SAN DIEGO—Taking a page from travel sites like Airbnb and HomeAway, Realstir's "Try Before You Buy" feature allows interested home buyers to rent a potential purchase for a fee before making a bid, the firm's CEO Walid Romaya tells GlobeSt.com. The feature is the latest on the Realstir app, which debuted earlier this year, combining home search with a social layer to create an on-demand national social home-search platform. We spoke exclusively with Romaya about the app's new feature, which is currently in the testing phase and due to launch next month, and what he anticipates to change in the housing market in 2016.

GlobeSt.com: How far has your portal/app come since we spoke earlier this year?

Romaya: In March, we were still in the beta testing mode. We went through the beta-testing cycle and actually went live in June on the Apple iOS store under Realstir. We also have a second app for real estate agents and brokers, Realstir OnePost, and we went live with that on the Google Android platform. Then our website was launched in September under beta platform, and last month it officially launched. All the pieces are in place; we have an entire home-search platform live right now: 1.6 million listings on average for sale. We get them aggregated for the whole country, and it gets updated every 24 hours. We're now working on a key feature, TBYB.

GlobeSt.com: How does the TBYB feature work?

Romaya: It allows a potential buyer to request through our platform that the listing for sale get converted to a short-term rental in order for a potential buyer to stay as a guest at the house, to try it and live in it, to try it out before buying. We have a patent pending in the US as well as internationally for the process, have trademarked the term TBYB and have the term TBYB on supplemental register. In the field of real estate websites, we also applied for a trademark for TBYB for downloadable apps. Our goal is to launch that feature sometime next month; we're testing it right now. It will allow any of our listings to have a TBYB button, and when a potential buyer presses that button we will send a request to the seller. The seller can then decide whether or not to allow the TBYB feature; if yes, they can convert their listing to a short-term rental. The listing on our system will have two prices: the purchase price and the rental-per-night price. Any future buyers will simply go through the booking process.

Once it gets converted to a dual listing, any buyer can request to try it out; then it's up to the seller and buyer to agree on the arrangements. A seller can also convert a listing to TBYB. This is what's going on in the vacation-rental field with Airbnb and HomeAway. There's a limit of seven days maximum on the rental. Our initial thought is that someone should be able to feel out the place properly in two to three days. It makes sense; it's a big investment in someone's life. And it's a natural evolution; the vacation-rental companies have prepared us for the idea of home sharing.

GlobeSt.com: What are you looking to accomplish with Realstir next?

Romaya: TBYB is a big part of it. Once it gets tested and rolled out across the country, we have other verticals we've already built. We have a cloud-based solution for agents where consumers can chat with them in total privacy without having to share personal information, and this is much more effective than lead-capture forms; it's a much more efficient way to interact with customers. As we get moving with TBYB, we will roll out our enterprise solution for agencies, brokers and lenders to show up on the map and interact with potential buyers.

GlobeSt.com: What do you see as the biggest changes anticipated for the housing market in 2016?

Romaya: The biggest change anticipated for the housing market in 2016 is we will see Millennials actually looking to buy. Rental prices have gone up quite a bit, and in many markets throughout the country, buying does make sense. It's more affordable than renting, and as the job market has improved, Millennials have more confidence in buying and moving out of shared apartments. There will be household formation, which will put pressure on the housing stock and inventory. The prospect for the housing market is good for at least the short to medium term. Interest-rate hikes could affect it, but the major demographic issues will push for a healthy demand for housing in 2016.