A verified marketplace for month to month rentals

Motomo started from conviction rather than a brief. I run furnished rentals myself, so I knew where flexible renting breaks before I designed anything.

What I kept seeing

• Landlords distrust month to month. They assume flexible terms mean risky renters, so good renters get turned away.
• Renters pay to apply again and again. Each application adds another fee to prove the same facts. Motomo has no application fee.
• Listing sites verify no one. They collect leads, which leaves room for fraud on both sides.

A common worry from landlords is that month to month means transient renters. In practice, the people who choose flexible terms usually have a next step with a date on it: a job, a program, a repair or a move.

A four-sided marketplace

Each side wants something different from the same record. Renters want furnished housing they can trust. Landlords want more than a standard lease pays, and Airbnb hosts want similar income with less hassle. Agents and brokers want verified tenants to bring to clients. Agencies that place travel nurses and relocating staff want verified units in the shape their intake needs. The verified report and the verified listing are the shared objects every side reads from.

Rental fraud works because nobody checks. Motomo checks each fact where it lives instead of trusting what an applicant types.

Screening renters is regulated, so compliance shapes the design instead of being added later. The report is built to comply with the housing laws in New York City and Philadelphia, with protocols in place to prevent bias and discrimination.

• No renter scores. Landlords see each fact against their own criteria and make the call themselves.
• Nothing reveals a protected class. The report only shows the facts a landlord can lawfully use.
• Criminal background only after an offer, as its own step, in line with fair chance housing rules.
• Fair housing flags catch discriminatory language in listings and landlord criteria before they go live.
• Notices from a closed list of reasons, so every decline is explained in plain, lawful language.
• Every check is logged, so decisions can be reviewed later.

Each ring is built on the one inside it, so release one can launch without a huge marketplace to fill first.

Instead of polishing static mockups, I build immersive prototypes that behave like the real product. Renters, landlords and brokers try them through Userbrain and live sessions, and what they do decides the next change. Findings go straight into the PRD and backlog.

Claude is connected to my tool stack through MCP. Mobbin for patterns from real apps, Userbrain for recorded user tests, since it's more affordable than tools like Maze for an early product, and Figma when a design needs it. The PRD, backlog and style guide each live as a single Markdown file, so the whole product stays readable by people and AI alike.

The style guide is what keeps a solo build consistent. It's one Markdown file with 79 numbered rules, plus a live page that renders every component with the same class names the prototype uses. Fraunces for headings and numbers, Manrope for everything else, and a rationed palette where indigo only marks the primary action, the active state and data emphasis.

Motomo is still an active project. I'm designing and exploring to find product market fit, and we're getting research traction from user interviews and prototype testing. The next step is a pilot with real renters and landlords to test it in the market.