Cribspot Ann Arbor Map.jpg

A screenshot of the Cribspot website for the downtown Ann Arbor market.

(Cribspot)

An Ann Arbor-based startup company is working to simplify the apartment hunting process.

Cribspot, launched in 2012 by three University of Michigan students, is eyeing growth after raising a seed round of $660,000 led by venture capital firm Huron River Ventures.

Up next for the company: Expanding the website’s reach in 15 college markets across the U.S. and launching additional features for renters and landlords, such as the ability to report rent payments to credit bureaus.

Cribspot brings thousands of student apartments and houses onto one searchable map, so renters can see specific details on available housing in their area.

People looking for housing can narrow searches by the number of bedrooms, price range and other details, and then see locators and photos of available properties.

Cribspot is meant to make the housing search easier for renters, who often have to go door-to-door or look at multiple websites to find housing in college towns.

The team at Cribspot, an Ann Arbor-based website that helps renters find housing.

Jason Okrasinski, Tim Jones and Evan Dancer originally launched the site as A2Cribs in 2012 for a class at U-M. The website’s motto: “Built by college renters, for college renters.”

“We looked around and saw housing was such a stressful process,” Okrasinski said.

As students at U-M, Okrasinski said he would call hundreds of places in his search for housing.

“Half were leased, half didn’t fit what we were looking for,” he said.

After graduating from U-M and taking jobs elsewhere, Okrasinski, Jones and Dancer decided they wanted to develop the A2Cribs concept full time. They re-launched the website as Cribspot in 2013. The website sees about 1,500 to 2,000 visitors per day, Okrasinski said.

The company, which has six full-time employees, is based out of an office at 212 E. Huron St. in Ann Arbor. Cribspot briefly operated out of the Bizdom Startup Accelerator in Detroit. Okrasinski said the advantage of being based in Ann Arbor is the access to quality employees.

Cribspot recently launched a feature where renters can sign up for automatic rent payments on the website. The site guarantees rent will get to landlords on time.

“It’s really convenient for people who don’t have checkbooks, people who are always late (paying rent), or for parents who don’t want to send checks to students every month,” Okrasinski said.

Cribspot is now available in 15 markets in the U.S. The plan is to continue expanding, possibly targeting smaller colleges in Michigan.

Lizzy Alfs is a business reporter for The Ann Arbor News. Reach her at 734-255-2638, email her lizzyalfs@mlive.com or follow her on Twitter.