IowaGeeks - Accountable Landlord & Tenant services bureau

Benefits & Services:

All email to and from IowaGeeks members is independantly archived, which minimizes "he said she said" scenarios.
Either party (landlord or tenant), at any time, can request a review of all or some emails that have been exchanged.
Reviews are normally done by older members (over age 40), who have demonstrated good judgement.
Most reviews are done by a team of from two to five members.
The identities of the two parties are usually anonymized, except in cases of potential danger.
In extreme cases, reviewers can order the immediate termination of a tenancy, if they deem it to be dangerous or unhealthy to either direct participant or to any third parties.
Either party can refuse, however they risk the immediate termination of their membership in IowaGeeks.
All emails from/to unproven landlords, are automatically scanned for keywords that may indicate problems. If any individual email scores high enough, or a number of emails average above a certain threshold, a case worker will manually review all potentially relevant emails.
Both parties are required to rate the other party within one month of the beginning of the rental, after the first year, and within one month of the end of the rental.
Extensions can be provided, at the request of either.
If either party has a proven history, their rating can be simplified to as little as one word.
Both Tenants and Landlords in good standing can request a summary "profile" page, which they can send to prospective landlords/tenants.
We provide an optional damage deposit escrow service, and encourage both tenants and landlords to use it.
All move in and move out pictures & videos can be sent directly to us for storage.
In some areas, we have volunteer "Fair Witnesses" who can perform move in and move out inspections.
For move outs, they can optionally take possession of all keys.
Some members are certified to evaluate (both subjectively and with proprietary sound measuring equipment) the noise/quiet profile of housing.
All housing which passes this rigorous testing immediately earns the landlord the option to list the rental unit(s) in our private housing ads. We still have a very long waitlist of high quality tenants!
Housing which is sufficiently noisy, is required to be listed in our (currently) private housing to avoid database.
Some members are certified to evaluate the smoke free and chemical/fragrance status of housing.
Currently this is somewhat subjective, however we have yet to have a credible complaint. We do have an appeal/review process, and our rules do require that we err on the side of caution.