The Valentino Achak Deng Foundation's website.

Enjoy!


(Click Here to Buy the Book)

Preface to the book
By Valentino Achak Deng

 

What Is the What is the soulful account of my life: from the time I was separated from my family in Marial Bai to the thirteen years I spent in Ethiopian and Kenyan refugee camps, to my encounter with vibrant Western cultures beginning in Atlanta, to the generosity and the challenges that I encountered elsewhere.

As you read this book, you will learn about me and my beloved people of Sudan. I was just a young boy when the twenty-two-year civil war began that pitted Sudan’s government against the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army. As a helpless human, I survived by trekking across many punishing landscapes while being bombed by Sudanese air forces, while dodging land mines, while being preyed upon by wild beasts and human killers. I fed on unknown fruits, vegetables, leaves and sometimes went with nothing for days. At many points, the difficulty was unbearable. I thought the whole world had turned blind eyes on the fate that was befalling me and the people of southern Sudan. Many of my friends, and thousands of my fellow countrymen, did not make it. May God give them eternal peace.

This book began as part of my struggle to reach out to others through public speaking. I told my story to many audiences, but I wanted the world to know the whole truth of my existence. In the fall of 2003, I told Mary Williams, the founder of the Lost Boys Foundation in Atlanta, that in spite of the public-speaking opportunities available, I wanted to reach out to a wider audience by telling the story of my life in book form. Because I was not a writer, I asked Mary to put me in touch with an author to help me write my biography. Mary contacted Dave Eggers, and thank God Dave and I met and certainly became good friends. We agreed that all proceeds from the book would be used to improve the lives of Sudanese in Sudan and elsewhere...

It should be known to the readers that I was very young when some of the events in the book took place, and as a result we simply had to pronounce What Is the What a novel. I could not, for example, recount some conversations that took place seventeen years ago. However it should be noted that all of the major events in the book are true. The book is historically accurate, and the world I have known is not different from the one depicted within these pages. We live in a time where even the most horrific events in this book could occur, and in most cases, did occur. For example, between May 16, 1983 and January 9, 2005 over two and one-half million people died of war and war-related causes in Sudan, over four million people were internally displaced in southern Sudan and nearly two million southern Sudanese took refuge in foreign countries.

My desire to have this book written was born out of my faith and beliefs in humanity; I wanted to reach out to others to help them understand Sudan’s place in our global community. I am relieved that Dave and I have accomplished this task through illumination of my life as an example of atrocities many successive governments of Sudan committed against its own people. Although the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement gave southern Sudan the opportunity to rebuild itself—and the chance to secede in 2011 via popular referendum—gross human rights violations still continue today in the Darfur region of the country.

I am blessed to have lived to inform you that even when my hours were darkest, I believed that some day I could share my experiences with others. This book is a form of struggle, and it keeps my spirit alive to struggle. To struggle is to strengthen my faith, my hope and my belief in humanity. Since you and I exist, together we can make a difference! Thank you for reading What Is the What and I wish you a blessed day.

—VALENTINO ACHAK DENG,
ALLEGHENY COLLEGE, PENNSYLVANIA, 2007