Video interviews with PropTech startups – EverReal and cooperation partner Calenberger Immobilien
In an interview with Ambivation CEO Christoph Baier, Nessim Djerboua, co-founder of EverReal, talks about his experiences in the PropTech industry. He also provides valuable tips and tricks for working with companies. With the PropTech Interviews we want to give startups a stage, but also talk about challenges and approaches to solutions in the cooperation with companies. Here you can watch the interview in full length
Christoph: Welcome to the video interviews with PropTech and ConTech startups and their collaborations with the construction and real estate industry. Today I welcome Nessim Djerboua from EverReal. Good morning Nessim!
Nessim: Good morning!
Christoph: Nessim, who are you and what do you do with EverReal?
Nessim: My name is Nessim and I am a co-founder of EverReal. Before we founded EverReal in 2017, I lived in the US for quite some time. I moved around a lot there and worked for technology companies. In all those years, I kept noticing how outdated the processes in the real estate industry are. And not just in Germany, but actually also in Silicon Valley, where you think everything is already running with machine learning and AI there. But even there, you fill out a self-disclosure on paper. And that was actually the trigger for me and my co-founders. In 2016, we started to take a closer look. And we realized that real estate managers, housing companies and brokers spend a lot of time on administrative tasks. That means processing inquiries, coordinating appointments and collecting self-disclosures. And of course, as a result, these companies suffer from poor service quality. Many people are certainly familiar with this; they make an inquiry with the company where they live, and it can sometimes take a very long time. That’s simply because the companies really do have an extremely large amount to do, much of it with administrative tasks. We’ve found there’s an opportunity to improve things there.
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Our goal at EverReal is to make renting and selling real estate as easy and time-saving as possible. To this end, we offer a platform that brings all parties together. This covers the entire process, from marketing to digital rental contract creation to handover. And, of course, a large part of this is automated. What is new now, actually also due to the cooperation with all the companies we work with, is the cooperation within this process. You don’t always just have the prospective tenant and the landlord, but usually also other people in the company, the owner, the janitor, etc. We bring all these parties together. We bring all these parties together. Our platform is used throughout Germany by property managers, housing entrepreneurs and brokers. The beauty is, the system doesn’t just work for large companies, it’s a relevant topic for all sizes. All the way down to small brokers working in one city.
Christoph: Perfect, thank you very much for the introduction! Let’s move on to the next question: You work together with many companies in the real estate industry, can you perhaps give us a concrete example of cooperation?
Nessim: Yes with pleasure! Here I would point to Calenberger Immobilien, for example. A very digital-savvy company, the likes of which we don’t see every day now. Most of them are still at the beginning of digitization. I would say Calenberger Immobilien is already further along in that respect. Although they had already digitized a lot, they still had the issue of leasing. And this is where they met us, in order to really simplify this process. The process from the first inquiry to the handover to the landlord was still very traditional.
At the same time, however, Calenberger Immobilien also wanted to improve its appearance to prospective tenants. And that’s how they came across us. Together with Calenberger Immobilien, we then launched the whole thing very quickly. That means our onboarding phase is quite short, you can start really quickly, get going within a few hours and see the first results. Of course, we made adjustments in this process to see that it fits Calenberger Immobilien as well. E.g. what information they want to query, at what point in time, but of course also tenancy agreements stored in the system, etc.
The nice thing about this cooperation, but also with other companies, was that we get a lot of feedback from them. About the software, but of course also wishes they have about how we can further develop our product to make their lives even easier. In the process, our new feature has been developed with the feedback from Calenberger and other companies. With this, we can, for example, also integrate other parties and really share prospective tenants and rental applicants with the owner with just one click. The latter can view this directly online. This is DSGVO compliant and simplifies the process for all parties involved.
Christoph: Jan Hendrik, thank you very much for your time! We are talking about the cooperation with EverReal and we would of course be happy to hear about your experiences. And it would be nice if you could briefly introduce yourself! What you do and what does Calenberger Immobilien do?
