tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150167111992542042024-03-13T00:35:32.992-07:00SplitTheRent blogUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-615016711199254204.post-81029097155627997922011-06-06T15:11:00.000-07:002011-06-06T15:16:08.681-07:00Upcoming redesignRyan has been hard at work for over a month redesigning the SplitTheRent expense tracker. We're hoping to launch it sometime over the next few weeks. Here's a preview of the current draft:<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW3FwyYSPa1g1Fr3SN8ri6iyVjqrq7yo4r4YonjD7mu3gaRkjvrTsHTKU5CTf_PFgiQwMxHBs9gJKTXftVfXC0qOV7LuII8T-fZxj7R1yKd1qrgAHN2Wn5Zt2IZ_pMuup7s65HYPQpl3Q/s1600/redesign_preview.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="420" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW3FwyYSPa1g1Fr3SN8ri6iyVjqrq7yo4r4YonjD7mu3gaRkjvrTsHTKU5CTf_PFgiQwMxHBs9gJKTXftVfXC0qOV7LuII8T-fZxj7R1yKd1qrgAHN2Wn5Zt2IZ_pMuup7s65HYPQpl3Q/s640/redesign_preview.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />
Let us know what you think of the design by email: <a href="mailto:redesign-thoughts@splittherent.com">redesign-thoughts@splittherent.com</a><br />
<br />
The most noticeable changes are the two-column format, the buttons on top, and the look of the main table layout. But the biggest changes aren't visible from the screenshot. Here are the new features we're most excited about:<br />
<ul><li>A system to input recurring expenses, like cable bills, that recur monthly, weekly, yearly, or fortnightly. (Rent will be converted to a modify-able recurring expense so that users with weekly or fortnightly rent - for instance, in Australia - can use the rent system.)</li>
<li>Categories for different kinds of expenses, so you can organize your expenses and keep track of your utility and grocery spending. We plan to add pretty graphs and such, but that's further down the line.</li>
<li>Support for percentages in the way things are divided, so you don't have to do any mental math.</li>
<li>Multiple payers on the same expense. For instance, if you have a bar tab where one person paid $20 in cash and the other person paid the rest of the bill, but the tab was intended to be split equally. </li>
<li>Lightning quick apartment creation.</li>
</ul>We know there are many other features that people would love, and we are trying to hit the biggest ones first. Our design philosophy is that we don't want to do things unless we can do them well, and we're doing our best to stick to that. Please, let us know how you feel or request new features by emailing support@splittherent.com or using the "Contact Us page" and we will get back to you with the status of that feature. <br />
<br />
Speaking of which: we've heard reports of some annoyances with the reminder system, so as of 1pm today we have temporarily disabled recurring email reminders EXCEPT for the reminder to pay the rent and square up. This should keep your apartment from over-nagging you. If you would like to disable the rent reminders as well, that can be changed from your apartment settings page. If these changes causes you any inconvenience, let us know.<br />
<br />
Thanks for trying (and helping us improve) our public beta - we're having a blast developing it for you, and we hope you enjoy using it!<br />
<br />
<img alt="Add to Google" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-615016711199254204.post-75931068690667253192011-05-10T10:42:00.001-07:002011-05-10T13:17:18.454-07:00Introducing the furniture calculator: a "blue book" for furniture<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://splittherent.com/calculators/furniture" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGGH6LmqnD-pD78v_kBq3JSQHq3JHPaZhOHe6uxQMtvFhjvpAs_GbmyFVEYuxmf5qAyDGsl2-OZNE_XI_Rgh7xA53LFqLIS2gQIbMEN3DakPQ-t55Z59A1PJ8m7LyHgsfPOJI_CKw18Zo/s320/furngraphic.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> <a href="http://splittherent.com/calculators/furniture">Value my furniture now!</a><br />
<a href="http://splittherent.com/calculators/furniture"></a>Because we love nerdy fairness<br />
even more than you do.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Let's say you and your roommate Nathan split a new $500 couch when you moved in together 2 years ago. The couch is currently in "very good" shape - the pillows are a bit flattened and there are some very minor signs of wear and tear, but not much else.<br />
<br />
Now you are both moving out, and Nathan wants to keep the couch. You want to keep the $300 TV that you split around the same time (the TV still works fine). You should be paid back for your share of the couch, and Nathan should be paid back for his share of the TV. But what is the value of the couch and TV now, 2 years later?<br />
<br />
