brian blum
RentGeek reads your mind, filters apartments
Here’s a nifty business model for a property-listing site that we haven’t seen before. RentGeek, a Canadian startup, filters the apartments and homes it presents by asking you to fill in an online questionnaire. We gave it a spin in Vancouver.
RentGeek asked for our age, gender, marital status, number of kids, income (we skipped that one), type of property we’re interested in, how we get around (this being Vancouver, “car sharing” was an option), pets, where we eat (at home or in restaurants), whether we work out or do yoga (we made ourselves sound a little buffer than maybe we actually are), what kind of coffee we drink, what we do on Friday nights (clubbing it or movie at home?) and, of course, how much we are willing to spend.
We were then presented with three communities, each with a Google Map and recommended properties. You can see how your survey affected the rankings; review a demographic breakdown according to the 2006 Canadian census; and check out a number of “hip” reviews of the neighborhoods by locals (we tried to chat with them, but RentGeek is not a real estate/dating site, at least not yet).
All in all, the experience was easy and we left with the feeling that RentGeek kind of did read our minds, even if it was all just algorithms. It’s certainly a model worth considering stateside.
Canadian real estate facts and figures from CAAMP
The Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals (or CAAMP) has published its “Annual State of the Residential Mortgage Market” report. The document includes some interesting facts and figures about the Canadian real estate industry. A sample:
- There are about 13.6 million occupied homes in Canada. Of these, 9.6 million are owner-occupied, including 5.8 million with mortgages and 3.8 million without mortgages.
- The total value of owner-occupied housing in Canada is estimated at $3 trillion.
- Mortgages and lines of credit for these homes amount to $982 billion. That means Canadians have about $2 trillion in home equity, equal to 68 per cent of the total value of housing.
- Two per cent of homeowners (about 150,000 to 170,000) may have negative equity in their homes.
- Twelve percent of mortgage borrowers said they would have some problems if interest rates rose by even less than one percent.
- The average dwelling value (as estimated by the occupants) is $316,000.
The full report can be downloaded here.
Dealfind launches YesMom in Canada
With everyone and their brother getting into the daily deal business model, it’s time to start specializing. Toronto-based Dealfind has decided that moms need their own site and has launched YesMom in Calgary, with more Canadian cities due to be added throughout 2012.
What kind of deals are moms interested in? Says YesMom: family memories, fashion, health and wellness, home decor and prenatal products. And one more: security tags from a company called “RescueMoi” that you can put on your phone, keys, wallet to help them find their way home if they get lost. Is YesMom saying something about moms being scatterbrained? We sure hope the same product finds its way onto YesDad, if the company chooses to launch a sister (or is that brother) site.
Dealfind is one of Canada’s biggest deal sites. The company says it helped its customers save “close to $400 million through nearly 1.7 million purchased vouchers since launching in 2010.” The site is active in 29 markets across Canada, as well as a number of U.S. cities. A mobile app launched in November, 2011.
Canadian startup powers latest Groupon feature
A quick piece of Groupon news with a Canadian spin: the group-buying powerhouse purchased a Vancouver startup called OpenCal in Sept. 2011. Last month, Groupon began a pilot test of “Groupon Scheduler”, which the Canadian website TechVibes says is directly based on OpenCal’s software.
Groupon Scheduler is an online appointment service that provides merchants with an easy way to manage their schedules and accept bookings from consumers.
OpenCal launched at the end of 2010, so the acquisition was quick, although probably not overly lucrative. OpenCal was co-founded by Shiva and Simon Vallee, who also helped to found Sitemasher, another Canadian web service, which was acquired by Salesforce.
Canadian Groupon competitor launches instant redemption feature
When you’re competing with Groupon, you often have to play follow the leader. Toronto-based DealFind has launched a new product called Everyday Deals, which closely replicates Groupon’s GrouponNow feature. Both allow consumers to find current deals and redeem them immediately instantly.
Everyday Deals has a few bells and whistles that leapfrog GrouponNow (although we suspect not for very long). Most notable is a nifty filter feature that can drill down by category, day and even time (early morning, mid-day, late night, etc.). There is also a Google Map with pushpins where a deal is located. If you’re in the mood for saving money while on-the-go, Everyday Deals looks promising.
Despite its Toronto-origins and headquarters, and its strong presence in every major Canadian cities, DealFind also runs local sites in most U.S. states (the company added 18 new cities in November 2011 alone). DealFind has been around since 2009 and has sold nearly 2 million vouchers valued at over $400,000 total – not the biggest player on the block but one that looks to be around for a while.
Adknowledge continues buying spree with Toronto’s AdParlor
Performance ad network Adknowledge has acquired the Toronto-based startup AdParlor. Adknowledge courted AdParlor for its expertise in Facebook advertising; AdParlor built its business by offering advertising tools initially to social game developers, but now has expanded and counts a broader range of marketers and agencies as its clients. Continue reading
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