Estately is kind of like the “Little Engine That Could” of startups. Smaller than big-time publicly-traded rivals like Trulia and Zillow, the Seattle online real estate startup just keeps on chugging along at its own pace and with its own style. That has served the company well since it was founded in 2006 by Douglas Cole and Galen Ward.
Today, Estately is looking to catch up to the bigger engines of online real estate in an area where it has trailed: mobile.
The company is launching the Estately app for iPhone, a tool that will help home buyers and sellers navigate the real estate search process.
Zillow, Trulia and Redfin already have robust mobile applications, with many of them reporting huge increases in mobile traffic, especially on weekends when people are perusing homes. In fact, 44 percent of home shoppers now use mobile apps, according to the National Association of Realtors “Digital House Hunt” report.
The question remains: Can Estately catch up, or even make a mark in mobile now?
“Estately is the first real estate app that is truly designed for the mobile era and we’ve taken full advantage of iOS 7,” said Ward, who told TechCrunch that they’ve waited on mobile because of the need to operate as a lean 17-person startup.
Since Estately has relationships with more than 70 Multiple Listing Services, the company said that it offers 20 percent more listings than national sites. That relationship also allows the company to update listings every 15 minutes, making sure that home shoppers are getting the most up-to-date information.
Estately certainly isn’t as well funded as its big rivals, having raised just over $1 million from Founder’s Co-op, 500 Startups and others. But it has certainly stuck around, providing consumers yet another choice on how to find a home, a choice that now extends to the iPhone. Estately’s model appears to be working, with TechCrunch noting that the company’s traffic and revenues doubled in 2013.
Editor’s note: Estately CEO Galen Ward will be the guest this week on the GeekWire podcast and radio show, which airs Saturday morning on KIRO 97.3 FM.