Just like splitting rent, it's awkward and tricky to just "make up a number." We wanted to create a <a href="http://splittherent.com/calculators/furniture">simple calculator</a> to value used furniture shared by an apartment, so that it's easy to sell to friends. The idea is kind of like the "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelley_Blue_Book">blue-book</a>" for used cars. (Our answer for the above example: the couch is still worth $329.00 while the TV is worth $197.40, and since you split both originally, Nathan owes you $65.80 - half the difference.)<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>To create <a href="http://splittherent.com/calculators/furniture">the calculator</a>, we studied furniture value over time with a public survey (with 58 respondents) and also got input from a panel of four accounting professionals. We crunched the data, and the calculator is now live! You can also read our more in-depth post for <a href="http://blog.splittherent.com/">an explanation of how it works</a>.<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The calculator takes into account three things:</div><ul><li>The original price of the furniture</li>
<li>The change in condition/quality of the furniture</li>
<li>How long the furniture has been in use since it was bought</li>
</ul><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">It has many uses:</div><ul><li>Split up furniture you originally bought communally</li>
<li>Set a price for selling furniture to your roommate or friend</li>
<li>Figure out what rate to charge for renting furniture in a furnished apartment</li>
<li>Figuring out how much to pay if you damage a piece of furniture</li>
</ul><a href="http://splittherent.com/calculators/furniture">Give it a try!</a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http%3A//blog.splittherent.com"><img alt="Add to Google" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-615016711199254204.post-30205601412767218162011-05-10T10:42:00.000-07:002011-05-10T12:24:20.755-07:00How the furniture calculator works<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The new furniture calculator is an awesome tool for helping you move out of an old apartment. As we mentioned in the introductory post, the calculator takes three things into account:<br />
</div><ul><li>The purchase price of the furniture</li>
<li>The change in condition/quality of the furniture</li>
<li>How long the furniture has been in use since it was bought</li>
</ul><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">It uses this information to calculate the current value of the furniture so that you can sell it to your housemates, or split up furniture fairly when moving out. But how does it work?</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"></div><a name='more'></a><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">To see what condition my condition was in</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The difference in value between a "Like New" couch and a "Good condition" couch is a subjective question, and there wasn't an off-the-shelf formula we could use. So we asked our survey respondents what would be a fair price of a $1000 couch in various conditions, and we extrapolated this response to be a fixed percentage of the purchase cost for all types of furniture.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Clearly, assuming all furniture is the same as a $1000 couch is a simplifying assumption, but we have a reason to think it will work better than you might expect. For instance, you might say wear and tear on a kitchen table or a TV stand is just <i>different</i> from wear and tear on a couch. But our survey revealed that the average life of those items is similar, and experts such as the IRS and our accounting panel downplay differences between furniture in accounting purposes. For instance, while tables and arm-chairs tend to "last longer" against wear and tear than couches according to our survey, people still typically replace them over roughly the same time-frame. What matters to fairness is how an owner is likely going to keep something, not how long it could hypothetically last.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">But what about a TV? TV's and other pieces of electronics don't usually get "damaged" - they become obsolete or the prices fall really fast. According to our survey, it takes about 5-6 years for respondents to replace such items. That's where the other part of the calculator kicks in.