Platform for all in the rental market
TODAY we continue our series where we catch up with the start-ups we have run stories on over the past 12 months. This week we look at a technology company looking to shake-up the real estate industry.
Nestler co-founders Jack Murphy and Jordan Hrovat have had a busy six months since we last profiled the duo.
They have relocated to Tamborine Mountain to save money, and are well into the beta-testing phase for their platform, which they hope to launch live to the market by the end of this month.
Nestler is a platform designed to reward good tenants and enable investors to find the best property managers.
It works by providing a forum for renters to collect periodic reviews from property managers.
They can then build a renting history to show managers when applying for their next property, and therefore improve their chances of being successful.
In the same way, investors can search for property managers, in their area, who have excellent service levels based on tenant reviews.
“We did the soft launch three weeks ago,” Mr Hrovat said. “This is a private version of the site where we are getting a few agencies on there for people to leave reviews, test the functionality before we go live, and get some traction.”
Nestler has just under 60 agencies on the platform currently, with profile photos, bios, and the ability to request reviews from renters.
There are 210 active users, including renters, on the site.
“The real goal is to get as many active profiles as we can so when we do go live, from a property investment perspective, you can search any suburb in southeast Queensland and there will be active property management profiles you can connect with,” Mr Hrovat said.
“The agencies love it because there is nothing out there for property managers to promote their work.
“They can go onto our platform and prove to consumers what good work they do.”
However, it is the consumer side where the pair feel they will make their mark.
“Basically we are pushing consumers to leave reviews without being requested, so it gives a more accurate depiction of the service level from agents and agencies as opposed to them cherry picking.”
A criticism of other ratings’ websites for the real estate industry, is they are skewed towards the agents, as all reviews are “invite only”.
“We are teaming up with cafes across the Gold Coast and Brisbane to give away free coffees as an incentive to review property managers,” Mr Hrovat said.
They are also looking at raising capital to take the start-up to the “next level”.
“In the early days, the first week before the soft launch, and the week after, we were going door to door with agencies and getting into details with the revenue model. The pricing seems more than fair for all of them from the lead generation side.”