About RateMyPlace

RateMyPlace is a tenant-focused platform that helps renters make informed decisions about their next home by providing honest, verified reviews from real tenants.

Our Mission

Finding a good apartment is challenging. Beyond high rents and competitive markets, tenants often don't know what they're getting into until they've signed a lease. We believe every renter deserves access to honest information about buildings and landlords before making one of their biggest financial decisions.

How We Rate

Our comprehensive rating system is based on housing quality research and covers 27 aspects of the rental experience, organized into three main categories:

Unit Quality (10 items)

  • Structural integrity
  • Plumbing & water
  • Electrical systems
  • Temperature control
  • Ventilation & air quality
  • Pest control
  • Mold & moisture
  • Appliances
  • Layout & functionality
  • Listing accuracy

Building Quality (9 items)

  • Common areas
  • Building security
  • Exterior & grounds
  • Internal noise levels
  • External noise levels
  • Mail & package security
  • Laundry facilities
  • Parking
  • Trash & recycling

Landlord Experience (8 items)

  • Maintenance response
  • Communication
  • Professionalism
  • Lease clarity
  • Privacy & boundaries
  • Security deposit handling
  • Rent practices
  • Non-retaliation

Scoring Transparency

Our scores aren't just simple averages. Health and safety factors like pest control, mold, structural integrity, and temperature control receive additional weight in our scoring algorithm, based on peer-reviewed public health research from the WHO, EPA, and leading housing quality studies. This means a building with serious health hazards will score lower than one with only cosmetic issues, even if both have the same number of complaints.

We also apply recency weighting so that newer reviews have more influence than older ones, ensuring scores reflect the current state of a property.

Learn more about our evidence-based scoring methodology

Privacy Protection

We take reviewer privacy seriously. To protect tenants from potential retaliation:

  • Move-in and move-out dates are displayed as seasons (e.g., "Fall 2023") rather than exact dates
  • No personally identifiable information is displayed on reviews
  • All reviews are moderated by our team before being published
  • Users can delete their reviews at any time

Review Guidelines

To maintain the quality and trustworthiness of reviews, we require that all reviews:

  • Come from verified tenants who lived at the property
  • Focus on factual experiences rather than personal attacks
  • Don't contain discriminatory language or threats
  • Don't include personally identifiable information about landlords or staff

Fairness for Landlords

We believe in fairness for all parties. If a landlord or property manager believes a review is inaccurate or violates our guidelines, they can submit a dispute for our team to investigate. They can also reach us at landlords@ratemyplace.org.

Who's Behind This

RateMyPlace was created by Meredith McGee, a Boston-based public health professional, researcher, and developer who saw firsthand how difficult it can be for tenants to find reliable information about apartments and landlords before signing a lease. Drawing on her background in public health research, Meredith designed RateMyPlace's evidence-based scoring system to prioritize the health and safety factors that matter most to tenants. What started as a personal frustration turned into a mission to give renters the transparency they deserve.

You can learn more about Meredith and her other work at meredithmcgee.org .

Contact Us

Have questions, feedback, or need to report a problem? Email us at contact@ratemyplace.org