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The persistence of furniture</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">No matter what condition the item is in, it loses value to you with time, because eventually, you want to replace it with something newer, nicer, or more to your taste. Since this typically happens over a 5-6 year cycle for both electronics and furniture, the fair value of any shared item declines similarly regardless of type or condition. We could quibble about seven years vs. four in the most extreme cases, but in the interest of simplicity we did not worry about these issues. After all, there is a lot of individual variation in quality between brands and individual items. Personally, Jon would guess that five years is probably also a good time scale for replacement of basic kitchen appliances like blenders, but we did not test this assumption at all.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">To calculate this effect, we <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depreciation">depreciate</a> the value of furniture using a somewhat standard accounting formula. This is more of a planning-guide than a solid fact, and it probably isn't exactly what you could get for the item on the open market. But what it does do is try and approximate a market via the survey, while creating a consistent guideline for your housemates. After the program calculates the time-depreciated value and the difference-in-quality value, it takes the lesser of the two numbers: being old or being broken both devalue an item.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">In order to chose a depreciation formula for <a href="http://splittherent.com/calculators/furniture">the calculator</a>, we have to pick both a basis-period (length of time) and a kind of depreciation: typically straight-line or declining balance, in which it loses a fixed percentage of its value each year. We settled on a 24% decline in value per year with a 5% scrap value, which would be called an "8.3-year double declining balance" method for you accounting nerds out there. Why these numbers? We calibrated them to the survey data:</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-bottom: 6px; padding-left: 6px; padding-right: 6px; padding-top: 6px; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBUScTsszJsxnIAzARee_YQZWbario06T-5OmulRSvXvCzsCX5N_sM6eo39xWpncS7xO1wKhHd0VkdmCgaLv2jc5VTUa-kFPjP9vliLPAvxv5jAKuym-vVkAFnw7nD1hpWQSyyNL3Pgso/s1600/Furniturevalue.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="468" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBUScTsszJsxnIAzARee_YQZWbario06T-5OmulRSvXvCzsCX5N_sM6eo39xWpncS7xO1wKhHd0VkdmCgaLv2jc5VTUa-kFPjP9vliLPAvxv5jAKuym-vVkAFnw7nD1hpWQSyyNL3Pgso/s640/Furniturevalue.png" style="cursor: move;" width="640" /></a></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The five data points represent New, Like New, Very Good,<br />
Good and Acceptable values for a $1000 couch in their average time-frame.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Error bars are 1-sigma (assuming central limit theorem)</span></div></td></tr>
</tbody></table><ul><li>This calibration matched real-world data, given the average time period it takes for a couch to reach a given condition, and the average fair value of a piece of furniture in that condition.</li>
<li>The furniture should lose most if its value (~75%) over the 5-6 years before its expected replacement</li>
<li>We wanted to use a standard formula commonly used by accountants, so we restricted ourselves to straight-line depreciation and double-declining balance</li>
</ul><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">We are not too concerned about the discrepancy between 1-year depreciation and the true value at that time. The survey and expert opinion indicates that the resale value of a couch plummets as soon as it leaves the store, even more than any declining balance formula which correctly captures the medium-term value of the couch. However, this is probably because a non-roommate would not know what actually happened to the couch (for instance, "did someone hook up on it?"), or whether or not the person was lying about how old it was. It also includes the trouble of hauling the couch out of someone's place. Buying a new couch would be more attractive than buying a supposedly-like new couch at the price point recommended by the formula, but a roommate knows who physically sees the couch in front of them and roughly knows what the couch has been through over the past year should probably pay more. (The parallel situation would be buying a leased car after the lease expires.)</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">To summarize the FAQs:</div><ul><li>The calculator will NOT necessarily predict how much the furniture would really sell for on the open market, but represents a fair value of the product over its lifecycle of expected replacement</li>
<li>The calculator WILL help you pick a fair value for your furniture, for resale to your roommates, suitemates or housemates who share it with you</li>
<li>The formula is based on standard accounting procedures that are fit to real-world data</li>
