Interesting thought about the e-mails. It seems like salesforce or zoho would also be perfectly adequate for scaling customer service. Have you tried those?
This is specifically for early-stage founders. If you haven't raised much yet, how do you deal with new employees coming in? Do you buy them new laptops? Buy refurbished macs?
You make an interesting point. One of the issues, however, is that all of the data is created within the industry. Because brokers create and control the data, companies must work within the system in order to access the data.
Spot on there. Selling to the broker franchises in a B2B play is much easier than selling to individual agents in a B2C play. You have to prove to brokers that they are going to make more commissions and it is extremely hard to prove that ROI.
The paid per commission model has been tried by very few companies. It would expose a company to a significant amount of market risk (housing drops like 2008 and your SAAS play is now dead), but could make sense. The issue there is tracking closed deals. There are so many complications during the close that are out of the hands of the software.
Yeah. I remember closing on our house (the only time I've ever bought property) and it was so ridiculously complex for even a straightforward transaction. I can't imagine trying to skim from that on a state-by-state legal basis and getting enough to justify the cost. I mean, getting $100 out of it would not be worth it. But getting $1000 out of it would start eating seriously into the margins of other players - how would you bring enough value to make it worth letting you participate, especially in the kind of hands-off way that makes software solutions scale?
Interesting - at what price point do you think people would need to see it in person first? Certainly some sites have proven people will buy ever-more-expensive goods online, but real estate hasn't gotten there yet...
It's not just the price point (though if I'm going to spend $200,000 buying it, I'm sure going to see it first, including the inside).
It's also that I'm going to have to live in this environment. That noisy neighbor? The web site isn't going to tell me about that. It isn't going to tell me about the gang sign on the building across the street (I know, Google Street View). It isn't going to tell me about the feel of the neighborhood - whether, at gut level, I'm going to feel comfortable having my wife and kids live there. There's simply no way I'm going to make a decision about living somewhere without physically going there first. It's not like renting a hotel room for a night.
Suitey is a software-powered real estate brokerage changing the way that people buy homes. We are growing our team significantly as we look to take on more of the New York City market. We are hiring for:
- Mobile Engineers
- Backend Engineers
- Frontend Engineers
You'd be an early part of a profitable company with the opportunity for competitive salary and meaningful equity.
About us:
* Founded in 2011
* Great office in Chelsea
* Fun team with frequent events
* Small, bright engineering team
* Solving one of the biggest problems in New York
Check out more at www.suitey.com or email jobs(at)suitey.com
Yes, that is an assumption I make in the article. A 20% downpayment is going to be the minimum that you would need for any bank to approve you for a mortgage. Many readers either have that cash in their bank account or the ability to get help from (extremely) generous parents.
