Find an Apartment @ MyHood.ca
Jeff Hersh had a little idea. And as little ideas are wont to do, it hatched into a bigger one.
While enjoying the Australian sun in Sydney in 2006, he came up with MyHood.ca. It’s a place where Torontonians can find their next apartment.
The site is more than just a glorified Google Map Mashup. Oh, it’s much more. Just barely a month old, the site already has over 900 reviews of various apartment buildings in and around Toronto-so you can find an apartment which suits your taste. If you need a roommate, it’ll help find you one as well. The site also features tips and “Hood Briefs,” where you can find out more about a particular neighbourhood.
‘Hood’? you might say yourself, noting the negative connotation of the word. “It’s all about the neighbourhood,” Hersh explains to me as we sit down for coffee. People tend to forget that the word is derived from “neighbourhood,” which is the focus of the site. From Parkdale to the Annex and to the Beach, people define themselves by the hoods they live in. It’s just natural, then, to call it’ “MyHood.”
Hersh isn’t a programmer. In fact, his background is in investing and management strategy. Now, he’s an entrepreneur with a growing website. He’s a true entrepreneur. He already has some ideas on how and where to expand. Marketing first. Second is adding a boatload of content: more reviews, tips, articles. Then add more listings from Scarborough, Etobicoke, North York, eventually expanding outside Toronto to encompass the whole Greater Toronto Area. The site’s target market is the coveted: 18-35 year-olds; students and young professionals alike. He wants to broaden that too. Eventually, if things go according to plan, he’ll have more than apartments on the site. He’s already thinking about condos and rightly so. They’re springing up like daisies throughout the GTA.
Too much growth too quickly? Hersh doesn’t think so. His mind is on continuous expansion and improvements. “Move it forward,” he says.
With the site boasting thousands of reviews, there is some worry of “whiners” or people who give bad reviews because of personal reasons or gripes. Hersh realizes this, “a negative review is useful if it’s a true review.” He notes that if an apartment has one negative review and ten outstanding ones, the reader should know enough to decide which to believe. People should still be able to think for themselves.
Hersh’s goal for the website is to “help people avoid bad places as well as help them find good places to live.” Or, as MyHood’s tagline says: Search. Rent. Live.
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