</ul><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Uses:</div><ul><li>Split up furniture you originally bought communally</li>
<li>Set a price for selling furniture to your roommate or friend</li>
<li>Figure out what rate to charge for renting furniture in a furnished apartment</li>
<li>Figure out how much to pay if you damage a piece of furniture</li>
</ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;">We hope to document the methodology more technically in a later blog post - for now, you can email Jon at <a href="mailto:split.the.rent.jb@gmail.com">split.the.rent.jb@gmail.com</a> with questions.</div><br />
<a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http%3A//blog.splittherent.com"><img alt="Add to Google" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-615016711199254204.post-45691972671451451732011-04-25T03:06:00.000-07:002011-04-25T03:10:49.464-07:00New features survey and launchWelcome to our blog! Today is our official launch for the beta, and we're really excited about the new platform and the new homepage. We've been wanting to add bill-tracking since we launched the <a href="http://splittherent.com/p/rent-calculator.html">original rent-splitting calculator</a>. The coolest new features:<br />
<ul>
<li>Quick-add: You can type expenses (and payments) in plain English.</li>
<li>Email reminders: Because everyone forgets.</li>
<li>Tracking: We keep track of who writes the rent check when it gets paid. No emails necessary.<a name='more'></a></li>
</ul>
Features we are still working hard on:<br />
<ul>
<li>Online payments</li>
<li>More and better fairness tools</li>
</ul>
We have lots of ideas for new features: <a href="https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AgC7jiZxdHtzdGdoXzBmX2VaOG9yR21KU2V0VUpicFE&hl=en#gid=0">take our survey</a> if you have a strong opinion.<br />
<br />
In porting over everything from our old blogspot address and SplitTheRent.org, we may have dropped a few links or missed a few things. So if you find a bug or a dead link, don't be shy - use the feedback tool or email us at support@splittherent.com.<br />
<br />
Here are some images of the cool features in action.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
Adding an expense in English (with a date):</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieqMcd5WfMLJ2fpv1sBnzye_a0DXrZOJDGiE7DfKVBCzDt_CmTkIlfT72Kd_NJx8DQRjY3qfnZUpaMWIvN7oEtxDMJMJEf-NJ54bEFIV6g3HDNmMl3L_AB_4b8NlV0x1u_0fIGl-fecTA/s1600/Quickadd1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieqMcd5WfMLJ2fpv1sBnzye_a0DXrZOJDGiE7DfKVBCzDt_CmTkIlfT72Kd_NJx8DQRjY3qfnZUpaMWIvN7oEtxDMJMJEf-NJ54bEFIV6g3HDNmMl3L_AB_4b8NlV0x1u_0fIGl-fecTA/s640/Quickadd1.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
It knows!</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoXNmeY-IYg9MOAhZJlF6xEhMqu2QkekaOSYvYLnT_q3ky2bM7w6B7cORh1PDImN7i4ksY7cfFc4gEjG0MLxkLhmRcnQifyD6C1PW-Tp68Sxr8WfzLUJJHB7JKvBpg6EAyYdtXfteqpR8/s1600/Quickadd2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoXNmeY-IYg9MOAhZJlF6xEhMqu2QkekaOSYvYLnT_q3ky2bM7w6B7cORh1PDImN7i4ksY7cfFc4gEjG0MLxkLhmRcnQifyD6C1PW-Tp68Sxr8WfzLUJJHB7JKvBpg6EAyYdtXfteqpR8/s640/Quickadd2.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Our emails are friendly:</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNoAi3EhicLeGwDlOKf9CbQbFHpCfcTSB-BDzV4BkoQVxnadct0kFdSgbL2bC7N6Dm58ZKrfAyjV9TO_7K0diSDekhN1wftc_pZli26W5OlQx7dzNDm0mzjxpqUp8Za_l3cKheTvzj-EY/s1600/emailreminder.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="355" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNoAi3EhicLeGwDlOKf9CbQbFHpCfcTSB-BDzV4BkoQVxnadct0kFdSgbL2bC7N6Dm58ZKrfAyjV9TO_7K0diSDekhN1wftc_pZli26W5OlQx7dzNDm0mzjxpqUp8Za_l3cKheTvzj-EY/s640/emailreminder.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-615016711199254204.post-16765190858632933322011-04-23T06:25:00.001-07:002011-04-23T06:25:41.396-07:00And... we're backThe beta of SplitTheRent is back online - woot!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-615016711199254204.post-90983576339561249562011-04-21T08:07:00.001-07:002011-04-21T10:18:33.000-07:00Heroku is downAmazon EC2 is <a href="http://www.geekosystem.com/amazon-ec2-down-reddit-quora-foursquare/">having issues</a> which has taken down our web-host, <a href="http://status.heroku.com">Heroku</a>. SplitTheRent.com's beta will be down until this is resolved, but until then, you can still use our rent-calculator at <a href="http://www.splittherent.org">SplitTheRent.org</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-615016711199254204.post-23238562811258149622011-04-19T22:18:00.001-07:002011-04-20T11:06:36.938-07:00Our new blogWelcome to the new Split The Rent blog! We're going to post new survey results, fairness tools, articles about the economics of sharing, and SplitTheRent features and development notes here. We hope you enjoy reading.
