ReCoop is a rental model where the rent you pay builds a stake that follows you from home to home. We own our buildings outright, so we can price rent below market instead of chasing a leveraged return.
Follow the workRead the writingA tenant who pays on time for a decade leaves with nothing to show for it, and a landlord carrying debt has every reason to push rent up. We think the incentives can point the other way: an owner who doesn't need to service a mortgage, and tenants whose loyalty accumulates into something they keep.
ReCoop owns its buildings at 75–100% equity. Without a mortgage to service, it can commit to rent below the local market and still run soundly.
Paying rent on time earns points on a personal Pass. The Pass belongs to the person, not the building: move, and your progress comes with you.
Over many years of renting, a Pass fills and graduates to Gold, which carries lasting housing discounts and can be passed on. The path is deliberately long: you earn it by renting, not by trading.
Independent landlords will be able to join the network under license. Parameters such as earning rates and the length of the path are still being calibrated.
The mechanism is being studied in an agent-based simulation of tenants, landlords and an operator, including adversarial agents that try to game it, with rent levels calibrated to Census data. A working paper for the mechanism-design community is in preparation. We publish what we find, including results that cut against us.
A program we built reached #1 on every board of Discretionary Review. The interesting part is what the game's rules say about which concessions actually move a vote.
About one essay a month on housing, mechanism design and what our simulations show. No hype, no token talk.
Researchers, cities, operators and prospective capital partners: write to hello@recooprentals.com.