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Why Real Estate Tech Is So Attractive For Founders

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Re: Why Real Estate Tech Is So Attractive For Founders

#41

Post by Domenic_S »

mrfusion wrote: post #29

Ok, here's a real estate start up idea I just had. (BTW I'd actually be interested in working on this, so contact me if you're interested in joining forces.) Use the Oculus Rift to let potential buyers and renters take a virtual tour of properties. Think how much time is currently wasted driving between properties. And many people probably end up with non-optimal purchases since they can only reasonably visit Is ther…

Part of the "charm" of real estate is deceptive photos. Everyone knows they're deceptive and a halfway decent photographer with a wide-angle lens can make a 1-bd hovel look like a mansion.

When have you heard someone say "The place was so much better than the photos!"? Not often. That's a problem for a 3D experience in a few ways:

1) if the 3D experience is pitched as "more true to life", then no buyers will think that the house could be better than the experience presents.

2) if the 3D experience doesn't capture the greatness of a property, the buyer/viewer would be underwhelmed vs. seeing the place in person. Properties with spectacular views for example would take a hit because that emotional experience of "I could wake up to this every day" is replaced with a 1-dimentional texture.

3) If the 3D experience is too good, buyers will be disappointed when seeing the property in real life.

IMO sales like this -- houses, cars -- are a visceral experience that require in-person shopping. That's why internet car sales haven't really taken off. You really have to take the house for a "test drive", see how you think your furniture would fit, imagine your kids playing in the yard, all that stuff.

Now if you were making some kind of holodeck... ;)

Re: Why Real Estate Tech Is So Attractive For Founders

#42

Post by mrfusion »

jamiequint wrote: post #33
mrfusion wrote: post #29

Ok, here's a real estate start up idea I just had. (BTW I'd actually be interested in working on this, so contact me if you're interested in joining forces.) Use the Oculus Rift to let potential buyers and renters take a virtual tour of properties. Think how much time is currently wasted driving between properties. And many people probably end up with non-optimal purchases since they can only reasonably visit Is ther…

Matterport (YC Company) - http://matterport.com/

Thanks. I wonder how that one compares to this one which will cost an order of magnitude less?

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/occipital/structure-sens...

Re: Why Real Estate Tech Is So Attractive For Founders

#43

Post by triangleman »

mtmail wrote: post #16

Apartment discovery is already well served. There are a dozen new startups that apply innovative methods to search. http://www.apartmentlist.com/ , https://livelovely.com/ , http://42floors.com/ come to mind. Software for estate agents needs to be become more modern though. http://nestio.com/ just rebranded themselves to do that for example. There's a German property portal (number two in the market) which released a…

You know what's great? The Craigslist map search for housing.

Re: Why Real Estate Tech Is So Attractive For Founders

#44

Post by graham1776 »

beat wrote: post #8

This is a classic case of where the kinds of technical founders that cruise HN shouldn't be trying to invent their own thing, but rather find a boring "business" subject matter expert as a co-founder. There are lots and lots of these things, where businesspeople see a gap that can be solved by tech but don't have the skills to do it. My advice to all the kids out of college who want to be startup founders - don't try…

So the funny thing for me is I'm the one who works in commercial real estate, know the problems deeply, and have little technical experience other than reading HN. So how do you reverse cruise HN to find the technical cofounder to build out the solutions to our RE problems?

I literally sit within a company run by excel spreadsheets, talk on a phone with brokers, manage market information via printed pdfs of comps, mark up site plans by hand and scan them, and conduct all reporting via email and word docs to multi-billion dollar pension funds.

At nearly every step of the way I see opportunities without the technical expertise to execute.

Re: Why Real Estate Tech Is So Attractive For Founders

#45

Post by jwoah12 »

hkmurakami wrote: post #31
jwoah12 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, having moved twice so far in the crazy, corrupt rental market of Manhattan, I've been dying for someone to solve this problem. For those who aren't familiar with renting an apartment in NYC, the turnover is so fast and vacancy so low, that you can only start looking for apartments the month before you want to move. In addition, the landscape is filled with predatory brokers that add no value to the proces…

The situation obviously sucks for tenants, but do the owners have any incentive to invite change, given the current supply demand situation and the fact that they are able to pass on 100% of the cost to tenants?

Not now honestly, but if the system is designed to be as easy or easier than retaining a human broker, market forces should take over. I would be willing to pay a higher rent in exchange for not having to pay several thousand dollars up front in a broker fee. This becomes a win-win for both sides of the market.