Here are some ways you can look out for updates.
<table border=0 cellpadding=10>
<TD><a href="http://www.twitter.com/splittherent"><img src="http://twitter-badges.s3.amazonaws.com/t_small-a.png" alt="Follow SplitTheRent on Twitter"/></a></TD>
<TD><a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http%3A//feeds.feedburner.com/SplitTheRentBlog"><img src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" border="0" alt="Add to Google"></a></TD>
<TD><iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/likebox.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fpages%2FSplitTheRent%2F185657191480642&width=270&colorscheme=light&show_faces=false&stream=false&header=false&height=62" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:270px; height:62px;" allowTransparency="true"></iframe></TD>
</TABLE>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-615016711199254204.post-30912389016724898802011-02-17T02:34:00.000-08:002011-04-17T03:28:05.214-07:00Does it really work? Feedback on the Rent CalculatorThanks to interest from readers and responders like you, I have had a lot more opportunity to check my original work and the calculator is holding up quite well under public scrutiny. Thanks to everyone who gave feedback or wrote notes of congratulations - it's made this whole project really, really fun!<br />
<br />
Right after launch, I started collecting voluntary feedback from people using the calculator. Originally, I simply asked people to rate the calculator on a 1-5 scale. Here are the results from the first 1,338 respondents (before I switched the feedback system to the present one, which is still collecting data).<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<img src="https://spreadsheets.google.com/oimg?key=0AgC7jiZxdHtzdGtoc3VRNDBieUtPa2Q3NVFBcFF3ZFE&oid=1&zx=o9vfqefomu91" /><br />
<br />
Just over 60% of feedback-givers who used the calculator rated the result as "fair" or "very fair," and 84% gave it at least a 3 out of 5. The average score was a 3.63 out of 5. This does not take into account the response bias. People who thought the calculator was unfair seemed, if anything, more likely to give feedback: the average among people who wrote written comments had a lower average fairness of 3.48. (For reference, the total response rate was not recorded exactly but it is a few percent of the total). So I suspect that a very healthy majority of respondents think the calculator is doing its job.<br />
<br />
The most common hand-written feedback was complimentary, but many more comments made suggestions either recommends extra features, alternate philosophies, or situations people think are currently unfair. <a href="http://acappellapress.com/">Rebecca</a> and I coded responses by category:<br />
<img src="https://spreadsheets.google.com/oimg?key=0AgC7jiZxdHtzdGtoc3VRNDBieUtPa2Q3NVFBcFF3ZFE&oid=2&zx=dm0asncp6vxy" /><br />
<br />
Some respondents were coded in multiple categories, so these do not sum up to 100%.<br />
<br />
The top features that are requested are parking spots, balconies, who actually uses the common living spaces, more levels of closet niceness, bathroom specifications, an option to specify square footage, and to account for who is in charge or paying the bills. If you hate being the one to take care of the bills and figure out what people owe, try out our <a href="http://www.splittherent.org/p/splittherent.html">Bill Splitting App</a> which is currently in Alpha development!<br />
<br />
For several of the lesser suggested features, I think the best answer is to NOT take them into account. It's not that these aspects of the room don't matter at all - it's just that quibbling over whether or not to check the box creates tension, and the whole point of the calculator is to remove tension. I only included boxes that I think are widely understood to be important - more space, more light, more privacy. The fewer boxes, the better, for everyone's sake.<br />
<br />
For instance, who furnishes an apartment is certainly fiscally relevant if people live together for over 3 years, but most people are able to roughly split this without discussion, and so long as everyone keeps what they bought, it should not factor significantly into the communal costs. In time, I will try and add some additional features for the items that I think are unambiguously useful (such as balconies or parking), but I want to keep it simple overall.<br />
<br />
There are other things that are probably worth factoring in but are unique circumstances, hard to describe, or vary in importance depending on the location. For instance: smells, the size or excellence of a view, being in a basement of varying dankness, how people share common space, or how much of a common area is taken up by someone's desk. For these, I suggest you use your intuition and use SplitTheRent.org as a starting point. For parking, look around for what people are charging on Craigslist and split it up between people who drive the car. If you and your girlfriend take up more of the common spaces, increase your bedroom size in the SplitTheRent calculator to account for common area you dominate. If you have enough bathrooms that some shared bathrooms are essentially private, don't click on the private bathroom feature at all.<br />
