the clock
Until the next round
The largest part, and the only one money could shorten. We do not do that: the interval would become a product, and whoever paid more would look sooner.
How it works
Will you give me a heads-up when it goes online?
OpenSein is your digital rental search agent with a clearly defined set of services. We bring public rental listings to your attention and help with your search and preparation. You register and respond yourself. Arrange viewings directly with the provider.
Last round
ago all sources were checkedFrom seeing to delivered
median over 24 hoursThe round
On this page
Everyone at once, and that is not a promise but a consequence
There is one round. At the end of it the messages go out, and there is no point in that chain where anyone can get past anyone else. Not because we think that is nice, but because there is nowhere a column that such a thing would fit in.
Set up your search, receive an alert with property information, prepare with our digital guidance and respond directly with the provider. Free accounts follow the available providers in their area. Search Pass adds all connected providers and the available housing preference filters.
Our digital guidance uses our own questions and answers, knowledge and daily practical experience. Where available, AI helps choose the relevant answer. Help with renting, Ready to apply and the Rent Check help you take the next step. Stuck? Email us for help with your rental search. Go to Help with renting · Email us.
What a round actually costs is measured on the status page, including the times it was slow. A number in an explanation is a number that will be wrong in six months.
The chain
From his site to your phone, in five steps
See who takes the next step at each stage. This is the route of the alert. Our digital guidance, preparation and help with your search continue alongside it.
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the landlord
The home goes online
On his own site, at his own pace, at a moment he picks himself. Often Tuesday morning, sometimes Sunday evening, and sometimes three at once.
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us
We read the page
Every round we fetch the listings from every connected provider. Gently, with a recognisable name in the request and an address where he can get in touch if it bothers him. All in all the service makes hundreds of thousands of requests per day, counted on the status page.
-
us
We compare with the previous round
Only the difference counts. New, open again, price changed, closed. We have already seen the rest and you do not need to get it twice.
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us
The alert goes out
In the same round, to everyone waiting for it. Not in order of who paid, not in order of who signed up, not in order of anything else. There is no column in the database that such a thing would fit in.
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you
You reply, with the landlord
We send you to his page and stop there. Replying, registering, inviting and allocating all happen there, and we do not come between you.
Speed counts in a lottery too. Many landlords only draw among the first to respond with a complete profile; respond late and you are not in the draw. Have your file ready at Ready to go, and one alert is all you need.
The time
Where the seconds go
“We are faster” is a claim you should be able to break down. Anyone who cannot break it down is selling a feeling.
10:04:00the home goes live at the provider
6 seconds
10:04:06your alert arrives
us
Reading and comparing
Seconds. There is little to gain here and it is not where the gain is anyway.
the channel
Delivery
Telegram is near instant, email depends on the receiving server, SMS on the operator. We prepare everything in the same round; what the channel does with it afterwards is outside our control.
The first block is the largest, and that is deliberate. Shortening the interval for paying users would work. It would also mean we were selling the interval rather than the service, and then the first line of this site would no longer be true.
Just to be clear
What an alert is not
- A registration. There is nothing to be on.
- A waiting list. Not even one you can get to the front of.
- Priority. Above all not. See the rest of this page.
- A reply on your behalf. That is not allowed, and it would not work either.
- A guarantee that you will get a home. If only.
What it is
- A message that something is there. With a link to the landlord's page.
- At the moment we saw it. Not sooner, because sooner does not exist.
- For everyone on the same second. See the drawing above.
Speed is a finite advantage. The better this works, the more people reply to the same home at the same moment. That is why we are also building the part that keeps working when everyone is equally fast: knowing whether a rent is allowed, knowing what a landlord may not ask, and having a file ready.
Frequently asked questions
The four asked most often, and the answer to the first is the reason this page exists.
Do paying users get the alert sooner?
No. The alert goes to every subscriber in the same round. A search pass gives you more providers and filters, not a head start. There is no setting anywhere that changes this.
Does OpenSein apply to places for me?
No. We bring listings to your attention and help you prepare. You register and send your response directly with the provider, who decides eligibility and allocation. You arrange viewings directly there too.
What does OpenSein cost?
Free: one to a few providers per area on one channel, in your chosen area and without a password. A search pass costs 12.99 for four weeks, 19.99 for eight weeks or 26.99 for twelve weeks. A search pass opens all connected providers, every filter and your alert in three places at once.
How fast is the alert?
The feeds are checked continuously and the alert goes out in the same round, to everyone at once. The time we actually measure between spotting a listing and delivering it is published on the status page.
While you wait
The only part that is in your own hands
The alert comes when it comes. What you do afterwards you can set up this evening: three ticks and you respond in three minutes instead of eleven.
Where do you want to be interrupted See how fast it is right now
All alert channels and extra features
All alerts
Where would you like to be interrupted?
No store. No update. A heads-up the moment it goes live. The same round as everyone. What is called “live” here really is on. Below that is what we are thinking about, and below that what will probably never arrive. At the bottom is what happens if you take us at our word.
