A Decentralized Global Residential and Commercial Rental Plat Whitepaper 2018 1 Acknowledgements We would like to express our deep gratitude to the blockchain community across the globe rallying for a similar cause to provide transparency, trust, and decentralization to the world. Our converged rental ecosystem rests upon the impressive foundation of their technological advancements and potential. We would also like to thank our team and advisors whose insight, enthusiasm, and invaluable advice has contributed to the project and creation of this Whitepaper. Finally, we would like to give our thanks to the initial backers who believed in our vision and funded the initial phase of our endeavor. We have thoroughly enjoyed working together and are looking forward to taking the project to the next level. The best is yet to come 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements 1 1. Introduction 3 1.1 Abstract 3 1.2 Business Summary 3 1.3 PlaceToRent History 4 2. Global Rental Market Overview . 5 2.1 Residential 5 2.2 Commercial.5 2.3 The Problem 6 2.4 The Solution . 7 3. Business Model 8 3.1 Overview . 8 3.2 Key Features 8 3.3 Revenue Model . 16 4. Technology . 17 4.1 PlaceToRent Plat Architecture . 17 4.2 Technology Overview 18 5. Marketing Strategy 21 5.1 Marketing Objectives and Strategies 21 6. Development Strategy and Roadmap 22 7. PlaceToRent Token Sale 24 7.1 Overview 24 7.2 Token Sale Details 24 7.3 Token Allocation . 25 7.3.1 PlaceToRent Reserve . 26 7.4 Use of Funds . 26 8. Team and Advisors . 28 8.1 Team 28 8.2 Advisors 30 9. Risk Factors 33 9.1 Risks Related to PTRT Tokens 33 9.2 Risks Related to Blockchain and Ethereum Aspect 34 9.3 Security Risks 36 9.4 Risks Related to the Project Development 36 9.5 Risks Arising in PlaceToRent Parties’ Business . 38 9.6 Governmental Regulation Risks . 38 Conclusion . 41 Legal Disclaimer . 42 References 44 3 1. Introduction The PlaceToRent decentralized rental plat is powered by blockchain technology, smart contracts, and utility tokens and is poised to revolutionize rental industry standards worldwide. 1.1 Abstract This Whitepaper proposes a solution to reduce the bureaucracy involved when renting a property commercial or residential, with the aim to improve the speed and ease of completing a variety of transactions throughout the rental process, including initial property search, tenant screening, tenancy contract cution, rent payment, alternative financing, security deposit/claim settlement, issue reporting and resolution, and more. Smart contracts, utility tokens, and the Ethereum blockchain will be utilized, enabling the tenancy agreement terms to be encoded and deployed to the blockchain, with signatures and payments digitally processed securely and instantaneously over the Ethereum network. The blockchain provides an immutable record of these interactions providing irrevocable proof of tenants signing a contract, along with the terms that were agreed upon. Additionally, we propose tools for such underserved segments of rental population as younger and low-income households to stand out in low vacancy markets. 1.2 Business Summary PlaceToRent is a decentralized peer-to-peer P2P global plat in the space of both long and short-term residential and commercial rentals, such as homes, apartments, office, retail, and industrial space. We anticipate capturing real estate rental markets worldwide. While the costs and specifics of property renting/leasing may vary across the globe, both domestic and international market participants experience similar problems in the traditional process. They include such issues as inefficient property search process due to fragmented listings data; outdated rental plats; non-transparent rental experiences; high commission fees; exclusion from the rental market due the lack of credit or work history for low income or young households, etc. In light of rapid advances in technology fueled by ubiquitous broadband internet access, the reliability of data centers, and improved software development tools, there has emerged an urgent need to revolutionize the rental process by providing a solution powered by blockchain technology that will be efficient, beneficial, and inclusive for all market participants including tenants and landlords worldwide. Until recently, blockchain a digital ledger in which transactions are recorded chronologically and publicly was most commonly referred to as the technology powering cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. However, rental industry participants now realize that blockchain-based smart contracts will play a much larger role in the rental market, potentially transing property-related transactions including renting/leasing, management and rent/bill payments by means of utility tokens. This is the niche that PlaceToRent has identified and will seek to fill and dominate in the near future.4 1.3 PlaceToRent History Initially founded in 2006, PlaceToRent was established as a state-of-the-art Internet-based listing services ILS website with the goal of capturing the U.S. online rental market. The objective of PlaceToRent was to become an online portal for anyone seeking rental property or for property owners/managers wishing to list a vacancy. Due to global economic downturn during that time, the growing rates of foreclosures forced tens of thousands of er, often short-term, home owners back into rentals. In recognition of this growth trend, PlaceToRent was launched to capitalize on major opportunities within the rental market. PlaceToRent was an ILS with a unique pay-for-perance/reward-based business model that added significant value to both apartment owners and renters; with a built-in direct communication tool, it was designed to bring apartment seekers and apartment managers together. PlaceToRent emphasized a high-quality search experience for renters implementing Web 2.0 and map-based search technology that resulted in renters rapidly finding their ideal apartment home. In 2009 the website went offline to allow the company to pursue investment opportunities in real estate. Now, in recognition of disruptive blockchain technology and in response to greater demand for transparency and disintermediation, PlaceToRent is being launched as a decentralized peer-to-peer global rental plat to facilitate and streamline the rental process through blockchain technology by providing transparent and efficient transactions while reducing the need for a trusted third party. 5 2. Global Rental Market Overview The diversity of the underserved population creates opportunities for PlaceToRent to offer responsible, sustainable and innovative tools to a vibrant and stable demographic ignored by traditional rental process. 