<br />
As one respondent says:<br />
<blockquote>"One factor in this household is that the third bedroom has access to a large private roof terrace. Otherwise it seems like a very fair system. I guess that's where 'intuition' comes in."</blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-615016711199254204.post-12794555041725359952011-02-16T06:50:00.000-08:002011-04-17T03:28:40.621-07:00Survey results - Split the Rent accurate to within 10%Fairness is a funny thing. One person's fair is another person's rip-off. So it is important for a rent-splitting calculator to jive with a broadly intuitive sense of fairness. It can't just be what I think is fair - or what any one person thinks - or it won't be useful.<br />
<br />
In order to validate and calibrate the formula I used for the rent-share calculator on this blog, I did a rather in-depth survey on "apartment sharing fairness" with my friends. Here are the results - enjoy!<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
<h3>How do most people split the rent?</h3>Mostly, my survey respondents either try and adjust prices based on niceness, or just split things evenly. A few (about 20%) do something else. Nobody tries to auction rooms, which would technically be the fairest but is in reality a huge pain and very stressful.<br />
<br />
<img src="https://spreadsheets.google.com/oimg?key=0AgC7jiZxdHtzdFN3Sl9qN3A0ZUYydjJIV2xjMWJRUnc&oid=10&zx=q6jl1egj02ys" /><br />
<br />
If you, like me, have done the adjust-based-on-niceness approach, this survey is for you!<br />
<br />
<h3>Factors that make an apartment nice or crappy</h3>One fair way to share an apartment is that people who get nicer rooms should have to pay a little bit more for them, and people with less nice rooms should get a discount. But what makes a room nicer? People have different preferences and priorities. Our goal was to measure what factors make a room nice enough or crappy enough to be worth changing the way rent is shared. For instance, does having a walk-in closet mean you should pay a bigger share of the rent? Does having a private bathroom? Does having no windows justify a discount? To answer this question, we asked the respondents to rate the importance of many factors in determining the way rent is shared. Here were the responses on a 1-5 scale, with 5 being "very important to the way rent is calculated" and 1 being "should not be counted in the way rent is shared." <br />
<br />
<img src="https://spreadsheets.google.com/oimg?key=0AgC7jiZxdHtzdFN3Sl9qN3A0ZUYydjJIV2xjMWJRUnc&oid=3&zx=n8xdm2ios26y" /><br />
<br />
These are straight-averages (means) for each factor. As you can see, people think factors related to privacy and personal space should be taken into account when sharing rent. I don't think this is a big surprise. The importance of secondary factors like closets and windows is pretty intuitive, and this validates their inclusion in the rent-splitting calculator. "Common area size" is the most interesting case - more on this later.<br />
<br />
My respondents don't think distances from other parts of the apartment deserve consideration, and I agree. I must admit, I threw in questions about these factors knowing people probably wouldn't care about them. It was a methodological trick to give the respondents a sense of perspective and to make sure they wouldn't just answer "Very important" to everything. Personally, I actually strongly prefer to live close to the living room of an apartment, but some people prefer a room far away from common space noise. It's not the sort of thing that money needs to change hands over, and the survey confirms this intuition.<br />
<br />
This list of factors was used to decide which things deserve inclusion in the rent calculator's menu of modifiers. Unimportant factors should be excluded for simplicity, so for instance, I combined all sound issues into one choice in the calculator and excluded distances and flights of stairs. Convertible wall was a controversial one, as you can see from the standard deviations of my responses (<i>n.b.</i>, axis does not start at zero).<br />
<br />
<br />
<img src="https://spreadsheets.google.com/oimg?key=0AgC7jiZxdHtzdFN3Sl9qN3A0ZUYydjJIV2xjMWJRUnc&oid=4&zx=ia304kalfr08" /><br />
<br />
In case you are unfamiliar with the concept of "standard deviation," it measures of how widely the responses to a question varied. As you can see, the most controversial factors were including common space in the calculation, whether you should factor in sharing with a couple ("double occupancy" on the chart), and the importance of a convertible wall. The disagreement on convertible wall might represent a genuine difference of opinion, but I think this was just an ambiguous term. Based on comments I received, it's clear people were confused over what a convertible wall is exactly. Is it an accordion style barrier, a piece of drywall which doesn't separate things floor to ceiling, or a renovation which converted one room into two? Whichever it is, what I think matters most is whether there is "no door" or "bad sound isolation." So I decided not to include "convertible wall" in the calculator before probing it further.<br />
