Many of life’s biggest moments are dictated by a single, unassuming document. Your decision to move in with a significant other, have a child, or even adopt a pet, are all dependent on one thing: your apartment lease.
“Susannah, the CEO of Flip, was living in an apartment in Chelsea, and she wanted to move to Two Bridges,” Elias Wehbe, cofounder and COO, said. “Her landlord agreed to let her out of the lease early, so long as she paid two months rent — which is pretty standard in New York.”
Since a one-bedroom apartment in Chelsea can easily cost over $4,000 a month, that was no easy ask.
“We thought, why is this such a hard thing?” Wehbe said.
New York's laws are surprisingly tenant friendly, and there are ways to get out of a lease. One of the easiest, it turns out, is to find a qualified candidate to take it over for you. If you can find someone that has good credit and can afford your lease, landlords pretty much have to accept them — or let you out of your lease.
But, finding someone who fits the bill and is looking for a lease is a tall order — which is where Flip comes in. The online marketplace allows people to buy or sell leases. They’ll vet the candidate and work with your landlord to make sure everything goes smoothly.
From there, it gets more nuanced. For example, if you have a horrible lease that you're desperate to get out of quickly, you can attach a monetary incentive for someone to take it over. Or, if you have a massive apartment in the East Village with a private rooftop, you can charge someone a premium for the pleasure of taking over the lease.
The market for such services is larger than you might think.
“We’ve found out that a lot of people want out of their leases early,” Wehbe said. “Millennials, who are our target demographic, want more flexibility in where they live — and they want to pay less for it. The lease has been around for awhile, and it’s very much not in sync with how people want to live today.”
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