Missing out on a month’s rent because you can’t find a tenant is a huge loss. New startup Doorstead wants to take on the risk and the work for you.
It acts as a property manager for single-family homes, but guarantees you rent at a specific rate starting in a certain number of days, even if it can’t fill the house or apartment. It handles all the algorithmic pricing, advertising, tenant interviews, repairs, maintenance, leases and online payments in exchange for 8% of rent.
Doorstead’s approach has attracted a $3.3 million seed round co-led by M13 and Silicon Valley Data Capital, and joined by Venture Reality Fund and SOMA Capital, betting on co-founders Jennifer Bronzo and Ryan Waliany.
How Doorstead works
First, property owners contact Doorstead and provide some basic information on the home they want to rent out. They receive a preliminary offer before the startup does an inspection and picks a rate its algorithm believes it can fill the home for quickly.
From there, the startup does approved maintenance and cleaning as necessary, and then methodically lists the home on all the top rental platforms, handles open house walk-throughs and runs background checks on potential tenants.
“Property management incumbents have a 43-day vacancy average which leads to $86 billion in economic waste in the U.S. alone,” Waliany tells TechCrunch.
Doorstead now manages more than 300 properties in the San Francisco Bay Area, its first market, a footprint that grew by 50% each quarter of 2020, and has since launched in Los Angeles and Orange County.
