You and three friends are moving to Bangalore together. The plan is clear. The execution is chaos. Within a week the group chat has 40 NoBroker screenshots, 12 99acres links, a few Google Maps shares of "nice area", and three people who've already visited flats that two others didn't know about. Nobody has a shared shortlist. Everyone is tired.

This is the home search problem — and SquadPicks has a Home/Rental pick type built specifically for it.

The problem with flat-hunting in a group chat

Searching for a rental alone is stressful enough. With roommates, it's a coordination nightmare. The core problem is that group chats are designed for conversation — not for structured decision-making on a list of options. Every link shared starts a new thread. There's no way to compare. No way to vote. No memory of who said what about which flat.

By the time you're ready to shortlist, you've lost track of half the listings, can't remember which one had the parking issue, and two people have already mentally moved on to a different neighbourhood.

How SquadPicks changes this

When someone adds a flat link to SquadPicks, it becomes a persistent pick card in the squad's shared list — not a message that scrolls away. Everyone can vote:

• Want to visit — I like this one, let's schedule a viewing
• Visited — I've already seen it (mark it as done)
• Not for me — this doesn't work for me

When nobody skips a listing — that's the one worth visiting together. When the majority says "Not for me" — it gets deprioritised without an awkward "I don't like this one" conversation.

Supported listing platforms

SquadPicks automatically detects the Home/Rental type from links on:

• India: 99acres, NoBroker, MagicBricks, Housing.com, CommonFloor, SquareYards, Makaan
• Global: Zillow, Realtor.com, Rightmove (UK), Zumper, PadMapper, Kijiji, Apartments.com

For anything else — a direct developer link, a Sulekha listing, a housing society's own website — paste the URL and set the type to 🏠 Home/Rental manually using the type picker.

A real example: four friends moving to Bangalore

Vikram, Arun, Sneha, and Priya were all joining different Bangalore companies in the same month. None of them wanted to live alone. They created a SquadPicks group before their job joining dates and started adding flats from the moment they began searching.

Over two weeks, the group collected 22 listings. Using the vote system, they eliminated 14 in the first pass — listings where at least two people said "Not for me" due to budget, location, or furnishing. That left 8 with broad "Want to visit" consensus. They scheduled group viewings on two Saturdays and booked a flat on the second Saturday.

"The key thing was that we could see what everyone thought about each flat without a conversation. If three out of four people had already voted 'Not for me', there was no point discussing it. We spent our energy on the ones that actually had group buy-in." — Vikram, Bangalore

Using it with the Telegram bot

If your flat-hunting group is already on Telegram, the SquadPicks bot makes this even easier. Add @SquadPicksBot to the group and paste any listing URL directly in the chat. The bot creates a vote card instantly. Your roommates vote with a single tap. No one has to switch apps or sign up for anything to vote — they just tap in Telegram.

Beyond flats: other home search use cases

PG and hostel hunting

Students and young professionals searching for PGs in a new city with a group of friends can use the same workflow. Drop NoBroker PG or Sulekha hostel links, vote on the ones worth visiting, and coordinate viewings together.

Family buying a house

Families making a significant real-estate decision — a first home purchase, a retirement property — can add Magicbricks or 99acres links and let all family members vote on the shortlist. Children abroad, parents in a different city, extended family with opinions: everyone can see the options and vote from wherever they are.

Vacation rental for a group trip

Planning a holiday home for a group? Add Airbnb, Booking.com, or MakeMyTrip villa links. Your whole squad votes on vibe, location, and price. The Airbnb experience link even auto-detects as a place pick — use the type picker to switch it to 🏠 Home if you prefer.

Getting started

Create a SquadPicks group for your flat search at squadpicks.io — or add @SquadPicksBot to your existing Telegram roommate group. Start pasting listing links. Let your squad vote. Find a place without the chaos.