by G. Sax, Head of Communications, RESO
After a brief respite from conducting RESO’s biggest conference ever, we are back with Three Questions for Rental Beast CEO Ishay Grinberg. We talked about the factors that are driving the rental market into high gear and what makes his team mission driven. We also talked about…vice. Enjoy!
Q1: Although rentals and rental-focused companies are being toasted with more regularity in today’s housing market, you have been working on Rental Beast for more than a decade. Are you feeling a momentum boost for rentals in terms of the economy and standards development, or does it feel like business as usual or a natural evolution?
Ishay: One part of the evolution from our perspective is that rentals were considered the ugly stepsister of the industry and not something that MLSs and brokers embraced wholeheartedly as a business strategy.
We are now seeing multiple years of affordability becoming worse on the resale side of the business to the point where in most markets in the U.S. today, the option to buy is less accessible for a very large portion of the population.
We are becoming a renter nation and not just in terms of homeownership. Think about Uber, Airbnb, Grubhub, HOURCAR or Rent the Runway. People are essentially renting more of their lives and personal time out to products and services in some way or another.
Because of affordability issues, low supply, high rates and demand are forcing some people into the rental market for now. It’s gotten to a critical mass where there isn’t a single MLS or broker that’s not looking at rentals.
Here’s what I believe to be fact: Any successful real estate agent or broker worth their salt has never ignored rentals. The successful ones are in the relationship business.
For example, we are not yet live in New York City, but we keep a short list of brokers in the area to send leads to, and one of the most successful agents in the marketplace, Ryan Serhant, is always the first to respond.
The demand for rentals is higher today. And the perception of rentals has completely flipped to make it an essential strategy.
Q2: You cite your military service as being an important factor in evolving your decision-making and strategic-thinking skills. Military service, it turns out, is actually a common factor among many business leaders in the real estate space. What, in particular, stands out as a critical factor from your training? Is it teamwork, having a higher purpose, adversity, structure or something else entirely?
Ishay: The short answer is yes. The longer answer is that where I come from, military duty is mandatory, not volunteer.
But the reason the combat officer is meaningful is that the outcome of a bad decision is pretty dire. When you run operations in that context, you have to make decisions, often very difficult. You have to consider a lot of facts quickly, and you have to understand that your decisions come at an ultimate price.
I put my military service in my bio, because it’s a true part of who I am and how I lead. I’ve never managed an office with an Xbox and a ping pong table. There have been no flip flops or massage tables.
We’re mission driven. Everybody on the team is mission driven. We feel like we’re evangelizing a critical piece that has been missing in the MLS since the beginning of its existence.
We feel even stronger about our mission in a post-settlement world where data is king and we are uniquely positioned to bridge the data gap that MLSs have on rentals.
Bringing rentals to the table the way that we have is a game changer on all three sides: consumers, landlords, real estate professionals. A high amount of agent attrition is painful to me. We really want real estate professionals to build strong and resilient businesses.
Q3: You present yourself very professionally at RESO and other real estate conferences – singular of purpose and dedicated to the Rental Beast cause. Three Questions is about reaching beyond that professional exterior. What is one of your favorite things to do just for the fun of it?
Ishay: I love cigars. Probably too much. That’s my vice.
And I am an incredible golfer…in my own mind. I’m looking to get that out of my own mind and into the wild as soon as I can.
Three Questions is an interview series that features real estate industry professionals, their businesses and how they interact with real estate standards in a fun way.
