P Pact
pactliving.com

The rent on the listing is not always the rent people pay.

Pact puts the asking price and the real rent side by side. The real rent comes from leases and rent bills that renters share with us and that we check by hand. If a number was never checked, we call it an estimate. We never dress an estimate up as a fact.

Now in private beta on iPhone, starting in Oakland and the wider Bay Area.

Downtown Oakland and Lake Merritt at dusk, with apartment buildings along the shore
Lake Merritt and downtown Oakland, where Pact starts. Photo by Save The Bay.

How a rent gets verified

Anyone can post a number on the internet. A verified rent on Pact has paper behind it, and a person on our side reads that paper before the number goes anywhere near the app.

Step 1

A renter shares proof

A signed lease or a recent rent bill. A screenshot of a listing is not proof, and we do not accept one.

Step 2

We check it by hand

A person reads the document and confirms the address, the rent amount, and the date before anything goes live.

Step 3

The actual rent goes public

The verified rent appears next to the asking price for that building or street. Names and unit numbers never appear.

Your documents stay private. Proof is stored in a private vault that the public never sees. What the public sees is the rent amount, the area, and the month it was verified. Nothing with your name on it is ever published.

Three labels, and each one means exactly one thing

Most rent sites blend listings, guesses, and real rents into one number and let you sort out which is which. Pact keeps them apart and labels every figure on screen.

Asking price

The rent in the listing. It comes from public listings and from owners who list with Pact. It is what a landlord wants to get, not what anyone actually pays.

Verified actual

A rent we checked against a lease or a rent bill shared by someone who lives there. The word actual is reserved for this label only, and nothing else on Pact gets to use it.

Estimate

A rent range built from market data. It is a rough guide for areas where no renter has verified a rent yet, and it is never blended into the actuals or shown as one.

AreaAskingVerified actualThe gap
Downtown Oakland 2 bed apartment
$2,800asking
$2,550verified actual
$250 less
Temescal, Oakland 1 bed apartment
$2,195asking
$2,100verified actual
$95 less
Fruitvale, Oakland 3 bed house
$3,400asking
$3,150verified actual
$250 less
Jack London Square, Oakland Studio apartment
$1,895asking
$1,950verified actual
$55 more

Sample figures that show the format Pact uses. Sometimes the real rent is lower than the listing. Sometimes it is higher. Either way, you see it before you sign anything.

Finding a roommate is the other half of renting

A fair price on the wrong home still costs you. Pact matches renters who are looking for a room or a roommate inside the same app, so the home and the people come together in one search instead of two.

Roommate matching opens with the beta in Oakland, and it grows street by street as renters join.

  • Profiles built around real life Budget, move in date, work hours, guests, quiet time. The things that decide whether living together works.
  • Real rents on the homes you see Where renters have verified a rent, the room you are matched with carries the actual figure next to the asking price.
  • Chat opens when both sides say yes No open inbox and no cold messages from strangers. A conversation starts only after a mutual match.

Pact is in private beta now

The iPhone app is with its first testers on TestFlight, and invites go out in small batches so we can verify rents carefully as each new area opens. Tell us where to send yours.

The button writes the request for you and gives you a link that opens it in your email app, addressed to us and ready to send. If nothing opens, write to us directly at [email protected]. We reply from that address, and your details are never sold.

Renting now? Your lease can correct a listing

Tell us what you pay. If you can back it with a lease or a rent bill, we will verify it and publish the actual rent with no name attached. One verified lease tells the next renter more than a hundred listings do.

Preparing the report gives you a link that opens your email app addressed to [email protected] with these details filled in. We will reply with a private way to share your lease or bill. Never email a lease to an address you have not confirmed with us first.