The future of real estate is?here

Real estate has always been in my blood. As a child, I have clear memories of collecting architecture magazines and drawing floor plans of amazing houses I would build once I became an adult. My great-grandfather was a real estate agent, my grandfather was a property developer, and the first work I ever did as a teenager, was helping my mother with real estate deals.

Inspired by my family efforts in real estate across four generations, I decided to focus all my energy on making the experience of finding a home better for everyone. For most people in the world, their home is their biggest asset, yet people make mistakes over mistakes like buying a great home in an area with low-quality schools or too far from their work or end up overpaying because of external influences. I’ve seen friends build great houses in the suburbs, only to realize a few months later that the commute took away so much of their time they were not able to enjoy the house.

Building a startup in real estate

For the past five years, we have built innovative solutions like the Neighborhood Finder allowing people to find a neighborhood that matches their lifestyle and the Agent Matchmaking system that substantially increased client satisfaction and agent conversion. Based on the success of our product, we raised over $4 million from more than 25 investors and our initial product Navut.com was being used by over 1 million people. However, we knew the industry was on the brink of transformation and something much larger was about to happen.

Aiming higher

You’ve probably read many articles saying millennials are not interested in home-ownership and prefer to be nomads and travel the world. This is a huge misconception. According to data from Ellie Mae, millennials already represent more than 30% of mortgage applications in large cities like New York, Dallas, and Chicago.

In the next ten years, we millennials will represent 80% of all real estate transactions. Our generation grew up with the mobility and convenience of smartphones and can’t live without Uber. We are accustomed to service providers who are pre-qualified and on-demand and, most importantly, we are seeking integrated and personalized experiences. We live in the Convenience Economy. The real estate and home financing industry should adapt to it.

The home buying experience is currently fragmented in several pieces working against each other. At NestReady, we are a passionate group of millennials invested in simplifying and designing one trusted, convenient and empowering experience for homebuyers that integrates seamlessly with lender’s websites.

After over five years of working with millennials in real estate, we have accumulated huge insights and hold a bold vision for the Fintech industry that we would be sharing with you in the upcoming posts. Get ready for (f)innovation!