Re: Why Real Estate Tech Is So Attractive For Founders

#46

Post by gaustin »

graham1776 wrote: post #44
beat wrote: post #8

This is a classic case of where the kinds of technical founders that cruise HN shouldn't be trying to invent their own thing, but rather find a boring "business" subject matter expert as a co-founder. There are lots and lots of these things, where businesspeople see a gap that can be solved by tech but don't have the skills to do it. My advice to all the kids out of college who want to be startup founders - don't try…

So the funny thing for me is I'm the one who works in commercial real estate, know the problems deeply, and have little technical experience other than reading HN. So how do you reverse cruise HN to find the technical cofounder to build out the solutions to our RE problems? I literally sit within a company run by excel spreadsheets, talk on a phone with brokers, manage market information via printed pdfs of comps, ma…

I'd suggest adding contact info to your profile and talking about your problems here. Hopefully you'll pique some interest and have some email waiting later.

Re: Why Real Estate Tech Is So Attractive For Founders

#47

Post by cpwright »

mrfusion wrote: post #29

Ok, here's a real estate start up idea I just had. (BTW I'd actually be interested in working on this, so contact me if you're interested in joining forces.) Use the Oculus Rift to let potential buyers and renters take a virtual tour of properties. Think how much time is currently wasted driving between properties. And many people probably end up with non-optimal purchases since they can only reasonably visit Is ther…

If you're rental hunting, you might look at 10 rentals, because you probably have a fixed amount of time (the end of your current lease). If you're hunting to buy, you can take pretty much all the time in the world until you find the right thing. And it makes a lot more sense to take more time. The two bedroom apartment I had before buying a house was $2000/month, if you assume a 1 year lease, that is a $24,000 commitment. A house in the same area would be at least $500,000, you're also on the hook for taxes every year after that (which can easily be $12,000 or more on that $500,000 house).

Given the much larger commitment in terms of money and the duration, it makes sense to take longer.

The biggest mistake I think that we made while house hunting is not leaving crappy houses fast enough. Why spend 15-20 minutes looking at the rest of the house, when 2-3 is enough to tell it isn't going to be something we'll buy. We weren't interested in a fixer-upper, and from the pictures posted you can't always tell. Any Oculus Rift tour is going to have the same problems as selective picture taking.

Re: Why Real Estate Tech Is So Attractive For Founders

#48

Post by markkanof »

simoncion wrote: post #23
jimnatel wrote: post #12

I would add that with tablets and smart phones, it is now possible to bring your apps on the fields. A few year ago, it was very difficult to bring your computer on a construction site. Some startups (for instance Aproplan http://www.aproplan.com ) are already jumping on these new possibilities.

> A few year ago, it was very difficult to bring your computer on a construction site. Pardon? Rugged computers (like business Thinkpads and Toughbooks) have existed for far more than a decade. I would more readily take such a thing to a construction site than an iDevice or an Android tablet.

Sure they have, but I imagine what the parent was referring to is the portability aspect of tablets and smart phones. Laptops are certainly easy enough to carry around, but to use them they really need to be put down somewhere. A construction site may not necessarily have an appropriate surface in an area that is convenient. A tablet is more like a clipboard that you can use as you move around the site.

Re: Why Real Estate Tech Is So Attractive For Founders

#49

Post by pavel_lishin »

jwoah12 wrote: post #13
mrfusion wrote: post #2

I'd be interested in hearing concrete ideas we can do today. Apartment search just doesn't strike me as a viable new startup. Am I wrong?

Personally, having moved twice so far in the crazy, corrupt rental market of Manhattan, I've been dying for someone to solve this problem. For those who aren't familiar with renting an apartment in NYC, the turnover is so fast and vacancy so low, that you can only start looking for apartments the month before you want to move. In addition, the landscape is filled with predatory brokers that add no value to the proces…

For what it's worth, http://rent-direct.com/ lists no-fee apartments, and will pay the broker fee if there is one for a listing.

(I don't work for them; we signed up, but ended up finding a great place through someone else.)

Re: Why Real Estate Tech Is So Attractive For Founders

#50

Post by lancewiggs »

At 200Square.co.nz we are using web tools and an enlightened approach to sales to improve the real estate sales process. In short we sell properties, and with much lower costs than all of the old school real estate agencies.

Our key founder combines real estate and Valley backgrounds - as someone mentioned it's really important that we understand the industry we are trying to disrupt.

We have a suite of tools, focus on effective promotion techniques rather than self promoting and wildly expensive newspaper and industry glossies, and sell far more houses per agent than the norm.

We put together a site (watchmystreet.co.nz) that lets people flip the buying search process, but struggle for now accessing what should be openly available data from regional authorities.

Happy to discuss help with expansion or entry into other markets.

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