What’s the most frequent and frustrating real estate problem most people face?
It’s not finding an apartment or buying a house or renting a motel room. For many people this is a daily struggle.
Finding a parking place.
Urban Parking is a Problem Begging for High Tech Disruption to Solve It
Chicago parking and parking in many other metropolitan neighborhoods is a constant battle. Every place is already taken by a car that will never leave. At least, you’re never there when the spot opens up. Instead, you drive around burning up gasoline and contributing to smog for no useful purpose. That’s especially true of West Loop parking and downtown parking.
However, cars do leave those parking spaces because the owners have to drive to work, to school, back home, to the mall or wherever.
Why shouldn’t someone else park in those spaces when the owner’s car is gone?
That’s where Chicago startup ParqEX comes in. They have a mobile app which allows parking space owners to rent their spaces out to parking space seekers. They can do so on an hourly, daily, weekly or monthly basis.
The parking space owner makes extra money. The renter gets a convenient parking space with no hassle and at a low price. And the space renter is not driving around looking for an empty space, reducing the traffic snarl and air pollution. Because the owner and the renter use the space more efficiently, everybody wins.
ParqEX has both long term parking and on demand parking spots available.
ParqEX is One of Many Real Estate Tech Firms Transforming the Industry
According to Bob Gillespie, Executive Director of the Elmspring Accelerator, many real estate companies are now looking for innovation, and getting it.
FoggyTrail
Like ParqEX and Airbnb, FoggyTrail enables more efficient and organized use of real estate, but they concentrate on the great outdoors. Hunters, fishers and hikers find owners of land willing to give access for a fee that’s a lot smaller than what local guides charge.
HerbFront
For the last several years, states have been rolling back their laws against medical and recreational marijuana. This November, 9 states will vote on legalizing it. However, “legal” doesn’t mean lack of regulation. The states strictly scrutinize the cannabis industry, applying zoning and other laws. HerbFront uses data and mapping technologies to connect growers and retailers with cooperative landlords, ensuring 100% compliance with all regulations.
Enodo Score
Enodo Score is a startup collecting, organizing and analyzing data about rental unit characteristics to help landlords determine the true market value of their units. This will also help them determine how best to allocate their renovation budgets.
Property Carnivores
Another startup company from Elmspring Accelerator, Property Carnivores, streamlines online marketing for agents so they can spend more time engaging with clients. Home buyers and sellers both want contact with experts to help them go through the process. It’s emotional for both parties, so they need someone who will reassure them and, using their experience and a professional perspective, help them through it.
Using technology to handle the detailed, routine work while engaging with their customers and clients is probably the secret for everyone who wants to have a job in the next five years. As people spend more time online and in virtual reality, they will need the human touch all the more at certain critical points, such as selling or buying property.
Guaranteed Rate
This real estate high-tech company works for the home buyer, not the agent. It lets them eliminate paperwork and consolidate information by performing the necessary tasks on their site. That includes searching for and choosing which type of mortgage they want, ordering and reviewing credit reports from all three credit bureaus, getting approved by Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae, uploading and digitally signing their loan documents and order appraisals.
For more information on how this parking startup is part of the real estate tech boom, contact us.
