tech Archives – Real Estate Is Your Business

030 – Ryan Baxter of PASSNYC – PropTech, Education, and Going Big

August 16, 2018producer Leave a Comment

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PropTech, education reform in New York City, and motivating innovation…

Ryan Baxter, making NYC’s built environment more educational, Founder/Chairman of PASSNYC, Real Estate Liaison for MetaProp NYC, and Co-founder of PropTech Challenge, and former Vice President of REBNY, joins Tom Kutzman in the MouthMedia Network studio powered by Sennheiser. Presented by Prevu.

In this episode:

Real estate tech/prop tech
Baxter‘s unique path to prop tech, how he started in a trade association, Real Estate Board of NY
His undying love for NYC, looking for way to work around that, loved lobbying as a concept
The opportunity to make lots of impact
How the Association is older than NYC, serves more than 17,000 members across real estate professions
How Baxter started a regulatory effort on changing how ConEd treats power plants within buildings, taught him a lot about how NYC interacts with and treats tech
Aaron Block, a founder of PropNYC, knocked on door asking for help, saw them as distribution platform
How his work allows outcome beyond pursuit of wealth
Bing Co-Founder of Protech challenge, started last year grew to over 100 people from 47 companies,
Moving from personally-participated to virtually to impact many more people, to spur innovation, increase diversity, and create opportunities around the world
An augmented reality tool to overlay real time building information, helpful for engineers to know what a particular system’s flow of info in real time
A lack of agility and responsiveness in real estate is going changing
The need to understand that there are only five value propositions
A limitless opportunity for the human imagination
A $230 Trillion and growing opportunity worldwide
Developers should lean into PropTech
Why PropTech is years behind FinTech, yet broader than any other tech vertical we’ve seen
Is PropTech only one part of it, and a low hanging fruit, and limiting lens?
MetaProp
Starting with community building approach as a new fund
Why learning the language across the industry is crucial
Promoting better educational access and equity using community organizing and coalition tactics
Why the tip of PropTech spear should be public schools, and how they can design the future
Enabling schools to be specialized, motivating participation and resource provision, and working toward continual desegregation
The debate on why specialized schools have value
The Empire State Building, Jay-Z, and a great restaurant

024 – Chris Avery of Updater – America’s Favorite Moving App

June 7, 2018producer 1 Comment

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Why influential real estate companies offer an invite-only moving app from Updater to clients, delivering huge value during a stressful time…

Chris Avery, VP of Real Estate for Updater (Updater‘s moving app is the smartest and safest way to reserve a moving company, connect TV and internet, update accounts, forward mail, transfer utilities, etc.), joins Thomas Kutzman and guest host Marc Raco in the MouthMedia Network studios powered by Sennheiser. Presented by Prevu.

In this episode:

How Updater is solving a logistical problem
Relocation tech
Buyers, sellers, renters, branded experience through real estate partners, brands, multi family companies, realtors
Automate all moving and related tasks that are all part of a painful experience
Forwarding mail, subscriptions, and utilities
Fostering partnerships, teams of industry experts
Doing new things vs. creating new experiences
How Updater is paid for, and it doesn’t affect the consumer (free), and the broker or property management company pays for it, as an invite-only platform
How the app catalogues everything that moves and event the condition of property
Testing new ways to keep consumers engaged in platform even post move
Providing moving offers with discounts, helpful info etc., coupons
Giving the consumer a complete view of a market, not recommending specific purchases, created competition on the platform including ratings and scores
Last year nearly 20% of all household moves were processed though Updater
A lot of A/B testing and measuring consumer behavior
How Updater works to get brokers on board
Setting an expectation with the consumer that this is what they should expect of brokers, a kind of seal of approval
Incredible donuts that are an Updater favorite
How the process works for an agent, and how Updater only works with real estate brokerages that work with one of the tech partners they integrate with
Agents/brokers as independent contractors, brokerages don’t require people to use it, running behind the scenes so agent can just decline it
Once an agent signs up they don’t have to do anything
Updater is seamless for the agent, easy deployment, training, and engagement process
The ability to stay connected, keeping consumers engaged, bringing value, platform stays open for this reason
When Updater decided to IPO on ASX, as the smallest tech company to IPO there, and ultimately one of the most successful to do so
Building community with brokers, looking beyond being a mere mechanism to their success
Early moving memories, playing The Oregon Trail on early computers, and Seattle

004 – Harley Courts of Nooklyn – Beyond Brooklyn

December 13, 2017producer Leave a Comment

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Taking the friction out of rentals and roommates with tech…

Harley Courts, CEO at Nooklyn ( Brooklyn-based tech start-up fixing the experience of finding apartments and roommates) joins hosts Thomas Kutzman and Scott Pollack in the MouthMedia Network studios powered by Sennheiser. Presented by Prevu.

From skateboarding to real estate, data as a core asset, and why brokers are here to stay

Courts discusses the impact that the company’s atypical management and structure has contributed to its success, what he took from running a skateboard company, leadership, building a collaborative, mission driven team, how his skateboard company failing led to becoming the super of a building, then meeting numerous real estate brokers and realizing he can do that, starting Nooklyn as a blog, and having so much success that he had to hire agents. How when giving listing data away you have nothing, as it’s a core asset. How Nooklyn is giving renters control over process, plucking away at removing friction for renters, the majority of the country is still on Craigslist for rentals, and why the highly regulated nature of the real estate industry, and the fact that this is the largest purchase most people will make, means brokers will remain.

Taking on Manhattan, fixing the experience, and growing quickly

A spectrum of vegan offerings make for a dynamic snack. Court reveals how Nooklyn is growing beyond Brooklyn, and being on a mission to fix the experience for renters, and to take on a new market, Brooklyn and Manhattan. Why 200 listing number is a magic number to make progress, how Nooklyn offers an advantage for landlords, getting into shared housing on the platform, and the ability to facilitate transactions. Why with currently 250 agents Nooklyn is trying to hire 375 more agents in the next year. And how more than half the deals are split between at least two agents, who often contribute different skills sets and resources.

The skateboarding business, a police offer and a party animal, and eating vegan

Personal questions cover missing skateboarding, a broken elbow, a daughter (also) named Harley, learning the skateboarding industry in detail, seven layers of wood, difficulty in competing in the skateboarding business, a bad experience moving in with a police officer and a party animal who both stopped paying rent immediately, and how Court has personally gone through many challenges of rentals and roommates and what’s driven him to make the process better. Plus, a roommate platform built into the site, and favorite Vegan restaurants in Brooklyn.