Nestio Listings: solving inaccuracies in rental listings
Real estate listing accuracy has long been a sticking point for both consumers and real estate practitioners, especially rental listings, a monumental problem that Nestio has set out to tackle. The bookmarking site not only captures listing information but compares listings from various sites side by side, so rather than competing with search portals, they enhance the experience by having made it collaborative and intuitive since 2011.
Although they set out to simply streamline rental search, they continued to hear listing data inaccuracy as the top complaint from consumers, so they studied how rental listings were managed prior to ever being seen by consumers.
Nestio Founder, Caren Maio tells AGBeat, “We spent thousands of hours talking to landlords and brokers, and we learned that the real issue the rental industry faces is a lack of back-end technology to manage and communicate listings information. We spoke to many landlords, and they were reliant on whiteboards, spreadsheets, word documents, and fax machines! They were being forced to update a variety of touch points (company website, brokers, leasing team, etc.) and all of the repetitive data entry involved resulted in wasted time and money.”
Maio added, “We spoke to many brokers and learned that they were struggling to receive information. They received broker blasts periodically, but without a centralized database of information for rentals, found themselves in the dark on what was truly available. As a result, by the time rental listings are posted on separate/3rd party listing sites – they’re often outdated. We took a look at the outdated, silo-ed systems being used to manage and communicate information, and saw an opportunity to expand out capabilities.”
The first real-time platform
Nine months later, they have not only revamped their website, but have launched what they call the first real-time platform for the rental industry where landlords, brokers, and renters can communicate rental listings, subsequently replacing those whiteboards, spreadsheets, and fax machines which Maio says will give consumers more confidence and please landlords with fewer days on market. The agent platform is now live and functionality for brokers is forthcoming.
“We’ve been signing up landlords for almost six months,” said Maio, “and already have 15% of the NYC landlord market using it with great success. Additionally, our emails to brokers reach almost 50% of all brokers in NYC – with an open rate of 76%.”
User feedback, what’s next
Craig Charie at Charie Properties said, “Nestio tracks all units I own, manage and rent. Nestio has been a welcome change from spreadsheets and white boards, and has increased our productivity remotely. Clearly, it is the future of the industry.”
Cristina Capitummino of MPI/Mall Properties said “Nestio Listings consolidates all our available apartments into an easily accessible *database* so every broker has our available listings, updated in realtime, right on hand.”
In conjunction with developing the product based on user feedback and insight, they hired a top gun business development talent with over a decade of leasing experience, and next up, they’re assembling an advisory board of industry insiders/experts, starting with Sean Black who was part of the founding team at Trulia.
