Andrew Kane: Welcome to the New York Launch Pod, the New York Press Club award winning podcast highlighting the most interesting new startups, businesses and openings in the New York City area. I’m Andrew Kane producer of the New York Launch Pod and paralegal at Coopersmith and Coopersmith. If you’re a longtime listener, you may be wondering why I’m doing the introduction for this episode. Well, that’s because we have a special episode featuring Hal Coopersmith, launching an intelligent lease compliance and management software called RezCue and who else to interview him, but his mother. You’re going to love this interview. So let’s get right to it.
Hal Coopersmith: So we’re not doing anything different here. David Letterman did something with his mom, Dave’s mom. Conan O’Brien did something with his mom, Conan’s mom. Ellen DeGeneres did something with her mom, Ellen’s mom. Now we have Hal Coopersmith and Hal’s mom. So welcome to the podcast, Mom.
Martha Coopersmith: Thank you so much Hal. I feel very lucky to be in your presence.
Hal Coopersmith: You feel very lucky to be in my presence. That’s interesting that you say that because you’ve been in my presence for a long time.
Martha Coopersmith: Yes, but I’ve never been on the radio until now.
Hal Coopersmith: You’ve never been on a podcast until now, but what people don’t know is that you have been on radio and have done illustrious voiceover work before.
Martha Coopersmith: That is true. In fact, I did a lot of voiceover work very much like Mrs. Maisel did.
Hal Coopersmith: Very much like Mrs. Maisel and I feel like we could do an entire podcast going back and forth between you and me and I feel like that would probably be one of the more popular podcasts. But one of the reasons why I wanted to bring you on is because we’ve talked about startups on the New York Launch Pod. And I recently did something that I want to talk about. I felt like it would be a great fit and I couldn’t think of anyone better to interview me than my mom. So why don’t we hand over the host responsibilities to you?
Martha Coopersmith: That’d be great. I’d be happy to do that.
Hal Coopersmith: That’s so nice.
Martha Coopersmith: Well, I’m curious because I have no idea what RezCue is. I know it’s spelled R E Z C U E.
Hal Coopersmith: So you did a very good job highlighting the emphasis and the spelling of Rezcue R E Z C U E. And what RezCue is, it’s proprietary software designed to help residential landlords with residential lease compliance. So there were sweeping rent reform laws that were passed last summer. And this is the first season, the first quote, unquote rental season where the rental laws are in effect. And there’s a lot more compliance that landlords need to perform that they aren’t necessarily aware of. So what RezCue does it sends cues or scheduled email and text messages for residential property, Rez, that save, RezCue, landlords from noncompliance. And as a result, there is a substantial downside if a landlord does not comply with the law. And it could mean that a tenant can stay in the property for longer than the lease on the same terms and conditions. It can mean that a landlord has to pay for repairs, not necessarily out of the security deposit, but out of their own pocket. And so this was designed to solve those problems for landlords.
Martha Coopersmith: That sounds fantastic.
Hal Coopersmith: Thanks Mom.
Martha Coopersmith: Well, I have another question actually, are people even aware of the rent laws?
Hal Coopersmith: You’re again, Mom, you’re hitting me with the hard hitting questions on this. And, you know, from what I’ve found is that people have a varying degree of knowledge about the rent laws that were passed last year and particularly for landlords as well, which was pretty surprising to me. And just to summarize some of the laws that were passed last year and what that means. Some people have heard that a security deposit is limited to one month’s rent that a late fee is limited to $50 that a application fee for a credit check is limited to $20. And as a result, there was some controversy as to whether or not a broker could charge a tenant a commission. There are a lot of aspects of the law that landlords aren’t necessarily familiar about. For example, if a landlord wants to raise the rent by more than 5% or not renew the lease, they have to send a notice at a certain period of time, 30, 60, or 90 days, depending on how long the tenant has been in lease. And that’s not something that landlords are necessarily paying attention to.
Martha Coopersmith: It sounds very scary to me.
Hal Coopersmith: It’s very scary, particularly if you don’t know about it and you bring up a good point. Another aspect of the law is that the landlord has to offer a tenant a walkthrough within a one week window before the end of the term. And if a landlord doesn’t do that, then the landlord may not be able to capture a part of the security deposit for repairs. Even though most of the repairs happen when a tenant moves out, it gives a tenant, an opportunity to cure. And that was the intent behind the legislature was to help out tenants.
Martha Coopersmith: What does that mean to cure?
Hal Coopersmith: That’s a good question to cure means to fix. So for example, if a tenant had a pet in the apartment and there was damage to the premises and there was damage to the flooring, it would give the tenant an opportunity to fix the flooring that was caused by the pet, rather than the landlord coming in and saying, the flooring has been ruined by your pet. And it will now cost a large sum of money, which is a protection that New York state wanted to enact to protect tenants from being overcharged.
Martha Coopersmith: So you’re really helping to save these tenants and these landlords.
Hal Coopersmith: Well, right now, a lot of people don’t know about the law and the software is designed to assist landlords in complying with the law, but it can be used in all sorts of ways. And particularly in terms of assisting tenants with the terms of their lease. But overall, there’s a lot of downside for landlords if they don’t comply with the law. So the software was really designed to assist with landlords in complying with the law, because at the end of the day, a year from now, tenants are going to wise up as to the law. They’re going to know that the landlord didn’t send these notices out. They’re going to know that the landlord didn’t offer them a walkthrough. We’re in New York City. It is a tough town. It is a very smart town information gets out very quickly, but what we don’t have right now is a solution for landlords and that’s what I wanted to build.
