RadPad, An LA Rental App: A Hybrid Of Craigslist And Instagram

Finding a place to live is the worst. Checking Craigslist is like using the Internet of the 1990s, and Westside Rentals costs money and is not that much better. The whole process is inefficient.

Enter RadPad -- a photo-based rental iPhone app. Think Craigslist meets Instagram. Enter a zip code, price range and other desired features, and scroll through photos just like on Instagram.

If you're driving through an LA neighborhood you love, you can search on the app for rentals near your current location. You can hit "love" on rental listings that catch your eye, and then come back to them later on your "favorites" list.

The app was created by Jonathan Eppers, a 30-year-old entrepeneur in LA's growing tech start-up scene referred to as Silicon Beach. Eppers, who previously worked for MySpace and EHarmony, said his inspiration came from his own experience of trying to find a place to live in LA. "I became very frustrated because of how much time and work was involved just to find a great place to live," he told HuffPost.

Now, with RadPad, "a renter could be driving down a street, see a rental and open RadPad and get all the info they need about the place," Eppers said. "It makes the entire experience more powerful because the consumer is armed with the info they need wherever they are."

RadPad is based in LA but landlords from San Diego and San Francisco have begun listing their rentals as well, Eppers said. He hopes to expand to New York City, Seattle, Chicago, Dallas and Boston in the future.

The app launched in October and now has over 3,000 rental listings, all uploaded directly by property owners, and close to 10,000 favorited "pads," according to Eppers. The company plans to launch a desktop web version this month and eventually a Droid app. The app is free, and while a paid-for, premium version is in the works, a free version will remain available, Eppers said.