# Knocknock — Full Content (EN)

> Knocknock is a request-first real-estate marketplace. Clients post one request describing what they want; verified agents reply with concrete matching offers. Agents cannot initiate first contact — they can only respond to a request you've posted. Available in Brazil (Q2 2026 launch), Portugal, UAE, Singapore, Thailand.

This file contains the complete editorial content (FAQ + blog articles) of knocknock.me in English, concatenated for LLM ingestion. For a structured index see /llms.txt.

Locales available: en, pt-br, pt-pt, de, fr, it, es, ru — each at /<locale>/llms-full.txt. Source URL of each section is shown in parentheses after its heading.

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# Frequently asked questions (https://knocknock.me/en)

## Do I need to register to post a request?

No. Create the request right away — registration is only needed when you decide to chat with an agent.

## Will agents see my phone number?

Not until you decide to connect. Your contact details stay private — you're the one who chooses when to share them.

## What if no offer fits?

Nothing lost. The request is free. If offers don't match your criteria, you don't see them. There's no spam to scroll through.

## How many agents will see my request?

Only the ones working in your area and price range. Requests don't get blasted out to everyone — that's how we keep the inbox useful.

## Can agents reach out to me on their own?

No. Agents can only respond to a request you've posted — they cannot initiate first contact. You decide when, with whom, and what to talk about.

---

# Brazil rental contracts: a guide for international clients (2026) (https://knocknock.me/en/blog/contrato-de-aluguel)

> Everything you need to understand before signing a Brazilian rental contract — guarantees (caução, fiador, seguro fiança), IGPM-based rent adjustment, early termination fees, and tenant rights under the Lei do Inquilinato. Updated for 2026.

Published: 2026-05-03 · Reading time: ~6 min · Source: https://knocknock.me/en/blog/contrato-de-aluguel · Raw markdown: https://knocknock.me/en/blog/contrato-de-aluguel/raw

Signing a rental contract in Brazil is more involved than in most countries. The **[Lei do Inquilinato (Law 8,245/91)](https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/leis/l8245.htm)** governs urban residential leases, and every clause that ends up in your contract — guarantee, adjustment index, termination fee, inspection — has real legal weight when something goes wrong. This guide walks you through what you need to know before you sign, especially if you're moving to Brazil from abroad.

> Updated for 2026 with current IGPM and IPCA references. If you only want the summary, jump to the [FAQ at the end](#frequently-asked-questions).

## What the Brazilian rental contract is

The lease contract formalises the relationship between the **locador** (landlord) and the **locatário** (tenant). Without a written contract, any dispute comes down to one person's word against the other. With it, every clause is admissible legal evidence.

The Lei do Inquilinato regulates residential urban leases. Commercial leases and short-term rentals (less than 90 days) follow separate rules.

### Mandatory clauses

A well-drafted contract includes, at minimum:

- **Full identification** of both parties (name, CPF / national ID, address, marital status)
- **Property address and description** (parking, common areas, key features)
- **Lease term** (typically 30 months for residential)
- **Monthly rent** and **payment method** (due date, bank account or platform)
- **Adjustment index** (IGPM, IPCA, or alternative)
- **Guarantee** (security deposit, guarantor, surety insurance, or capitalisation bond)
- **Termination penalty** proportional to the time remaining
- **Move-in inspection** (attached or referenced)
- **Allocation of taxes** (IPTU, condominium fees, utilities)

## The four guarantee options

Brazilian law allows **only one guarantee per contract** — picking the wrong one is expensive. Here is the comparison:

| Guarantee | Cost to tenant | Friction | When it makes sense |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Caução** (cash deposit) | Up to 3 months of rent, kept in a savings account | Low | You have liquidity and want to avoid a guarantor |
| **Fiador** (personal guarantor) | None directly, but requires a third party with debt-free property | High (guarantor underwriting) | You know someone willing |
| **Seguro fiança** (rental insurance) | 10–15% of annual rent | Medium (credit check) | No guarantor and no liquidity |
| **Título de capitalização** (capitalisation bond) | Roughly 8–12 months of rent, refundable at end | Low | You'd rather get the money back later |

For international clients without a Brazilian guarantor, **seguro fiança** is the most common path — but it carries the highest annual cost. Some agents accept creative combinations (smaller deposit + insurance), so describing your full situation up front saves time.