Jan Hendrik: My name is Jan Hendrik Schönfeld and I founded Calenberger Immobilien GmbH. This is a real estate company, which is actually engaged in the entire value chain accordingly. From the purchase, over the administration up to the sales. It is about residential and commercial real estate, we have about 1,600 units, including apartment buildings, residential complexes, but also accordingly commercial properties. For example, former industrial properties or those that have been redeveloped for other uses. The topic of leasing is also part of this overall context, and the leasing process is now absolutely digital for us. From the notice to the handover to the new tenant.
And all I can say is, good thing I got to know Nessim, or rather EverReal! A few years ago, I think we were also one of the first customers. The exchange is absolutely dynamic, partnership and trust. In addition, I must say, the support is absolutely ingenious, you don’t know that from other software solutions. There you are somewhere in the waiting loop. Here you don’t wait, here you get feedback within a very short time. The digital process is almost one hundred percent mapped here. We still have the personal conversation on site. Otherwise, prospective tenants have a response rate of one hundred percent. That is also very important to us. Because before, when we didn’t have this solution, it was also very difficult to answer these numerous inquiries. The viewing appointments are also much easier to manage accordingly, the prospective tenants are immediately given a viewing appointment and can book a viewing appointment, right through to the digital rental contract. That’s also very charming; theoretically, you could conclude the lease right away during the apartment viewing, during the conversation. We didn’t have that before.
And perhaps another interesting note, EverReal is always developing new functions and solutions through exchange. Now we have also received a great function with which we can connect business partners. In our case, these are service providers, or customers and clients, who repeatedly demand that we collaborate digitally. Thanks to EverReal, we can now deliver this accordingly. And the bidder selection, for example, or the exchange of information and data, now takes place in real time.
Christoph: Great experience report! And what tips and tricks for collaboration can you give other PropTechs and companies, Nessim?
Nessim: Of course, it always depends a bit on the company you are working with. Basically, I would say as a tip for companies, you should be ready to adapt the processes. Of course, there are companies that are very open about it and are really open. Of course, if you’ve done a certain process for ten-twenty years and you’ve done it very well, it’s a challenge to change that process. However, we have a very different perspective. And we see that from other companies as well, it can sometimes work differently. That doesn’t mean you have to overturn everything. It just helps sometimes if you approach things a little more openly. Because maybe you can identify even more potential savings if you say okay, maybe you change the process slightly. Of course, to also pick up the employees and at the same time also offer the prospective tenants a customer experience as desired.
On the PropTech side I think it’s similar. On the one hand, I would say, in the real estate industry, you have to bring patience, understanding, also that processes are partly different, and that there are also background reasons why these processes cannot be changed so easily. On the other hand, I would say that we really take the customer by the hand. Some customers are very quickly active on their own, while others need more support. You simply have to take that into account. If you know that, it also helps you with a successful implementation.
Christoph: Thank you very much! What are your plans for the next few years at EverReal?
Nessim: Basically, our goal at EverReal is to make renting and selling real estate as easy and time-saving as possible. We are at the beginning. Our customers say that they save 50-80% of the effort in renting, which is already significant. But we see much more potential. This is an issue that we will continue to work on in order to make life easier for our customers. On the other hand, it is of course also about growth, i.e. how can we manage to inspire more customers with EverReal.
Christoph: If someone is curious to learn more about EverReal, what is the best way to reach you?
Nessim: The best way is through the website. Either an e-mail, directly to info@everreal.co, or of course there is a lot of information on our website. You can also fill out a contact form or make a demo appointment.
Christoph: Perfect, great! Nessim, then from my side many thanks to you and of course also to Jan Hendrik. Very exciting insights into the cooperation and of course the tips and tricks. Thanks a lot and see you soon!
Link to EverReal: https://www.everreal.co
Link to Calenberger Immobilien GmbH: https://www.calenberger-immobilien.de
Link to immobilienmanager: https://www.immobilienmanager.de
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About Ambivation
Ambivation connects innovative companies and startups for cooperation and innovation partnerships. As an innovation consultancy and matchmaker, Ambivation promotes cooperation between established companies and startups within the framework of concrete customer, supplier and research partnerships. We support companies in the identification of needs, startup identification, startup evaluation and cooperation initiation with startups. Formats such as research on relevant startups, startup monitoring, strategic cooperation consulting or event formats such as startup tours serve this purpose. Our monthly newsletter also provides information on current examples of cooperation and events.
