Founder's Letter

In 2017 I decided to move to New York City. My wife and I were both 25 and ready to explore everything a new country and city had to offer. Having been a renter in Europe before, I didn’t think that finding an apartment would be too difficult. I booked a ticket for a 3-day trip to NYC with the goal of viewing a couple of options and signing a lease by the end of the weekend. What could go wrong? It's just a rental. I could not have been more mistaken.

Listings I found online were fake, rent prices were misleading. Brokers didn't show up for viewings and ignored my calls and texts. Scammers would request fees before I even viewed apartments. It was also extremely competitive: I quickly learned that for every apartment, there were at least five people seriously interested. As an international renter with no U.S. credit score and no social security number, I was immediately rejected by most brokers. In other cases, I was asked to pay one year of rent upfront just to secure the apartment.

In this system I found no transparency and communication was inconsistent, slow, and unprofessional. The process was full of “gotcha” moments, and after two days of apartment hunting in New York City, all my excitement was gone.

I decided there must be a way to do this better. Why are broker fees 15%? Why do we have to carry our furniture every time we move? Why is the apartment application process harder than applying to Harvard? Why? Why? Why?

My initial reaction was that the fault lies with landlords. I imagined a greedy person sitting on an island, collecting paychecks every month and living a lavish lifestyle. I was mistaken again. Most landlords in the U.S. are mom-and-pop property owners who work tirelessly for 50 years and then invest their life savings in a rental property to create passive income.

The current system screws over landlords just as much as it does tenants. From the fees charged by middlemen, to the risk of one non paying tenant causing an owner to default on their mortgage payments and lose their life savings. If a property owner can't afford to hire a middleman to manage their property, they are actively managing things themselves 24/7/365. The American dream of owning a rental property for passive income remains to be just a dream.

I decided to build a company that would reinvent this antiquated, broken system. First we spent a year trying to understand this system and the origins of its requirements and rules. We wanted to determine: what is the actual law, and what is the outdated status quo no one has bothered to challenge yet?

So, we built June: not a broker, not a management company and not a landlord. We're creating a new category entirely. June is a new generation housing company that uses technology to reinvent the antiquated housing experience for the new generation of renters and mom & pop landlords.

As a tenant with June, you can expect fully transparent processes and fees, quick and professional communication 7 days a week, fair resolution of any issues and simple user-friendly digital interfaces.

As a landlord with June, you can expect industry leading data at your fingertips, significantly better property performance than market, efficient and proactive communications, and a reliable partner that has skin in the game that you can trust.

To the June investors who have backed our bold vision and believed in our ability to change one of the oldest and most conservative industries in the world, thank you. We are working tirelessly to make you proud.

To the 250+ June team members spread around the world working tirelessly to redefine apartment renting experience for our customers, thank you. We are a young company, we are still growing and we make mistakes, but I know for sure that our diversity, curiosity and dedication, will allow us to achieve our mission.

On to a better way of apartment renting,