

Show HN: My Property Tracker, with automated data entry - laurencei
https://mypropertytracker.com/

======
laurencei
Hi everyone - OP here.

We've just launched our startup - www.mypropertytracker.com

This is actually a pivot of our original startup (by the same name). The
initial version had some early traction, but we struggled to get the
product/market fit correct. From talking to lots of customers - it became
apparent that whilst we were a "nice to have" program, we were not actually
saving anyone any time with their property paperwork.

So we've slightly pivoted and re-launched with "automated data entry".
Following on the many blogs of advice from people like pg - we are doing
something that doesnt scale. Instead, we now accept people emailing documents
to us, and we do the data entry on their behalf. We also have iPhone and
Android apps that people can use to take a photo of their documents and send
directly to us.

The goal is to be as simple and quick as possible, making our customers lives
easier.

Early feedback has been extremely positive - but it is still to early to see
how traction will go long term.

I'd appreciate any constructive feedback.

~~~
blowski
Looks really good. The landing page is well designed, and informative.

I feel like I'm nitpicking, but it's not immediately obvious to me whether
it's web-based or an app. The iPhone made me think it was an iOS app, and the
screengrabs on the desktop don't have any kind of browser chrome.

~~~
laurencei
I can now see how that can be confusing.

It is a web based product. But we also have an additional (optional)
iPhone/Android app to do the automated uploads with.

I might update the images in the near future to include browsers on the
screenshots to help highlight further.

Thanks for the idea.

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k3oni
As i see quite a few comments regarding the pricing i just wanted to mention
that i don't think you are selling yourself too cheap(granted i am not sure of
the amount of work behind the automated plan but i assume that is automated).
Why i say this is because i think your business is geared more towards the
newb/smaller property investor like the post guy, my wife's hairdresser
husband and his mom who might end up making a monthly cash flow of ~ $100-$200
/month/door. To these guys an extra $5 or $9 matter.

Also i would recommend you get in touch with the guys at biggerpockets.com(not
affiliated but a user) or mention your business there. Pretty big number of
investors there(big and small).

Good luck.

~~~
laurencei
Thanks for the tip about biggerpockets.com - we'll definitely check it out.

And you are right about our target market - although there is room for
everyone. We are still finding out feet, so we are always open to the idea of
adjusting pricing - but we need some data and early user feedback first to
help determine where we head from here...

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VengefulCynic
Looking at your pricing structure and FAQ, it looks like a better approach
would be to discriminate based on number of properties, raise your monthly
rate and just make it unlimited paperwork... 1-2 properties a month at $19/mo,
3-5 at $39, 6-20 at $99 and then a "slumlord" option. (or something like
that... obviously it's your business and you know your own costs)

Mostly, it seems unnecessarily fiddly to have entries in your FAQ about an
average number of pieces of paper and special rates on processing paperwork
backlogs.

------
vog
If this is successful, you'll collect a lot of private data, including
business secrets of investors.

Do you plan to monetize on that? (For example, by performing data mining and
selling statistics. Or, by contacting the investors and making interesting
offers to them.)

If not, can you guarantee that you won't monetize on that dataset in the
future? Is it even possible to guarantee such a statement?

~~~
laurencei
I think this applies to any business. Especially large companies like Xero and
Stripe come to mind. They have huge data (more than we will ever have).

We have a privacy policy [1] that covers what we can/wont do with your data.
We are an Australian based company, and we have fairly tight restrictions on
privacy. We have to comply with National Privacy Principles (NPPs) and the
Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) in Australia.

[1][https://mypropertytracker.com/privacy](https://mypropertytracker.com/privacy)

~~~
pa5tabear
So am I understanding correctly that "market research" means selling data
mining insights to advertisers? Do you expect this to be a significant portion
of revenue?

(I don't have a problem with this- I'm just curious.)

~~~
laurencei
We honestly have no intention of selling any data. I might talk to our lawyer
to clarify this point. We want people to trust us with their data.

Even if we could/did sell the data, it would be such a small portion of
revenue. Hence why I don't believe it is worth trading our ethics for...

