EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Susan Joynt, Founder and CEO of RuListing Inc.

We had the pleasure of interviewing Susan Joynt, Founder and CEO of RuListing Inc., at the 24^th Property Portal Watch Conference in Madrid this past November, where Joynt presented her company at the Pitch Club session.

The Toronto-based RuListing is the next wave of disruptors to hit the real estate industry, challenging second generation disruptors whose core revenue is derived from agent advertising and memberships. 

“RuListing is a simple solution for the ‘for sale by owner’ real estate sector. The free C2C real estate application is used by sellers to send private messages to potential buyers, and vice-versa,” stated Susan Joynt when asked about RuListing. “It’s a disruptive buyer-centric platform, and it’s live in-market. We have over 12,000 subscribers across the United States, Canada and Australia,” she added.

Joynt said that the idea behind RuListing began in Halifax; she had a common buyer problem. She knew where she wanted to purchase a property but there was nothing available. So, she found herself literally knocking on doors and leaving letters in people’s mailboxes, “I figured there must be a better way for me to communicate with property owners who might be interested in selling their home, and for them to respond to me privately. So, along came RuListing,” revealed Joynt.

The platform makes it possible for users to plot any neighbourhood geographically, add the dimensions of what they are searching for, specify the bedrooms, bathrooms etc., their timelines and closures as well.

“This really provides an extensive database of buyers and renters for homeowners to enter their own address find who's looking and who's interested. Reach out to buyers directly and renters directly.”

It is a very interesting and slightly different process than just posting an ad. The owners are actually interacting with potential buyers, because the buyers are also posting on the platform at the same time,” Joynt added.

According to Joynt, RuListing is enabling buyers and renters to solve a fundamental problem, when there is nothing available for sale in high demand areas, and potential buyers – like she did – resort to driving around neighbourhoods, scouting for homes. They get frustrated because in the moment there may not be anything available, but the following day something might come up, and the opportunity will be missed.

Joynt added that private selling is being dubbed the second-generation disruptor. However, despite capturing approximately 10 to 13% of the market, there is a certain fear which resonates, and people still opt to deal with real estate agents, due to the high-risk, high-value involved.

When asked about her company’s biggest challenge, Joynt remarked that the competitiveness of the marketplace, especially in Canada and in the United States is RuLising’s foremost obstacle. “It's very hard for new start-ups to break into that market and build a digital footprint and it is very expensive for newcomers who want to maybe break into the Canadian and the U.S. markets. Everyone is competing for the advertising dollars and for the users’ eyes.”

Joynt views user value as key for a new start-up. “You can build a great product, but unlike at the beginning of the digital marketplace, when a platform was built, and users followed, now there are millions of options for the users, so the product has to be a high value one, for people to use it and share it with others.

Twenty years ago, it was a matter of ‘look what it can do’ but nowadays, the product you launch has to be really a user-based solution for it to succeed.”

We asked Joynt if she would have done anything differently whilst developing RuListing, to which she promptly replied that focus is key. Spreading one’s self too thin and attempting to do too much at once can be a detriment to a company. “I would have to say that I have stuck pretty solid to the to the vision,” she added.

Joynt said that she was at the Madrid Property Portal Watch Conference to get a better perspective on the challenges for a company such as RuListing internationally, and that the Conference was a great place to tap into this information. “The Master Class was great. I even recognized a revenue opportunity that I hadn't considered, which is commission revenue from new developments,” concluded Joynt.

Join us in Bangkok the 19th to the 21st of March for the Property Portal Watch Conference.