The post was originally published in Russian on Startup of the Day. Alexander kindly agreed to republish what we think is of great value to our readers.
It’s good to rent a house. You get money every month, no stock exchange volatility can influence the real estate owner, the tenant will pay anyway. It’s difficult to rent a house. First, there are stupid websites and tedious tours, and then you have to solve problems with leaky pipes. Property management companies solve this dilemma. For a small fee, they take on all the troubles, all the landlord does is count money.
The market of such property management companies is old and competitive in the USA, one needs to stand out to launch a startup here. Doorstead, the startup of the day stands out through hipster convenience; ‘we will do everything ourselves’, ‘no paperwork’, ‘24×7 support’, and everything else that the present-day businesses nurtured in consumers through the past 10 years.
Their main invention concerning making the landlord’s life easier is the guarantee of income. If the real estate owner agrees with the rent price set by the startup, the startup pays it even if they couldn’t find a tenant. ‘But usually we can,’ Doorstead insists. It has information on all other deals in town and smart algorithms. They nail the price with great precision: it’s expensive and doesn’t lead to any downtime. Unfortunately, there’s no opportunity to measure the adequacy of such a magical price to the market conditions. One may guess that if the startup suggests a 5-10% discount, then all the parties involved are happy indeed: it’s cheap for the tenant, it’s convenient for the landlord, and Doorstead fulfills the guarantee and doesn’t pay out from its own pocket.
The startup brought in USD 21.5M in its recent round.
#roundb #usa #realestate
Translation: Kostiantyn Tupikov
Kostiantyn is a freelance writer from Crimea but based in Lviv. He loves writing about IT and high tech because those topics are always upbeat and he’s an inherent optimist!
