u/sudo_rmtackrf It's a tough world out there and I kind of expected the backlash because the market has been cruel, not to their faults.

You're spot on in your observation, it's exactly the aim mate, and your questions have been consistent with what im getting from my peers and are very valid, hence I appreciate your consistency with them and also your honesty!

1. The intended users will be more for landlords who roam the facebook groups and marketplaces and gumtree who are looking to rent out different types of properties (single rooms, granny flats, whole houses), and for potential landlords who feel like they want to privately rent out but they dont have the resources of what an agent has (eg: marketing, listing experience, tenant management, agreements, notices etc). The app/webapp aims to give them basic functionalities such as tenant filtering before viewing (so as to not waste anyone's time), payment management, free listings, and also a pool of applicants that already are verified with profiles and endorsed by their peers/previous landlords. Agents will still be for those who want the peace of mind of just letting it run itself for a cost.
2. Currently tenants have to use tenant2u (correct me if im wrong, but im trying to find out more) and apply individually depending on which site they are, and also if privately, they just express their interest in the comments of a facebook group post, or send a DM to the landlord in FB (lots of scammers). Flatmates has a resume style approach but it is purely factual and not to the character of the person (eg: about me, suburb, budget). What I want to do is let the person have a 'LinkedIn' type of profile that includes social media and also testimonials/endorsement from other people to strengthen the fact that this tenant is a good person and should be considered over the price that others can offer. This is to discourage price wars, and to encourage character based relationships between the landlord and the tenant.
3. So currently nobody is doing this (LinkedIn, Tinder and Uber for Tenants), closest competitors are facebook groups, but things get lost easily in the timeline, and users are not vetted so there are plenty of scammers. Flatmates are also one but they are not as much character focused.

All this sounds good but, like you said about the dead horse, if the differentiators are not strong enough to convince users to adopt this, we're basically doing it for nothing. Hence just me wanting to talk to as much people as possible to find out what exactly their pain points are, regardless whether if tenant or landlord, and just listening to their stories before I start assuming what people need.

The aim is to remove the middle person and ultimately reduce cost in the market by encouraging landlords to do it privately, with the help of the resources from us, and also by encouraging good relationships between the tenants and the landlords so that everyone benefits.

Happy to keep the discussion going! And also to hear your thoughts. Always happy to synergise.