------
creativeone
What's the difference of using this service versus sending all my paperwork to
a bookkeeper who uses Quickbooks, or a property management software like
Buildium or Appfolio?

~~~
laurencei
There are a few differences.

Firstly - "sending all my paperwork to a bookkeeper who uses Quickbooks". In
many ways we provide a service that is similar to this. However our website is
focused on property investors - so you dont require any additional programs
(like Quickbooks). We have many features that are specific to property
investors, like tracking valuations, insurance, loan contract information.
i.e. it is not "just" an accounting solution - it is an entire single platform
to manage your property investments.

In regards to Buildium or Appfolio - they are generally aimed more at large
property investors, or property management groups. Whilst there is overlap in
what we do - we feel we provider a easier and simplier experience. We've
invested a lot of time into the UX of the entire process to have it as simple,
quick and easy as possible.

------
wglb
This looks like a terrific service. I'm going to go with some other
commentators and say that the prices are 1) drastically too low 2) low enough
to not be taken seriously. The founder of
[http://riskpulse.com](http://riskpulse.com) told the story that in early
days, one or more of his clients _begged_ him to charge more.

~~~
laurencei
Thanks. It is important to remember the price is "per property per month". So
someone with more than a couple of properties actually can end up paying quite
a bit. So it is a trade off.

In saying that - like I mentioned - we've just launched - and we are still
finding out feet.

We'll take all the comments here, and combine it with the data we gather, and
definitely review it all :)

------
rson
I can't really comment on the domain, but I did notice that you've called out
Excel multiple times. I'm not sure if there are any concerns there but I would
at least suggest capitalizing it where you use it. Might be even better to
just use "spreadsheets" instead.

~~~
laurencei
Good points - thanks - will do.

------
rhubarbcustard
I know absolutely nothing about the domain or the problem being solved. My
initial reaction to the pricing was that it seems a bit cheap - $5 if they do
the manual work and only $4 extra for you to do it? Either it is a very simple
and quick process or you are selling yourselves a bit cheap?

~~~
laurencei
Thanks. Pricing is always a tough subject. Patio11 would tell us to charge
more - but this is a B2C model - so our client base will be price sensitive to
some degree.

The pricing is "per property". So some current customers have 10-20
properties, and in those circumstances the price can add up to be relatively
higher.

It is an area we will be paying very close attention to. Part of the problem
is we have some "assumptions/theories" on aspects relating to this - but we
are trying to gather "data" to make informed decisions.

So this pricing seemed like a good sweet spot to start with, and we can take
it from there...

~~~
patio11
Charge more! Your customers are businesses! A customer with 5 investment
properties is in most cases _literally a millionaire._

~~~
laurencei
Thanks Patio11 - I already had you in my head telling me to charge more when
we set the price :)

We'll review it along with some other data we are collecting...

------
democracy
With Sydney's cup of coffee price of 4 dollars your pricing IS a bit low :)

------
TimCinel
Not at all surprised that some Sydneysiders appear to be behind this
investment property portfolio management app, haha.

Nice work, I really do expect you guys to get a lot of attention. Have you
guys hit up Whirlpool forums?

~~~
laurencei
hahaha - thanks Tim. Everyone in Sydney is certainly talking about property at
the moment - hey? :)

We are currently doing some initial pushes through some other property
investor groups.

I've not yet hit Whirlpool - but it's on my list :)

------
lvandeyar
Very nice explainer video. Can you share who did it for you and whether or not
they were pretty costly? I'm going to need one done soon and The average quote
is very obscene (>$30k).

~~~
laurencei
Drop me an email: laurence (at) mypropertytracker (dot) com

I'll happily discuss it in more detail with you. It was significantly cheaper
than what you've listed.

------
andys627
Congrats! How do you do the data entry? How do you plan on scaling the data
entry? Do you have real estate experience?

~~~
laurencei
All the founders have significant property investment experience. This was
actually a "pain point" that we had ourselves. Despite looking for solutions -
there were none that did what we needed, to the level of quality we wanted. So
that is what lead to the idea.

We currently do the data entry with generally manual processes. However we are
already adding steps that greatly reduce the time required.

As the business grows we have options on how to automate more and more of the
data entry - but we need to validate the idea first and confirm we have
product/market fit prior to investing in further technology.

Plus - as pg says - doing things that dont scale is a great place to start.

By doing it manually we've already uncovered interesting data trends, and
processes that we never expected. So we plan on doing it manually for a bit
longer to ensure we learn as much as possible before we continue to build our
automation tools.