### Caução — mind the legal cap

Cash deposits **cannot exceed three months of rent** (article 38, § 2 of the Lei). The deposit must sit in a **savings account** and be returned with interest at the end of the lease. A landlord who wrongfully retains the deposit is liable for unjust enrichment.

## Rent adjustment under IGPM, IPCA, and alternatives

The contract specifies which **inflation index** will be applied once a year on the contract anniversary. The most common options:

- **[IGPM](https://portalibre.fgv.br/igp)** (General Market Price Index, FGV) — historically the dominant rental index, but volatile in recent years
- **[IPCA](https://www.ibge.gov.br/explica/inflacao.php)** (Broad Consumer Price Index, IBGE) — more stable, gaining ground
- **INPC** (National Consumer Price Index, IBGE) — low-volatility alternative

Brazilian law does not require any specific index — it is freely negotiable. Through 2025 and 2026, with IGPM swinging sharply, many new contracts have shifted to IPCA. Negotiate the index **at signing** to avoid years of uncontrolled rent jumps.

> Index updates are published monthly: IGPM by FGV and IPCA by IBGE. Adjustment is applied **once a year** on the contract anniversary.

## Early termination penalty

If the tenant leaves before the contract end, the standard formula is:

```
penalty = (3 months of rent) × (months remaining ÷ total months)
```

Example: 30-month contract, base penalty of 3 months. Leaving in month 18 means 12 months remaining → penalty = 3 × (12/30) = 1.2 months of rent.

**Important exception:** if the tenant is transferred by their employer to another city, they can terminate **without penalty** with 30 days' notice and proof of the transfer (article 4, sole paragraph).

## Lesser-known tenant rights

The Lei do Inquilinato protects tenants in several ways that rarely come up at signing:

- **Right of first refusal:** if the landlord decides to sell, they must offer the property to you first, on the same terms offered to third parties (article 27).
- **Reimbursement for necessary and useful improvements:** repairs that preserve or add value to the property generate a right to reimbursement or retention (article 35), unless explicitly waived in the contract.
- **30-day grace period** after eviction notice in indefinite-term contracts.
- **Move-in inspection is binding:** the condition recorded in the inspection is what gets compared at move-out. Without one, the property is presumed to have been in good condition — *against* the landlord.

## Move-in inspection — the most underrated document

The inspection determines, in the end, **how much of your deposit you get back** and **what surety insurance will cover**. Take your time:

1. Detailed photos of **every room, every wall, every counter**, with date metadata
2. A short walk-through video showing the general condition
3. A written list of pre-existing defects (cracks, stains, broken fixtures)
4. Test taps, sockets, light bulbs, toilet flushes
5. Initial readings for water, electricity, and gas

Attach to the contract. Without this, every mark at move-out becomes your responsibility.

## Documents you'll need

For the **tenant**, typically:

- Passport or RNE (foreign resident ID), CPF
- Proof of income for the last 3 months (monthly income ≥ 3× the rent)
- Proof of current address
- Latest income tax declaration (or equivalent from your country)
- If using a guarantor: guarantor's documents + updated property registration

For the **landlord**:

- Updated property registration (matrícula)
- IPTU (property tax) clearance
- Personal documents

## Frequently asked questions

### Can I rent without a fiador?

Yes. **Caução**, **seguro fiança**, and **título de capitalização** are all legal alternatives. Each has a cost — choose based on your financial reality, not the property manager's default.

### Does the contract need to be registered?

**Not for validity between the parties.** But registration at the Real Estate Registry Office (Cartório de Registro de Imóveis) creates legal effect against third parties — protecting you if the landlord sells, for example. It costs little and is worth it for longer leases.

### Can I renegotiate the adjustment index?

Yes, at any time, by mutual written agreement. Annual adjustment is the landlord's right, but nothing prevents a friendly arrangement — especially when the contractual index is far above real inflation or local market.

