Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
The iBuying model has become increasingly popular among homeowners looking for a quick sale of their property, and now a new startup is hoping to bring the concept to rentals as well.
Doorstead is pitching the idea of “iRenting”, offering to act as a property manager for landlords who own single-family rentals. The company offers a guarantee that properties will be rented out at a specific rate within a specific time period, and will absorb all of the risk, which means the landlord gets their rent even if a tenant can’t be found.
In addition, Doorstead offers to handle all of the algorithmic pricing, advertising, tenant interviews, maintenance and repairs, leases and online payments. Pretty much everything in fact. All the property owner has to do is pay the company a percentage of the rent they receive.
Doorstead is still a fledgling company, but so far its managed to raise $3.3 million in funding and has opened for business in five cities in the San Francisco Bay Area. ‘
“We’re in the process of Uber-izing each step of the property management life cycle,” Doorstead's Chief Executive Officer Ryan Waliany told TechCrunch. He added that he hopes the company can become the OpenDoor of rentals.
Waliany said he expects other companies to follow suit with their own versions of the iRenting model. Other property management startups, such as Mynd, OneRent, and BelongHome, currently guarantee rent only after tenants have been found.
Waliany also dismissed any fears that the company might overleverage itself with the guarantees it offers.
“With any new business model, there will inevitably be ‘unknown unknowns’ that we cannot predict—‘black swan’ events and things that we might only be able to learn through calculated bets,” Waliany told TechCrunch. “There are three large trillion-dollar industries: food, transportation, and housing. At Doorstead, we have an opportunity to completely redefine the housing value chain by creating a new class of property management that eliminates unnecessary vacancies. In the end, this redefinition of the value chain allows ourselves to become the Blackstone of the future. It seems like we’re giving everyone free money.”
