Online apartment leasing offered on website

Tuesday, April 18, 2000 | 11:21 a.m.

Viva.com, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based online leasing center, has begun offering Las Vegas apartment rentals over the Internet.

The company launched a beta version of its site last month for six U.S. cities and will add 16 more in coming weeks.

The site allows renters to request housing needs and to receive offers from properties in their desired markets that match those needs via the Internet. Some units are enhanced with digital images and a narrative sales pitch.

Viva.com has an inventory of 335,000 rental units, including 45,000 in 150 properties in Las Vegas. Las Vegas apartment owners that are contracted with Viva.com include Camden Property Trust, Equity Residential Properties, AIMCO and Stout Management Co.

Since the website debuted, more than 1,000 lease inquiries have been made on the system, 70 in Las Vegas, said Allan Hunter, co-founder and president of the company.

Hunter and co-founder Scott Ingraham, chairman and chief executive officer, were executives of Oasis Residential Inc., a Henderson-based publicly traded company that sold its 48 Las Vegas apartment complexes to Camden for $834 in December 1997.