A team of local entrepreneurs has started a company that seeks to apply social media techniques to the world of property management.
Nick Pontacoloni and Mike Zizzamia say they have always had a passion for real estate investing and property management.
Pontacoloni is a longtime landlord who also possesses 10 years of knowledge in the digital media and social network arenas, while Zizzamia has more than 10 years of experience in property management, residential renovation and real estate brokering.
“Through my work in digital media, I saw how social networks and Web applications made the flow of communication, information, and honest human labor more efficient,” Pontacoloni said. “I realized that property management and maintenance desperately needed transformation to bring it into the digital era.”
Pontacoloni says the problem he sees is two-fold:
• First, property professionals (landlords, real estate agents and property managers) are consistently seeking qualified, skilled and motivated people to help them maintain their properties, but finding great people at affordable costs is difficult when the only options were classifieds, directories, Internet searches, and word of mouth. While some digital services were available, they didn’t always simplify the process or provide more efficiency.
• The second problem, Pontacoloni says, is that many service professionals simply don’t have time to spend or money to invest in learning how to market themselves on the Web.
In an effort to address these issues, Pontacoloni and Zizzamia created OwnerAide (www.owneraide.com), an online service unveiled last summer that helps connect homeowners and property professionals with service professionals. The application, already used by more than 600 contractors and skilled individuals in the Hartford and Boston areas, not only helps property pros and aides find each other, but also serves as a platform for communication, estimates, marketing and payment.
The website divides users into Owners and Aides. Property professionals post jobs to the site with as many details and pictures as possible. Service professionals sign up as Aides and create robust profiles with certifications and photos of past work. They can also sign up to receive e-mail alerts with new jobs that match their skill set and location.
When an Owner posts a job, Aides can review the job details and place a bid. Owners can then accept a bid based on the Aide’s profile, past customer reviews and references, and cost. OwnerAide handles the payment process by accepting a credit card for the job and only paying the Aide once the job is complete. For a property professional managing several sites, payment no longer requires driving from place to place just to pay workers.
“The advantage to using OwnerAide, from both sides, is that it creates an open market for home services,” said Pontacoloni, the company’s CEO. “Aides can rely on their reputation and past work without having to worry whether they can afford leads or advertising space. Owners can find the lowest price or most qualified service pro without having to go out and find him in the phone book.”
The company, which typically charges a 12 percent fee per job, is currently focusing on two markets — property professionals and consumers.
In the property professional space, OwnerAide signs up accounts like large property management firms, real estate agencies, landlords with multiple units, and general contractors who frequently use subcontractors.
“We provide a concierge service to these organizations,” Pontacoloni said. “We speak with them directly about the job, then post and manage a job on their behalf. We currently target the small jobs that tenants and landlords have to deal with on a consistent basis, such as faucet leaks, room painting, window and door replacement, cleaning, and more. We quickly become a preferred partner to help get these jobs done right, right away.”
In the consumer space, new users sign up daily and OwnerAide encourages homeowners and any kind of property manager to use the site to find labor for everything from lawn mowing to oil changes to bicycle repair.
Pontacoloni says he and his team — Zizzamia is COO; Nick’s brother, Mike, is brand and content manager; and Evan Baker and Mike Regan are region field managers — have been overwhelmed by the response for transformation in residential and property maintenance.
“We receive a universally positive response from contractors, service professionals, and skilled individuals who have tools, talent and time and want to make extra money helping out people in their community,” he said. “They all agree that the typical way of doing business is slow, inefficient, and in need of change.”
OwnerAide typically receives 5 to 10 bids within 24 hours for every job posted through the concierge service.
“The Aides with the best profiles are able to offer higher prices and are still considered for the work, while skilled individuals can really beef up their profiles with great reviews to be considered for more jobs,” said Pontacoloni.
John Lahtinen is a freelance writer based in Farmington. Reach him at lahts@yahoo.com.