2.1 Residential Over the past decade, housing prices have appreciated significantly around the world, which has contributed to the fact that a large segment of the population can no longer qualify for a home purchase. In a climate of such housing market uncertainty, long-term renting has become an increasingly attractive option which has been growing at a rapid and robust pace. This is particularly true for households of younger adults where rising student debt is a contributing factor, in non-white households in the U.S., and in households with low income. Currently, more U.S. households are renting than at any point in the last 50 years - about 37. In Australia, about a third of all households are renter-occupied, in New Zealand –32. In Western European countries, the numbers in households headed by renters follow suit 24 in the UK, 25 in France, 35 in Denmark, 55 in Germany making it by far a clear leader in renting. In its recent housing research report, Harvard University stated that over a third of US housing starts are now intended for the rental market, which represents a larger share than in any year since 1974. According to Apartment List Rentonomics, in the recent decade the number of renter households increased by 19.2 percent from under 37 million to nearly 44 million, which means that currently, the number of new rental households is consistently increasing, leading to some of the strongest numbers in recent decades. The overall number of renter households will likely continue to grow as new millennial households enter the U.S. rental market. Similarly, the world rental market shows increasing rental demand in all major city markets as well, due to urbanization, increase in younger households, and economic migration. For example, approximately one in three Europeans rented their home in 2016, constituting about 31 of the population; this trend is estimated to continue for at least next 15 years. In addition to long-term rentals, short-term rentals have become an exceedingly popular alternative to hotels due to the affordable prices and unique cultural experiences, allowing travelers from all over the world the opportunity to select a place within their means, close to their interests and for a brief period of time. According to recent statistics, worldwide user penetration in vacation rentals market, comprised of private holiday homes and houses, short-term rental of private rooms and flats, is at 9.2 in 2018 and is expected to hit 11.9 by year 2022. 2.2 Commercial Office occupancy costs are rising all across the world prompting employees to work in more dense environment. As the technology sector is growing, a new generation of firms is emerging where traditional downtown office space is now competing with alternative ‘outlier’ cities in ways not possible during the industrial age. As a result, these secondary cities are moving up rental costs. Globally, office rents moved up up by 1.5 in 2017, which has been a trend in similar rental perance for the last several years. The increase was largely driven by more buyoant rental markets in the Americas where costs increased by 4.2 and in Asia Pacific where they rose by 3.4. 6 EMEA Europe, Middle East and Africa posted a fall of 1.3. The most expensive cities by far remain London and Hong Kong. Retail locations experience a similar trend in the rental costs. For a retailer, a location is essential for brand equity representing increased sales and higher profit margins, therefore rents are only likely to increase further as cities worldwide grow and attract increasing numbers of visitors each year. It is anticipated that retailers will likely continue to pay increasing prices for the best, most transited and visited retail locations. As e-commerce grows and continues to set records worldwide, demand for industrial space warehouse has piqued in the recent years. It is estimated that an e-commerce operator requires an estimated average of up to three times more space than traditional warehouse users due to a greater diversity in products handled and the need to have them immediately accessible. Global and domestic tenants are expanding their presence beyond a single mega-warehouse facility to multiple nodes, and are seeking smaller distribution centers closer to urban cores, which promotes a steady growth in demand and annual rental rates. Overall, the prime logistics sector is pering well in the Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific.With more than 90 of renters starting their hunt online and more than 60 of them looking on mobile, PlaceToRent’s transparent global rental plat is perfectly poised to fill the growing market demand and deliver a solution to make their search enjoyable, secure, and efficient. 2.3 The Problem In todays digitized and overconnected world, ination related to property rentals/leasing is vastly available in the of classified ads in print publications or online, e.g. multiple listing service MLS, websites such as Trulia, Zillow, B, Airbnb, etc., that compile property ination from various sources private owners, brokers, and agents databases and allow them to modify it. This fragmented listings data occasionally displays outdated or incomplete property ination, public record errors and other discrepancies which lead to ineffective property search by potential tenants. The current rental market both domestic and international is riddled with lots of intermediaries real estate brokers, agents who, without contributing any significant value, prop up rental prices by tacking on their commission fees, making it less attractive for the tenants. Intermediaries generally do not want tenants to meet with the landlords directly, hence encouraging low market transparency, and they often are incentivized to negotiate higher rates to increase their commission. Besides, they largely prefer short-term rentals as there is no opportunity for them to earn commission until the next tenant. The tenant in the current rental market is the least ined participant and wields the least economic power. Often, market participants do not have previous experiences, established credit/work history, or pre-existing relationships in their rental/leasing process, which may result in mistrust and completely factor them out of the rental market. Additionally, there is essentially no support for pre-lease due diligence, application process, contract cution, rent collection, dispute resolution, arbitration, and maintenance requests. The absence of real-time ination may affect decision-making capabilities for all parties involved and result in a lack of transparency, efficiency, and a higher incidence of inaccuracies which subsequently creates a greater potential for fraud. 7 2.4 The Solution As trust between participants within the rental market plays a significant role that ultimately determines the outcome of the transaction, rental process worldwide, as any trust-based marketplace, can greatly benefit from blockchain technology. Our proposed solution will enable the rental industry to address the aforementioned inefficiencies and inaccuracies, and ensure a seamless rental experience which will allow the entire rental process to be completed online efficiently, transparently, and securely. PlaceToRent has designed an integrated ecosystem of commercial and residential rental marketplace powered by blockchain decentralized technology, self-cuting smart contracts, and utility tokens with the aim to reduce the bureaucracy associated with renting a space, capitalize on major opportunities within the rental market, and provide users with new beneficial features. In particular, our plat will provide tools for such underserved segments of rental market participants as younger and low-income households with invisible credit and work history to stand out in low vacancy markets. Our unique powered by AI algorithms will allow the landlords to assess their creditworthiness outside conventional credit scoring procedures that alienate and penalize millions of people. The diversity of the underserved population creates opportunities for PlaceTo