Founder Interview - Tim Hyer

Q&A with the CEO of Trusty

Company Quick Facts

Founded: 2019

Industry: Real Estate

Location: San Anselmo, CA

Tagline: Making real estate more real

Website: trustyco.com

Social: @trustyhome

Thursday, September 2, 2021 from San Anselmo, CA

ZK: Tell us about why you launched Trusty.

TH: I have moved a lot in my adult life and have been on the buy-side of a residential real estate transaction eight times. Each time, I found there wasn’t enough information out there for my family to really understand the house, the neighborhood, and overall community we were buying into. When you look at listing information on Zillow or Redfin, it’s always one-sided, built by the listing agent and the seller who are motivated to sell the house for as much money in the shortest time possible.

Compare that to other decisions we make in life – which restaurant to eat at, or which blender to buy – and you can read thousands of reviews around these purchases. Yet, when it comes to the largest financial purchase of your life, there is nothing out there where people can have real conversations about the good and the bad surrounding a home. This is the inspiration behind Trusty, where people can share their thoughts about homes openly and transparently so that buyers can have a much truer sense for what they’re buying before pulling the trigger.

ZK: That makes so much sense – the information asymmetry regarding such a critical financial decision is so massive, and we’ve all heard those horror stories around a regretful home purchase. Can you share more about how Trusty is working to fix that?

TH: We’ve designed a new social experience around real estate and are becoming the home for real estate conversation online. We’ve all experienced the phenomenon when a for sale sign comes up in our neighborhood – and neighbors start speaking to each other around what’s going to happen, how much it’s going to sell for, who might move in, etc. Historically, that type of discussion was only happening offline, and was lost to others who might gain from those informed perspectives.

With Trusty, we’re moving those offline conversations online and providing a destination where you can have a dialogue about specific homes. On our platform, you can talk about the listing price, debate how long a home may stay on the market, offer your pros and cons, and even add photos of your own showing a more complete context.

ZK: Are other platforms tapping this social aspect of real estate conversations?

TH: The existing players are mainly focused on real estate transactions and on serving real estate agents at their core. Trusty, at its core, is a consumer-first platform, and for us, we are designing our platform to maximize transparency for consumers so that they may make the best decisions possible for their family. Sell-side real estate agents have a job to do, and are representing the best interests of their customer, but this doesn’t generally align with the best interests of the end buy-side consumer.

What Trusty is saying is that we believe the consumer deserves to know everything, and that ultimate transparency is key to a better functioning marketplace. This approach can create conflict with agents, and it’s for this reason I believe the existing platforms have shied away from adopting the social aspects that are at our core.

ZK: Your model and approach seems similar to what Yelp pioneered for diners and Glassdoor brought to the table for job seekers – do you see Trusty as similar to these platforms, just with a home purchasing lens?

TH: There are many similarities, and just like the platforms you mention, it’s important to us that we facilitate a two-way dialogue rather than just telling one side of the story. So, if there are comments that may pose a question or even make a negative assumption, we encourage the listing agents to chime in clarifying their perspective on an issue so that the other members of our community can gain more clarity on an issue. We’ve found this helps ensure we have a healthy dialogue where the burning questions surrounding a property get addressed.

ZK: The pandemic really boosted the real estate market, in particular in suburban areas. How has this impacted the adoption of Trusty?

TH: Shelter-in-place was a huge flashpoint for real estate. People have never cared more about where they live and what their living situation is like because they’ve never spent so much time at home. We’ve seen secondary and tertiary markets explode during COVID, and new cities being put on the map as hot spots, and people are wondering, “Is this going to continue?” or “Is this going to crash?”

I’m proud that Trusty is providing a forum where people can have real conversations around these issues that don’t have clear answers. Some of the most interesting conversations on Trusty arise from people asking for advice. We had one user ask the community, “I’ve listed my home, it’s been on the market for 45 days, what should I do?” and the number of genuine responses from other community members has been heartening. With all of the uncertainty in the world right now, we're creating a community where hard questions can be asked and answered and its giving many people some degree of comfort amidst all of the uncertainty.

ZK: Trusty is now live throughout California – you first launched in Sacramento, and have more recently gone live here in Marin + Sonoma. You’re based in Marin – what does it mean to you to be a Marin entrepreneur?

TH: Trusty currently has five people on our business team, and we’re all based here in Marin. Our experience running the company from here has been nothing but positive. I previously ran a startup company based in San Francisco – this time around, COVID has been a good forcing function for us to be flexible in terms of where we work and who we hire. Our engineering team, for example, is entirely distributed, and by us not having a physical office, and hiring across markets, our initial capital is going a lot further.

I’ve really enjoyed engaging as a member of the MSIV Founder Network because it’s surfaced so many incredibly talented people I never knew I lived amongst. Everyone knows Marin is a beautiful place to live, but you wouldn’t necessarily know that innovative entrepreneurs and amazing investors call this community home. The MSIV community connected me to peer founders even when we were all sheltering at home, and now that things are opening up, I’m so excited to meet everyone in person as we create together this unique innovation hub for Marin + Sonoma.

ZK: How can Marin + Sonoma residents join the conversation on Trusty?

TH: The best place to start is with our social feed on trustyco.com – you can see the most active conversations happening on the platform around your neighborhood and join the conversation yourself. We encourage our neighbors here in Marin + Sonoma to submit home reviews – your unique insights on the homes you tour are tremendously helpful to our community of local homebuyers.

During the pandemic, real estate served as a form of entertainment for many people – surfers religiously checked Zillow with no intention of buying, while others followed real estate more closely than ever before for aspirational purposes, to get ideas on improving your existing home, or just to see how other people live. Trusty is the first place creating a community to share this experience with others, and we’re thrilled to see how this community evolves as we push ahead.

Zachary Kushel is Founder & Managing Partner of Marin Sonoma Impact Ventures.

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