<br />
<h3>What's it worth?</h3>Another way to test for how much each factor should be worth in the sharing calculation is to ask directly how much money you would pay to get a perk or get rid of a problem. Here is some nifty data on how much money you would pay to have a perk or fix a problem: <br />
<br />
<img src="https://spreadsheets.google.com/oimg?key=0AgC7jiZxdHtzdFN3Sl9qN3A0ZUYydjJIV2xjMWJRUnc&oid=8&zx=kvl1tzm87d53" /><br />
<br />
As you can see, privacy and personal space come up tops again. An interesting case is "lots of windows," which was surprisingly different from person to person in both this question and the factor question above. The maximum price one respondent was willing to pay was $300 per month for lots of windows, and several listed numbers over $150, while some had numbers in the teens. This raises a philosophical question: If the differences in preference are so great, how can you include the factor in a calculator? Shouldn't the person who cares more about having windows just get the room, especially if people are friends?<br />
<br />
I think this is a good question, but I also think I have a good answer. The calculator's purpose in life is to provide a neutral opinion, avoid haggling, and not hurt people's feelings. Philosophically, letting someone have a nice thing that you don't care about is OK, but what if you care a little about it? Just because you don't like windows as much doesn't mean you don't like windows at all, and it doesn't seem fair to reward people for being needy. Basing things on the average values is more justifiable: If they would have been willing to pay more, they still get a bargain and you still get a discount. This gives a deal to people who strongly prefer a certain kind of room, and the amount of extra money they pay gives something back to the others.<br />
<br />
The only way to do this perfectly "fairly" in this sense is to create an auction, but this is pretty intense/stressful/unfriendly for all but the nerdiest of economic enthusiasts, and using the average method is a great way to keep things generally fair in light of the overall demand for perks and handicaps.<br />
<br />
In general, I used a combination of these dollar and importance numbers to calibrate how the calculator values the various perks. All of the dollar numbers were based on an $800 per month rent scenario in Boston with a specific salary of $2500 per month before taxes, so I had to extrapolate a bit. The way I extrapolated that is not that sophisticated, but it's not worth explaining here, either. So, moving on:<br />
<br />
<h3>Share and share alike</h3>The last type of question in the survey involved hypothetical scenarios - situations which asked you to write what you think the fair rent would be for you to pay. This was designed to get at the key issues of "sharing with couples" and "factoring in the size of the common room." From the factor question, it was clear that there was no consensus how to handle these situations among my friends. These factors had some of the highest standard deviations, and "size of the common room" was the only factor with a bimodal (two-peaked) distribution of importance; however, I do think that there <b>is</b> a clear way to do it, and the survey supports this concept. Split-the-rent prorates the rent by square footage, assuming common areas are shared equally among all people regardless of who sleeps where. I assumed a common space equal to the sum of the bedroom space for a normal apartment, and double or half of that for the tiny and huge cases (see "How it Works" for more description). I then compared this approach to the average response for each scenario. It worked wonderfully. <br />
<br />
<br />
<img src="https://spreadsheets.google.com/oimg?key=0AgC7jiZxdHtzdFN3Sl9qN3A0ZUYydjJIV2xjMWJRUnc&oid=6&zx=kidlwysxwith" /><br />
<br />
This is a clear indication that the formula is jiving with respondents' intuitions. The (C) here stands for "sharing with a couple" and you can read the full description for each scenario <a href="http://bit.ly/crazyjon">here</a> if you'd like. The values above represent a less-than-10% error on each scenario, with some even less than 1%:<br />
<br />
<img src="https://spreadsheets.google.com/oimg?key=0AgC7jiZxdHtzdFN3Sl9qN3A0ZUYydjJIV2xjMWJRUnc&oid=7&zx=2cdtwleiv4cd" /><br />
<br />
<br />
<div><br />
