Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
One of the original creators of ride-sharing app Uber is switching his attention to the problems of real estate deals with a new mobile app. The app, called Haus, is for buyers, sellers, and agents, and focuses on the offer process rather than home search.
On Thursday, Uber co-founder Garrett Camp announced his newest project, an “open and fair platform for buying and selling homes,” which will take the form of a mobile app under the umbrella of his company Expa Studios.
“At a time when everything is digitized, the offer review process still relies heavily on paperwork and doesn’t incorporate modern digital technology,” Camp wrote in the announcement.
The idea is to simplify the process. Camp described the current offer submission-acceptance home buying system as “inefficient” and a “fundamental problem” with the real estate industry today. With Haus, buyers and sellers will be able to streamline their interactions: buyers can monitor the status of their offer; and sellers are able to see all offers as they are submitted. The app also manages the bulk of offer logistics, allowing the presiding agents to spend time on more imperative tasks.
“Haus helps buyers, sellers and agents operate more efficiently,” Camp wrote. “The platform streamlines offer communications, reduces anxiety and leads to a better experience overall.”
In her coverage of the launch, TechCrunch senior writer Jordan Crook touched on potential concerns over what Haus might mean for agents, such as speculation that the app could replace them entirely. But Camp responded to this concern describing Haus as more a complement to brokers than a replacement for them.
“Collecting offers and presenting them is a very manual process, the way that town car companies would pick a phone, write the fare on the board, and send the next available driver to that location,” he said. “It just seems much more efficient for agents to use a platform to coordinate all of this information automatically.”
Interesting. There must be an easier way to to do it!