Theo K. Browne: Meet the Real Estate Tech Entrepreneurs: Andrew Collins and Justin McCarty from Bungalow

In our latest real estate tech entrepreneur interview, we’re speaking with Andrew Collins and Justin McCarty from Bungalow. They recently raised a massive round of funding, $64 million to be exact.

They are…

a cross between the new trend of co-living with a short-term rental platform like Airbnb, because instead of co-living in an apartment building, Bungalow renters co-live in a house. And instead of only staying for just a few days, Bungalow renters stay for an average of 12 months.

The short term rentals category is one I follow closely given my work on Horizon, and landlord tech is a segment I’m hugely bullish on. Without further ado…

What do you do?

Bungalow is a platform for residential real estate that helps early career professionals find great homes and community in cities across the U.S. We’re bringing the same seamless, digital experience consumers have come to expect with services like Amazon, and brought it to renting. Bungalow removes the friction by taking care of everything from matching great roommates and furnishing a home’s common areas to streamlining rent and utilities payments and handling service requests. In addition, we help Bungalow residents foster a thriving community through exclusive social events and volunteer opportunities.

Bungalow is able to offer homes in the best neighborhoods by working directly with long-time homeowners who are looking for a guaranteed income stream but don’t want to sell their property. This model has helped Bungalow scale rapidly to hundreds of homes in just over one year of quiet operations.

What problem does your product/service solve?

By signing long-term leases with homeowners and renting them out as beautiful, multi-unit homes, Bungalow is solving two major housing challenges in the U.S., helping early career professionals find housing and community in the best places (35% of 18-34 year olds still live with their parents) and retirement-age homeowners get a big boost in income, without the hassle of managing a rental property (1 in 6 55-64 year olds own a second property).

Bungalow is not claiming to solve the nationwide housing crisis, but we are helping solve these specific challenges within each city’s existing housing supply.

What are you most excited about right now?

We’re most excited by the incredible interest we’ve seen from both renters and homeowners across the country, in such a short time span. In just over one year, Bungalow has amassed hundreds of homes across seven U.S. markets with more than 750 renters. As we continue to scale rapidly, we’re excited to bring Bungalow’s seamless, digital rental experience and build thriving communities in even more cities across the country and around the globe.

What’s next for you?

In our first year, we’ve scaled rapidly, amassing hundreds of homes in seven major U.S. metropolitan areas. We’re thrilled with the massive interest we’ve seen from both renters and homeowners, and expect to be thriving in 12 markets by the end of this year. We believe our business model has the ability to continue to scale rapidly in the long-term and take on the $640 billion rental market for early career professional in the U.S. We also believe this is a global opportunity, and we’re planning to act on that by welcoming our first international cities to our platform in 2019.

What’s a cause you’re passionate about and why?

Andrew: In every city I’ve lived in, it has been initially difficult to find a network. I’ve seen the loneliness capital among my peers increase dramatically in recent years, and the toll that it’s taken has become strikingly apparent. The importance of finding a community is vital to who we are as individuals, and I have become increasingly aware and passionate about the discourse surrounding mental health issues. Mental health issues, from depression and anxiety to addiction, is something that we’ve only just begun to discuss, and even so, the topic still carries a heavy weight of taboo. We’ve become much more disparate as a society, and I am a firm believer in the importance of a network in creating a healthy sense of belonging.

Justin: I was raised in a home where my mom worked by herself to create a safe and positive household. Looking back, I also see that I was very much raised by the community that supported my mom, and I have become incredibly passionate about support systems within single-parent homes. The various neighbors, teachers, relatives, and family friends that contributed to my upbringing were crucial to my happiness and success, as well as my mom’s ability to manage our household. Unfortunately, not all of us find ourselves surrounded by a loyal network during times of hardship, and single parents can especially feel this void. We all play a part in teaching and raising the people around us, despite age or background, and I am committed to implementing this vision into each team I work with.

Thanks to Justin and Andrew for sharing their story. If you’d like to connect, find Andrew here and Justin here.

We’re constantly looking for great real estate tech entrepreneurs to feature. If that’s you, please read this post — then drop me a line (drew @ geekestatelabs dot com).

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