### Who pays IPTU, condominium fees, and utilities?

By default, the **tenant pays ordinary expenses** (condominium fees, utilities, IPTU if specified in the contract). **Extraordinary expenses** (structural repairs, reserve funds) belong to the landlord. The split must be explicit in the contract.

### Can I be evicted for one late payment?

A single late payment allows the landlord to start an **eviction lawsuit for non-payment**, but the tenant has **15 days to cure the default** (pay everything plus charges) and keep the contract (article 62). Recurring lateness weakens this defence.

---

## How Knocknock changes this conversation

Today, figuring out which guarantee works for you, comparing adjustment indices, and finding an agent who understands your situation means **talking to 5–10 brokers**, repeating the same brief to each one.

On Knocknock, you post **one request** — budget, area, requirements, guarantee situation — and verified agents reply with properties and terms that match. You don't chase. They come to you.

[**Post a request — free**](https://app.knocknock.me) — first offers within hours.

---

# Why we built Knocknock request-first (https://knocknock.me/en/blog/why-request-first)

> Most real-estate platforms make you chase listings. We flipped it: you describe what you want, and verified agents come to you. Here's the why.

Published: 2026-04-28 · Reading time: ~6 min · Source: https://knocknock.me/en/blog/why-request-first · Raw markdown: https://knocknock.me/en/blog/why-request-first/raw

Real-estate marketplaces have one default shape: a wall of listings, and you scroll. Filter, save, message — but the work is yours. The agent is the gatekeeper of the listing, and you spend your evenings re-explaining yourself.

We thought the geometry was wrong.

## The reversal

In Knocknock, the **client posts a request** — budget, neighborhood, must-haves. Verified agents see the request and reply with concrete options that fit. You do not browse. You do not chase. The signal goes one way: from your brief to the matching offers.

Three constraints make it work:

- Agents can **only respond** to a request. They cannot DM you first.
- Each agent's reply must reference a real, available listing.
- Your contacts stay private until you choose to chat.

## The problem with listings portals

Anyone who has hunted for an apartment on Zillow, Rightmove, Domain, or Bayut knows the ritual: open four tabs, filter by neighborhood and price, save thirty listings, message a dozen agents. The next day you get seven phone calls — always at the wrong moment — from people who did not read what you wrote.

Three things have gotten worse over the last five years:

**1. Stale listings.** Verified-listing services like QuintoAndar in Brazil or Idealista in Spain solved part of this for their own inventory, but step outside their funnel and half the "available" properties on generic portals were leased weeks ago. You find out on the call.

**2. WhatsApp (or text) as the default channel.** Almost every agent wants to continue the conversation on whatever messaging app you both use. Result: eight parallel threads, each starting from zero. "Hi, is this Maria?" "Hi, I messaged you yesterday about the Marina apartment." "Which apartment?" You spend more time managing the inbox than seeing properties.

**3. Cold calls and pushy DMs.** You message a listing at 10pm. At 8:30am the next morning an agent rings. You are in the shower. They call again at 9:15. And at 11. That is the default operating mode — and portal ranking algorithms reward whoever responds fastest, not whoever responds best.

Knocknock does not compete with the search tab on Zillow or Rightmove. We compete with the part where you become hostage to your inbox. The brief is written once, and whoever replies replied because they read it — because you cannot reply without reading.

## How a request works in practice

The first time you use Knocknock it takes about four minutes. The flow, in order:

1. **You describe the request.** Neighborhood (you can pick several), price range, number of bedrooms, type (rent or buy), what is non-negotiable (balcony, parking, pets allowed) and what is "would be nice" (view, high floor, furnished). No signup needed to write it. No photos to upload — only your brief.

2. **We publish the request to verified agents** who work in your neighborhood and your price band. Not all agents — only the ones that make sense. In a typical metro area, that is usually between 20 and 60 active agents per price band per neighborhood.

3. **Agents reply with concrete options.** Every reply is tied to a real listing available now — with approximate address, price, photos, and how it scores against each of your requirements. You see who is replying, how long the agent has been in the market, and their rating.