Martha Coopersmith: Well, that’s why my son is so brilliant.
Hal Coopersmith: You’re not biased at all.
Martha Coopersmith: Well, I think it’s really, really smart. Excuse me, but I think it’s brilliant. How does it help property owners?
Hal Coopersmith: It’s another good question, Mom. For any lease that we draft, our law firm at Coopersmith and Coopersmith, we assist them in telling them exactly what they need to do. In addition to preparing the lease, we activate the RezCue software on behalf of the landlords. So one of the things I didn’t talk about is that the landlord has to offer a tenant a walkthrough before the lease even starts. And we tell the landlord that that’s something that they have to do or their broker, or in terms of showing the apartment since we’ve written the lease, we know exactly how long the tenant has been in the premises. So we’re able to program the cues to go out to the landlord and their broker if they so desire in advance of each deadline. So if a landlord doesn’t tell us anything, we’ll send notices 45 days by text and email to let them know of the next deadline that’s coming up. And the reason for that is it gives the landlord time to confer with their broker, to confer with their tenant, to evaluate market conditions, to see how their tenant really feels in terms of staying in the place. And the reason why we send it by text and email is because sometimes you see a text, but not your email. Sometimes you see your email, but not a text. And by sending texts and email, we make sure that that message is seen. And we also make sure that that message is seen not only by sending it 45 days in advance, but also 30 days in advance and 15 days in advance of each deadline. And so these deadlines come up pretty quickly and you may not be thinking about it, particularly if it’s an investment property or a pied de terre that you’re renting out, or even right now, maybe you’ve left the city and moved somewhere else just for a short period of time, then you need to be up on the law. Otherwise consequences are very serious.
Martha Coopersmith: Let me ask you another question. What are the requirements for owners?
Hal Coopersmith: That’s another good question. So we’ve talked about the requirements and little bits and pieces throughout the interview, but overall, the way that RezCue is designed is that there are four main requirements that we assess in addition to the requirements about the security deposit and late charge and application fee, which are pretty straightforward, but the first requirement is offering a tenant a walkthrough before the start of lease. And we have an onboarding software to draft the lease very quickly and make sure that the condition is verified. The second requirement that we’ve talked about is whether or not there’s going to be a nonrenewal notice or a rent increase notice of more than 5%. And that has to go out at a certain period of time. Otherwise the tenant has the right to continue the lease on the same terms and conditions. The third requirement that we assist with is that walkthrough in the one week window, before the expiration of the lease. And it’s a one week window, two weeks before the end of the term and one week before the end of the term. So in that one week period of time, you have to offer a tenant, a walkthrough on 48 hours notice. So we send another queue before that period of time. And then finally the landlord has to return the security deposit within two weeks at the end of the term. So just knowing about all those things at certain intervals, assist the landlord in complying with the law.
Martha Coopersmith: So you’ve really figured out how to help all these people.
Hal Coopersmith: Those are your words, but I think that we really are assisting landlords with our RezCue software.
Martha Coopersmith: I just wanted to ask you one more question. Have you received any kind of reactions so far?
Hal Coopersmith: Another hard hitting question, Mom, thank you for not taking it easy on me, but right now the reaction to the RezCue software has been very positive. I think for a certain segment of residential landlords that don’t have sophisticated software that really do want to prevent a downside for their tenants and themselves. The reaction has been very positive, particularly among residential real estate brokers, who kind of act as defacto managing agents, that have a relationship with the owner if they are the ones renting out the property, just either to grow the relationship or sustain the relationship with the owner and in doing so, they’ll take a smaller rental commission and kind of manage the property a little bit, even though they’ve been told by brokerages not to write leases anymore. And particularly for brokers who are doing this kind of as a favor to their client or to the property owner, they’ve really seen the value in this, particularly because it assists in the downside. And what it does is for a broker who’s doing a residential rental as a favor to a client and trying to do well by their client, it really prevents the downside from the law. And in addition to that, once both the owner and the broker are receiving the RezCue cues, then it really makes the broker look good. That’s really been wonderful to see the positive reaction and to help people comply with the laws.
Martha Coopersmith: Well, it sounds to me like everyone needs RezCue because if you don’t have, you could lose your apartment.
Hal Coopersmith: I wouldn’t say that you could lose your apartment, but I do agree that RezCue is a great resource for residential landlords and can really assist them once we do write the leases for landlords, and I can see already that you’re really promoting the RezCue software out there and you think everyone should have it. I would expect nothing less from my mother.
Martha Coopersmith: No, but I think it’s really, really important. And I’m glad that my son figured this all out. I think everyone needs RezCue.
Hal Coopersmith: Well, thank you, Mom. And if people do want to learn more about RezCue, they can go to rezcueme.com kind of like the song, rescue me and find out more about what we’re doing with RezCue. And we’ll also link to the software and more information about it in the show notes.
Martha Coopersmith: You’re brilliant!
Hal Coopersmith: Thank you, Mom. I would expect nothing less from you. This has been a wonderful experience and really nice to have you interview me on the New York Launch Pod and for people who want to learn more about the New York Launch Pod. Well, why don’t we plug the New York Launch Pod a little bit?
Martha Coopersmith: Why not?
Hal Coopersmith: They can go to nylaunchpod.com or follow us on social media @nylaunchpod.
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