On your home screen
liveOpenSein sits between your other apps. No store, no update. On your phone the only way to a notification from us. On a computer that notification is there without an icon too.
About 30 secondsNo app storeCosts nothing
Telegram
livePut your Telegram name into your account and press the button you get there. Two taps, no password, no welcome email with a man in a suit on a staircase.
In the browser
liveOn a computer this works right now. On your phone only once OpenSein is on the home screen. You switch it off in the same place, and then it really is gone.
Mail is not an alert. No homes go there. Your sign-in does, and your confirmation, and a message when something happens to your pass or to the service. One click in and one click out, because we are obviously not a gym membership.
What we are thinking about 3 alerts Thinking is not building. There is no date on any of this
Our integration is still lounging in a group chat, reading everything and refusing to answer. Bear with us. Soon we will spam that dream flat in among all your other group chats. Sadly an automated WhatsApp message in the Netherlands costs € 0.1377 (thank our friend Zuckerberg). Dearer. Not faster. Telegram already does this. On a computer the browser alert too. On your phone OpenSein on the home screen.
Nobody yet
Discord
thinkingThe server is still respawning. Our bot is in the lobby practising its merciless @everyone pings. Until we have filled this channel with questionable custom emoji: Discord is not faster and is often muted. GLHF! GG. EZ. :') Telegram already does this. On a computer the browser alert too. On your phone OpenSein on the home screen.
Nobody yet
SMS
thinkingcosts extraYes, we are reviving this prehistoric medium especially for you. Soon our listings will land in exactly the same place as your verification codes or your dentist's insistent reminders. Fun fact: this channel is now cheaper than WhatsApp (in the Netherlands). Still dearer and slower than what you already have. 9.2 cents for the same alert. Until it works: Telegram. On a computer the browser alert. On your phone OpenSein on the home screen.
Nobody yet
One day, maybe 4 alerts Here to show how many ways there are to be interrupted
Signal
maybeEncrypted, as soon as we have the key. Until then we whisper by email, with the curtains closed. Signal has no official route for bots, so it is either our own little server in a cupboard or it is nothing at all. Alerts by email are off. Telegram exists today. On a computer the browser alert. On your phone OpenSein on the home screen.
Nobody yet
Phone call
maybecosts extraWe get it: an unexpected phone call is the ultimate nightmare. We are building one anyway, a robot voice that rings you out of nowhere to whisper a street name and a rent into your ear, or possibly shout them. Perfect for anyone who throws their alarm clock across the room and treats subtle notifications as a personal insult. Slower than reading. Twenty-three cents. Telegram already does this. On a computer the browser alert. On your phone OpenSein on the home screen.
Nobody yet
RSS
maybeThe feed is still gently simmering. We have asked the local hipster developer to fix it, somewhere between his sourdough sessions. That you genuinely still run an RSS reader in this day and age, by the way, we find magnificent. Do you also quietly believe MySpace is coming back? You have to go and fetch it yourself. That is slower. Telegram brings it to you. On a computer the browser alert too. On your phone OpenSein on the home screen.
Nobody yet
Slack
maybeBecause the housing market was apparently not stressful enough, we are bringing it to the place where you also collect trauma from your manager. The integration is currently sitting in a synergy meeting. Soon that heart-attack-inducing knock will announce your new home, but for now: let's park this, circle back Monday and take it from there. Sound good? A workplace. Often muted. Not faster. Telegram already does this. On a computer the browser alert. On your phone OpenSein on the home screen.
Nobody yet
On request 7 alerts One alert for one new home. Delivery time subject to the weather Order now
Via the Community Warden
Comes by once, for one new home. Nobody has ever seen him, but he speaks about it with total conviction.
Order now
Message in a bottle
One home per bottle. Cork it and into the river. Delivery three provinces away is not an error, it is a current.
Order now
Carrier pigeon
One pigeon, one new home. The ring number follows by letter. That letter goes by pigeon. We see the problem too.
Order now
Water taxi
The skipper shouts one address across the Maas, as soon as a home comes free. In a strong wind he shouts louder, not clearer.
Order now
Smoke signal
One new home, one fire, easterly wind only, from the highest roof. In fog your home regrettably becomes a cloud.
Order now
Bat-Signal
One new home, once in the sky. Visible when it is cloudy. On a clear night we aim the lamp at the Euromast and pretend.
Order now
The red panda
Climbs up your facade and taps on the window as soon as a home comes free. Only works at dusk, because that is when he is awake.
Donate
They are all in the code. Whether any of them has ever delivered anything is a question we are still discussing internally. On the status page you can see exactly how fast every working channel is. These are not on it. Make of that what you will.
Providers and areas
Where we look
Neighbourhoods, towns and who we read
We started in Rotterdam. We now read providers across the Netherlands, and the area grows with every source we add. This is where it stands today, counted from what actually came past.