4. **You decide what to open.** Each offer has a "view details" and a "hide" button. There will be no phone call. There will be no WhatsApp ping. If an offer interests you, you open the chat — and only then can the agent message you back. Before that, all they can do is send options.

5. **You arrange the viewing inside the platform.** Address, date, time — all in the chat. You do not share your number until you want to.

In our soft-launch testing in Brazil, the average number of replies per request landed between **6 and 12 offers per request** — depending on how specific the filter was. The first offer typically arrived within hours. _These are preliminary numbers from soft-launch — we will update them as the product runs at scale._

## Why verified agents respond

The natural question is: why would an agent reply to a request on Knocknock when they can just sit on their listing on Zillow and wait for the phone to ring?

Three reasons:

**Economic incentive.** A passive listing on a portal competes with 200 other listings in the same price band. The agent pays the subscription, gets cold leads, spends time on the phone qualifying. A request on Knocknock arrives already qualified by the client — neighborhood, budget, requirements, timeline. For the agent it is the difference between firing into the dark and firing at a target someone else already drew.

**License verification.** Every agent on Knocknock passes license-board verification — CRECI in Brazil, AMI in Portugal, state license in the US, and the equivalent in other markets. No shadow brokers, no informal middlemen, no "friend who knows an owner." For you that means if something goes wrong, there is a registration number and a regulatory body to escalate to.

**Visible reputation.** Every interaction inside Knocknock feeds the agent's public profile: how many offers they sent that the client opened, how many became viewings, how many became contracts. It is a track record built publicly — unlike WhatsApp threads that vanish at the end of the month.

Is it more work for the agent? Yes. Is it less friction for you? A lot less. We are betting that trade-off pays off for both sides — and the agent side (Knocknock.pro) has been live since 2024 with 1,500+ active brokers, so the bet has data behind it.

## What to expect in the first 48 hours

Most requests in our launch markets receive a first offer within hours. But this varies by neighborhood and budget:

- **High-demand neighborhoods** (downtown cores, popular expat areas, hipster districts): first offer typically within 1–4 hours. 48 hours total: between 8 and 20 offers.
- **High-inventory neighborhoods with steady demand** (consolidated residential areas, secondary cities): first offer within 4–12 hours. 48 hours: between 4 and 10 offers.
- **Extreme price bands** (well below or well above the local median): the window widens. First offer might take 12–24 hours.
- **Very specific requests** (pets + 3 parking spots + sea view + furnished): fewer offers, more qualified. It is an intentional trade-off.

_During soft-launch in May 2026, the average time-to-first-offer was [X] hours and the average count of offers in 48 hours was [Y]. We'll publish the stabilized average once we have enough volume across all bands._

What is **not** normal: zero offers in 48 hours. If that happens, three common causes: filter is too specific (loosen one criterion), price band is outside the local market (move it up or down), or the neighborhood has few active agents (rare in capitals). The app flags this and suggests adjustments.

## What we are not

We are not a portal. We do not list properties. We do not sell ad slots. We do not hide the agent's identity — you see who is replying, and you choose whom to talk to.

## When NOT to use Knocknock

Honest about limits: Knocknock is not the best tool for every scenario.

- **If you have already found the listing you want** on another portal, talk to that agent directly. Knocknock helps when you are still researching, not when you have decided.
- **If you need to close in under 24 hours** (emergency move, sudden job transfer), traditional portals can be faster in the very short term — more visible inventory immediately.
- **If your niche is hyper-specific** (a heritage-listed property in a particular conservation area, a smallholding in a specific rural municipality), the agent pool on Knocknock may be smaller than a large generalist portal.
- **If you are just window-shopping** with no real intent to move in the next 3–6 months, a portal with no signup serves better — Knocknock works best with real intent because agents invest time in replies.

For everything else — serious search to rent or buy, a first apartment, a city move, an expat arriving — the inversion works.

## Where we are

Launching in Brazil first (Q2 2026), then expanding. The agent side has been live as **Knocknock.pro** since 2024 — 1,500+ agents already use it as their day-to-day CRM. The client side is the missing half.

If you want to be in the first wave, [post your first request](https://app.knocknock.me).