</div><div>Why does it make sense to factor in common space? Think about it this way - if there was no common space at all, with small private kitchenettes and baths in each bedroom, it would definitely be unfair to split rent evenly - people should pay as if they had separate apartments. On the flip side, if the whole apartment were a giant commune with no private bedrooms at all, you would definitely just split it evenly (think of sleeping in a hostel or trail lodge). Let's say the "average" apartment is about half common space (including bathrooms, kitchens, coat closets, and halls) and half total bedroom space. I don't have a citation for this fact, but it's a good benchmark in any case, and anecdotally I believe it to be the "comfortable" level between smallish and generous. Since everyone in an apartment enjoys the common areas and shares them, the common space should be split evenly per person while the bedrooms should be split in proportion to their size. This means the ratio of common space to private space should set how equally the rents are shared between unequally sized rooms.<br />
<br />
The biggest "errors" in my model happen in scenarios C and D, which are the extreme cases of small and large public living space. In Scenario C, you have a large-ish room with a small public living space, and in Scenario D you have a tiny room within a huge public living space. At first glance, this seems concerning - maybe common space has nothing to do with it and there is a fixed level of sharing that should happen. But in both cases, people thought that they should pay LESS than what I calculated, which is not consistent with that interpretation. If my formula were too "communist" (closer to paying even $), I should have underpriced Scenario D. If my formula were too capitalist (paying more for value), I should have underpriced Scenario C. Being too high on BOTH scenarios can't be attributed to an overall desire for rent to be split in a fixed way.<br />
<br />
I think it's probably fair to conclude that this represents an "<b>I</b> shouldn't be the one who has to pay for this" bias. Also lending credence to this interpretation - the magnitude of the error was roughly the same in both cases. It could also be that the common space sizes I used to calculate this were not well described by the terms I used in the hypothetical scenarios. Some respondents suggested I should have reframed some of the questions with "What would have been fair for the OTHERS to pay?" instead of asking "What is fair for you to pay?" I agree this would have been interesting. It would have let me test my explanation of these results, but I wanted to to make the survey as short as reasonably possible while achieving my goals. In any case, my model gives less than 10% errors from intuitive averages even if my bias explanation is wrong, so it is definitely a good guide to the average fairness my friends would tell you for these situations.</div><div><br />
<h3>Caveats and survey profile</h3>This whole survey is somewhat culturally specific - I'm sure it would come out differently if I did it across different cultures and backgrounds, or possibly even other groups of friends. The sample was an unscientific sample of 42 of my gchat status checkers and facebook feed-readers. But I suspect it is broadly applicable for college educated 20-30 year old Americans, and is probably a good starting point for just about any group of people who agree that people should pay slightly more for nicer rooms.<br />
<br />
My favorite survey comments: "Manic survey," "fun survey," "Chickens," "Too many words and numbers!", and "Goddamn it, Bittner, you're conducting this survey so you can nail us on being irrational, aren't you. Jerk."<br />
<br />
Several people commented unprompted that who was dealing with bills and the landlord would have mattered to them, and there were few a concerns like "what am I supposed to consider about bathrooms" and "Are these all with strangers or friends" (I used strangers specifically so that people would not consider trying to be overly generous to their friends). One person was concerned over what differentials for money given in the $ section would be in reference to a baseline of $800 or a baseline over what their friends would be paying (I calibrated the survey to make these differentials to be how much you'd pay above what your friends are paying, since I believe this is what comparison people will tend to make intuitively). Several people suggested a variant of the formula I use without ever talking about it with me, which was a nice confirmation of principle.<br />
<br />
The guy-girl breakdown was 46% male, 44% female, and 10% did not specify. The average age was 26 with a standard deviation of 7 years. The respondents had shared apartments 3.4 individual times on average with a standard deviation of 1.7 times. No one who took the survey saw my calculator first or talked with me about how I thought rooms should be shared (to my memory), and if I knew they had discussed it with me, I didn't count their response.<br />
<br />
I hope you find it helpful! <a href="http://www.twitter.com/jonbittner">Follow me on Twitter</a> for updates and related projects, email your thoughts to <u>split.the.rent.jb AT gmail DOT com</u>, or check out <a href="http://splittherent.blogspot.com/p/links.html">other stuff</a> I'm working on.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0