A Binghamton University junior teamed up with a recent graduate to create a platform where students can post anonymous reviews of their landlords, offering prospective tenants greater insight compared to traditional online ratings.

Justin Kang, a mechanical engineering student, worked with Brendan Meserve ‘25 to create OffCampusReview, a website with 177 student reviews of properties owned by over 65 different landlords in Greater Binghamton as of publication. The site also features reviews of student housing near other colleges like the University of Michigan, Rutgers University, Sacred Heart University and Southern Connecticut State University.

Kang told Pipe Dream he started the site after he had issues with his landlord and felt “misled” because the residence had a 4.5-star rating on Google Maps.

“They basically did a lot of shady stuff, didn’t let me into my apartment, all this and that,” Kang told Pipe Dream. “And I just was wondering to myself why nothing existed to warn me about this. And Google reviews existed, but the problem was that anybody can leave reviews on Google, so the landlords manipulate the data to make themselves look good.”

Motivated by his poor housing experiences, Kang wanted to build a platform to help students make informed leasing decisions. He partnered with Meserve to develop the website a few months ago.

“[Kang] and I had both lived the frustration of off-campus housing, so we both saw how badly students needed a trustworthy platform to share their housing experiences so that the next person could avoid a similar unfavorable situation,” Meserve wrote to Pipe Dream.

Before launching their idea, Kang and Meserve wanted to gauge if other students had bad experiences with their landlords, so they contacted friends and people from other colleges and universities. They also asked students on the Spine to share their bad experiences with landlords, Kang said.

They were inspired by the popular platform RateMyProfessor, a website where college students can anonymously rate and review college professors and classes. Kang and Meserve wanted to ensure that property reviews were actually made anonymously by students. To achieve this, Kang said he and Meserve initially implemented a system where students enter their email address and receive a login code.

This led to problems when trying to expand the platform to other campuses. Some colleges and universities use platforms like Microsoft, which is incompatible with their original design, Kang said. They also needed permission from different universities before making student email addresses compatible with the website.

To prevent landlords or others from manipulating reviews, BU students must now first sign in to Google to confirm their identity.

OffCampusReview is not the only attempt to hold inadequate landlords accountable. In September, the Student Association’s Vice President of Student Success office collaborated with the Student Tenants Union to create a comprehensive survey allowing students to rate the physical condition of their house or apartment and the quality of their landlords on a one through five scale. This survey received over 400 responses from students living off campus in the Greater Binghamton area as of Sept. 14.

“I think it’s great that there’s a platform out there that allows other tenants to know who their landlords are and how they respond to their tenants’ concerns,” said Vicki Lin, a junior majoring in philosophy, politics and law. “Me, personally, I haven’t had great experiences with my landlord, and I would love if I could share that to other prospects.”

Many reviews on the website describe negative experiences with various landlords and rental companies. Kang said a student in one review wrote that their landlord sexually harassed tenants, while another reviewer wrote that their landlord “flashes illegal guns” at residents.

Despite the volume of negative reviews on the platform, Kang does not want the platform to function solely as a catalog of complaints and encourages students to leave positive reviews.

“I want users to know that finding a great landlord and accessible housing isn’t a given and a lot of people have bad experiences,” Kang said. “So to the people that have had great experiences living off campus, leaving a positive review can help so many students in the future find a trustworthy landlord.”