Making the decision of where to live can be a painstaking process. After all, once the decision is made, you are there for the length of your lease. So many factors need to be considered, including the location, price point, proximity to public transportation, schools and general convenience to a variety of entertainment and shopping. The process can often be a bit overwhelming.

Therefore, it can be helpful to have someone with no stakes in the decision along to give you advice and recommendations. However, the pool is limited to friends, Craigslist, or real estate marketplaces, such as Zillow or Apartments.com. All of these sources have their own drawbacks when it comes to an apartment search. Simply put, you end up doing a lot of online searching, visiting apartment after apartment and then there is the lease negotiation. The process becomes one to be dreaded, instead of enjoyable as you choose your next home.

The Solution: Advisor Mary

Advisor Mary is a Chatbot that can assist with the entire process, serving as a 24/7 real estate advisor.

She was created to ask the questions that a human real estate agent or advisor would ask. Things such as your interests, lifestyle and of course the basics, like how many bedrooms you need and more. After you have answered all these questions, Mary is ready to give you recommendations. Using your answers as a guide, the recommendations will be ranked. So your best fit will be right at the top. If you want to see the property, then you can easily schedule a visit or even directly contact the landlord for any questions.

Mary is not limited to just a few geographical areas. Currently, she can find apartments all over the United States, with more than 100,000 listings available. The best part is that more are always being added, making it easier than ever to find your next home.

Powered by Apartment Ocean’s rental service, Advisor Mary can extend her services even deeper into the real world. For example, if a renter has difficulty communicating with landlords or have an issue regarding an apartment tour, she is always available, unlike a human advisor that has traditional office hours.

Hiring Mary for Free

Mary is currently available on Slack, but she is available to anyone who wants to have her experience and resources on their team. Just head to www.apartmentocean.com/slackapp. Click the ‘Add to Slack’ and Mary will be added to your team. Send her messages and you will quickly get responses.

It’s as easy as starting a new conversation with a simple ‘hi’. Then Mary will be ready to start your search process.We have provided detailed instructions on how to work with Mary, at http://impact.apartmentocean.com/advisor-mary-slackbot-support/.

Conversations can easily be restarted by typing ‘restart’.

There is also extended offline support available from Apartment Ocean. Just log into their website www.apartmentocean.com to report any apartment related issues. The support team will quickly get in contact and work to address them.

Mary’s Future

Using this advisor has plenty of benefits for those potential renters, but the biggest limitation at the moment is that Mary is only available one platform, Slack. The long term plans for Mary include expanding to other platforms and making Mary available to more individuals and families who are hunting for their next apartment home.

Additionally, we are working to give Mary an even more human touch. Essentially, she is getting smarter and serving renters even better. The end goal is to turn Mary into a real estate agent and customer service support representative, allowing individuals to have every service needed for the rental process in one application, for example: handling maintenance requests or receiving rent payment notification at the end of the month.

Take advantage of the comprehensive advisor ability that Mary offers, while giving us feedback to help her grow!