Founder Story — Why I Built Roomly
This founder story was originally published on Roomly. View the original here.
At a point while building Roomly, I was homeless. Yeah, the very irony of building a housing solution for students while staying with a friend is real. I wasn’t homeless because I didn’t have money for rent. Nope. I had made full payments for rooms in the past. Twice. I never moved into any. I had paid inspection fees twice also, but still had to stay with a friend. Get your popcorn and hollandia yoghurt, sit tight, and let me walk you through my 200L house hunt journey.
The first house I successfully paid for was real. I saw the advert in a WhatsApp group and immediately messaged the agent who posted it. He said it was still available. I made full payment of #270,000 that morning without even knowing if the house existed outside the 2 minutes video I watched. 5 minutes after sending the payment proofs, bro was recording a 2 minutes voice note. “Two minutes voice note after sending money, hmm”. The message was clear. Another person just paid for the room. That same morning. I was stunned, I thought I had just clocked this one, my hopes went downhill because it was peak booking season and I had just lost a room to someone else. No notice was given before I paid. I received my money back in full after a few days of pressure. Had the agent genuinely had bad intentions, I would have never received the money back. I continued my house hunting. It was December.
The next time a room caught my attention was in February. It was a nearly finished and fairly spacious room. From the video, the POP wasn’t fully attached yet. The ad said a third roommate was needed for it. I was still with my rent. I messaged the agent and asked if the house was completed already, and he said yes. The house was in Dama and I was ready to make the tradeoff regarding the distance, because my rent was almost expired. I informed the agent I would be ready to come for inspection in the evening after my lectures, he advised I paid first so the room doesn’t get taken by another person. I have had that experience before and it wasn’t a sweet one, so I paid in full.
On the way there, we branched off so he could settle an existing house case. While at that, I could hear him convincing three ladies to take a room the landlord had said had to be only 2 in the room. They refused. He then told them about another room of #320,000 but it was small, and they were reluctant still. As we left, he told me jokingly “People like this, they later come back once houses become scarce. By that time, I would charge them #370,000 and they will pay for it . I heard those words and smiled uncomfortably.” I didn’t find that funny, It was reaping of innocent students.
We got to the location together after the agent calling and asking couple people for directions and my mind was blown away. Not in the way I expected. The room looked nothing like the video I watched. The property had no fencing and just sat in the middle of nowhere, a detail I never saw in the video. The yellow paint on the lower half of the outer walls were already becoming greenish with mucus - for a room I thought was just completed. I didn’t see any well nor borehole, and I didn’t bother asking questions. This room was not worth the amount I was told and I knew it. I scanned the room I had paid for one last time and I didn’t even find a place for my bags even if I choose to come. I was silent and so was the agent. When we walked back to the main road, I broke the silence “I don’t like the house, and I’d love a refund”. He said nothing and made a call shortly. “How far, the guy talk say he no like the place. Send the money back.” From the way he had a hard time describing the place for the agent on the other end of the phone, I could hear what wasn’t being said. The video had existed in their archives and they just pulled it out probably when the tenant requested for a roommate. The arrangement was just between the agents and so was the money. I was told earlier that the yearly rent was #280,000, and I had paid #150,000. That was more than half the total rent, to be a third roommate. That was definitely overpriced, and I wasn’t willing to participate. Thankfully by midnight, I received my money back. Minus the “inspection fee” this time - despite footing the transport fare to the house in the first place.
Well, now I stay on my own and this didn’t come without its own haggles too. The deal was simple, the previous tenant was about to leave Minna for good, and had stayed up to 6 months out of the rent already. Simple logic requires I pay half the price and then renew when it expires. Still I received his message stating I pay #100,000. #25,000 for agent fees. Which agent again nauuuuuuuu?? I was writing Roomly’s code when I saw that message. I didn’t complain. I paid in full. Because I knew, very soon, students would not have to pay a certain percentage of their rent fees on agent fees.
When I say “Roomly was built with students in mind”, I meant it deeply, because I have lived it. This is the journey that birthed Roomly, and I hope it solves the problems it was created to solve correctly and efficiently. This is a long read - I know - and I intentionally didn’t outsource the writing to AI. Now I will retreat back into my technical role, to keep squashing those bugs, and polishing the UI, so you have the best experience using Roomly. Thank you for reading to the end.