Make Way for the NestApple

How It All Started?

Real estate brokerage fees in New York and in America are extremely transparent. On a sales transaction for instance, the commissions charged by the brokerage firms is to the seller hence this semi-lie that “the seller pays the broker fees aka 6 percent.” On rentals, the broker fees used to be charged to the tenant but the market being weak, the fees are now paid by landlords. With technology and the transparence of online real estate portal, real estate prices became increasingly more transparent but the broker fees remained unchanged! Nicole Fishman Benoliel and her husband Georges are not brokers and are not real estate people either. They only saw an opportunity to disrupt that inefficient real estate market. Why the hell did the fees remain so high while the market became transparent and everything is available online? They started a real estate licensed agency paying the majority of the fee back to their clients. As their services were appreciated and there was a real need for NestApple, the demand for their services grew. In 2017, they started the company with the main intention of creating a platform to help buyers right from placing the bid on a home all the way to the closing (or lease signing). NestApple offers reduced brokerage fees by giving large cash back rebates.

What Is in It for the Buyers?

The average sale price per square foot in 2010 in NYC was $1,070 and currently it is $1,443. This turns out to be a 34 percent increase over the span of eight years with 3.81 percent CAGR. Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) implies that the average sale price of NYC houses has increased every year by 3.81 percent. With increasing cost of purchasing the houses, here comes a company NestApple which offers 2 percent cash back rebate for buyers. This 2 percent turns out to be $24,980 cashback on median selling price of $1,249,000 for a NYC house.

What Is in It for the Sellers?

Typically, commission fees for real estate brokers in NYC are 6 percent. This 6 percent fee is divided among the buyer’s broker and seller’s broker in 50:50 split. This means each buyer and seller brokers gets 3 percent each. NestApple on the other hand charges just 1.5 percent fees to the seller if a buyer comes with no broker.

What Is in It for the Renters?

In the case of rentals, the commission fee is usually 15 percent ($5,400 in average) which is usually paid by the tenant. If this commission is to be divided among the tenant’s broker and the listing agent then the tenant must pay 7.5 percent commission to each broker. 7.5 percent fee usually translates into $2700 on the yearly rent of $36,000(12*3000) considering $3,000 as monthly rent. For units that has a fee, 2/3rd of the fee which is $3600 paid back to the tenant and with units with ‘no fees’ 2/3rd of the money is given back to the tenant.

Scope:

Currently, real estate rebates are legal in 40 states. Nine states have full ban on broker rebates: Alabama, Alaska, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Tennessee. Iowa prohibits rebates when consumers use services of two or more real estate brokers. NestApple offers its services to New York and Connecticut areas. It's planning to expand their services to New Jersey in coming months. NestApple clearly has a great scope of expansion in the future.

Services they offer:

In addition to the above services, NestApple offers excellent advisory services. They work with clients at each step and can refer lawyers, inspectors and mortgage bankers. NestApple will only provide recommendation of the people they have worked with.

Corporate Social Responsibility

On top of the mission to help clients via this cash back mechanism, NestApple has a social mission also. Every time you work with NestApple and for every closed deal, the company donates part of their commission to The South Bronx Educational Foundation to enhance the development and mentoring of the young kids.

Customer focus and innovation will play key parameters for any company in determining its success. Now many companies are realizing the importance of paying attention to customer’s needs. Many e-commerce companies are customer focused but only some are successful, that’s where innovation comes into the picture. NestApple offers both, it has a unique innovative model with high focus on customer.