Show HN: FOHO – Safer rentals for foreigners in Korea with escrow and AI
foreignerhome.comWe built [FOHO](https://foreignerhome.com), a housing platform that helps foreigners safely rent in Korea — without scams, translation issues, or ghosting landlords.
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### Why we built it: When one of us moved to the US, he got ghosted after sending a deposit for a room. In Korea, it’s worse — most listings are in Korean, deposits are high, and many landlords don’t want foreign tenants. Foreigners are *3x more likely to face fraud* in rental markets (- StatKorea 2025).
We interviewed 122 foreign residents in Korea. Two had lost their deposit. From Reddit posts to real-world landlord calls, we found the same pattern: *language barriers, legal uncertainty, no post-move-in help*.
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### What FOHO does: 1. *AI-matching* based on visa type, lifestyle, move-in dates, etc. 2. *Verified listings* and optional escrow rent protection. 3. *Auto-translated lease terms*, with cultural/legal context. 4. *Post-move-in care* (rent alerts, utility help, multilingual support). 5. *Landlord tools*: rent reminders, issue ticketing, higher yield without added hassle.
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### Traction: - 1,500+ monthly users, 1,000+ listings - 50%+ organic traffic (up from 9% in Jan) - Partnerships with local institutions (e.g. Korea University) - Preparing expansion to Boston
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### Tech stack: - Next.js + MongoDB - LangChain + Claude/GPT for translation & contract extraction - Multilingual chatbot built on RAG with custom glossary enforcement
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We’re a team of builders who’ve failed 5 times before, this time shipping daily and talking to every user. Would love feedback on:
- Matching logic (should we ask for lifestyle tags or structured inputs?) - Escrow design (would you trust it?) - Expansion: where would this work next?
Thanks HN
Great concept. Renting is so much better than hotel for long term stays but it's so overwhelming to navigate a new place