Meet the Real Estate Tech Entrepreneur: Steven Szczur
In our latest Meet the Real Estate Tech Entrepreneur interview, I’m talking to Steven Szczur of HomeCanvasr.
Without wasting anymore time, here’s a bit more from him…
What do you do?
I am a real estate professional that just recently launched a real estate technology company called HomeCanvasr with a partner of mine. HomeCanvasr is a platform that allows buyers to post and essentially advertise themselves to homeowners in their interested areas; providing buyers with the ability to reach the 97% of homes which are not for sale and allowing homeowners to gauge the demand of their specific property in real-time. Only about 3% of homes are on the market at a given time; we allow buyers to find and buy the home of their dreams in a timely manner instead of settling for properties only on the market.
Starting a company has not been easy; from convincing people to join you to building out a prototype with limited funds, we have had our work cut out. As a first-time founder I have had my hand in every aspect; from idea stage to beta launch. This is just the beginning and we are excited to see where the future holds for HomeCanvasr.
Why do you do what you do?
I’ve had an interest in real estate from a young age; so once I finished college I decided to get my real estate license – I’m licensed in both NY and NJ. Having been a young professional in the industry, I had the opportunity to work with many buyers and realized a reoccurring frustration with buyer clients; the inability to find their dream home in a timely manner because essentially the property they were looking for was “not on the market” at that particular moment. This very reason got me thinking about the potential of HomeCanvasr.
My goal is to make the buying and selling process less stressful by providing a solution for homeowners and buyers to connect with each other off-market.
What are you most excited about right now?
I am most excited by the feedback we have been getting from early customers. It is fulfilling to hear that HomeCanvasr can be helpful. We are excited to be constantly testing and refining our product and make it the best possible solution for our users.
What’s next for you?
I can’t wait to see where HomeCanvasr will be in a few years. We have a long road ahead but I am optimistic about the potential of HomeCanvasr; with added transparency the real estate industry is deemed for innovation. I think we’re seeing that with the amount of startups launching in the RE space.
What’s a cause you’re passionate about and why?
I just recently joined Fred’s Team, which supports the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in NYC for cancer research. As most people, I’ve had close family members affected by the disease and I wanted to do a little extra personally so I signed up to run the NYC Marathon for Fred’s team and am raising money in the process. I can’t wait to run 26.2 miles for such a great cause!
Thanks to Steven for sharing his motivations and current projects. If you’re interested in connecting with him further, you can find him on Oh Hey World and LinkedIn.
We’ll be featuring other real estate tech entrepreneurs in the coming weeks. If you are an entrepreneur in the real estate vertical (past or present), and want to be profiled, please sign up for an OHW account, and join the Geek Estate community — then shoot me an email (drew at ohheyworld).
Drew Meyers
Posted at 07:32h, 16 OctoberSteven- how do you reach the home owners? The whole model hinges on that, and that’s the hardest part.. unless I’m missing something? Why would they contact a buyer if they aren’t actively selling. How does this compete/complement/compare to Make Me Move?
Steven Szczur
Posted at 08:08h, 16 OctoberHi Drew – Just as people (homeowners) are interested in what their home is worth; homeowners have an interest in/about the demand of their specific property since it’s probably their largest investment.. so even though they are not actively selling we believe that with this buyer data; homeowners will be able to gauge the demand of their property in real-time (which is not possible right now) and become inclined to sell.
Make Me Move allows homeowners to set a price to test the market however it does not provide a homeowner with buyer data in their specific location. We are concentrating on the buyer side of the market first; instead of waiting for months for a property to come “on the market” they can be proactive and post their dream home criteria. Best of all it is completely FREE!
Drew Meyers
Posted at 08:41h, 16 OctoberWhat’s the incentive for buyers to post with you though, without the other side of the marketplace in place?
Steven Szczur
Posted at 09:55h, 16 OctoberMany benefits like being able to send a free customized letter of interest to an unlisted homeowner; posting also allows you to make a “public profile” page which can be shared on twitter, FB, etc.
Since we are in beta, we also personally make the connection for buyer and homeowner until a network is built.
Again, we provide another channel to find a home so buyers don’t have to wait for months for a property to be listed or settle on a property because it’s on the market.
Drew Meyers
Posted at 10:22h, 16 Octoberso is this a buyer MLS essentially?
Steven Szczur
Posted at 15:58h, 16 OctoberWe are a marketplace for buyers to connect with homeowners of unlisted property. However if no homeowners are present then we provide value similar to a buyer MLS. We believe that buyer data will be very appealing to homeowners.
HobokenX
Posted at 11:27h, 08 NovemberI don’t see anything in your privacy policy about buyer’s information privacy. As a real estate agent you expect me to give you my buyer’s personal information (via a required pre-approval letter) but there is nothing in your privacy policy that says that you, Steven cannot contact this buyer and the buyer remains my client. This concerns me and would concern my buyer’s right to privacy and client/agent relationship. Also, do you financially benefit from the closed transactions that happen as a result of buyers and sellers connecting?
Steven Szczur
Posted at 12:22h, 08 NovemberI completely understand your concerns. We are working on making our privacy policy as clear as possible. We are not in the business of selling any information; the required pre-approval is used to verify that each buyer is real; the platform would be invaluable if scam buyers were posting to get themselves in front of homeowners. As I mentioned we are not a brokerage; we do not financially benefit from each transaction. We are building a marketplace to connect real buyers with homeowners who’s properties are not currently listed.