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One of the biggest challenges for real estate owners and operators is finding and retaining quality vendors. It's a long and timely process. You put out an RFP, and wait. You review the bids; conduct research on the vendor, hire them and hope that the company's work is good, so that you don't have to go back to point A. YINC—a new app company—promises to end the vendor-related headaches. The software has streamlined the process of finding and hiring vendors, promising a competitive bid process to lock-in the best possible pricing, trustworthy reviews and an easy pay system all using blockchain technology. The program is launching its start-up this week, with the functional program slated to rollout by the end of the year, and GlobeSt.com has gotten an exclusive first look.
“We started by creating a solution for the vendor market. The three main issues were locating a vendor, competition and reviews,” Jonathan Handler, CEO and founder of YINC, tells GlobeSt.com. “There is no competition searching online, and reviews aren't trustworthy. When we came up with a process that works, we went back to our investors and went back to another round of VC funding, they recommended that we use the app for their properties. That is where we switched gears from consumer to commercial real estate. It is the same core system.”
Handler has a background in both real estate and technology, and sees the program as a way to infuse efficiencies into real estate rather than disrupt the market. “The technology is not ground breaking technology and it doesn't reinvent the wheel. We solved several issues within the process,” he says. “In real estate, it is all about ROI, but it is also about mitigating headaches. You may have a headache if the vendor doesn't do a job well. Now, with the blockchain and the trust factor coming in, we are going to start bidding out jobs to vendors for the first time. Saving money is key, but if you can't trust what you see online, it isn't worth it. We are giving owners the ability with the review system to trust the vendors.”
Before rolling out the new software, the firm extensively tested it and found that it has the potential to save thousands of dollars on vendor costs. One trial search for a pressure washer resulted in a savings of more than $30,000. This is because vendors are able to see when competitors have responded to a request, and will adjust their mark-up to compete for a job. “We tested this out on several jobs. We tested this on power washing the exterior of three buildings,” says Handler. “We got five quotes, one for under $20,000 and three were more than $50,000. When we analyzed it, we realized that the more expensive bids were including a lift machine. The two smaller guys said, however, that because the buildings were one- and two-stories high, they didn't need the machine to do the job. For the same job, we saved $30,000. That isn't going to happen every day, but it is an example of how it works.”
YINC has only just launched and already has 30 companies with large portfolios signed up, and Handler says that it has already met their goal for the year. “We have 30-plus companies already committed to using our platform,” he explains. “We designed it with these users based off of the needs that they have. We already have more companies than we need to sign up in our first year. Some of our investors have multi-million real estate portfolios.”
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Kelsi Maree Borland
