Out Real Estate Entrepreneur Avantika Shahi Launches Haus

When real estate entrepreneur Avantika Shahi began to look for a new home for her wife and two sets of twins, she was frustrated by how many websites she had to cross-reference in order to find out about the neighborhood, the school district, and local amenities. So she decided to be the change she wanted to see. She founded Haus, which she dubs, "online dating for real estate."

"I experimented with a lot of different platforms, and found it very hard to synethize the information I needed across them," said Haus Founder and CEO Avantika Shahi, who has worked in real estate for the past decade as an agent, broker and home buyer. "I found that a lot of buyers spend too much time to get the stats and facts about a house that would actually help make the decision as to whether it was a good fit. Through that, I came up with the idea of grading homes to match your needs and wants."

Haus, which currently operates only in Los Angeles, includes information about available homes, including schools, neighborhoods, commutes, and lifestyle elements. For example, if you want to live in a quiet neighborhood, it will send you there. If you want access to retail, restaurants or bars, that will come up, too. You can narrow searches further by adding additional characteristics you're searching for, finding the perfect home with the click of a mouse.

"Right now we're just at the beta launch, but once we refine the data in L.A., our goal is to have Haus go across California, and then go nationally," said Shahi. "The site walks you through a series of questions... and depending on the weight you give each element, the algorithm scores and rates compatible homes for you. It's like EHarmony, mixed with real estate."

Shahi just launched the site this summer, but she has already started seeing an encouraging amount of users sign up. The site is free for home buyers, and operates like any home search platform.

The company has partnered with HowLoud to incorporate sound as a lifestyle characteristic, making it the first West Coast portal to add quiet/noise level to a lifestyle search. These elements are extremely important to home buyers, but as of now, there is no easy way to search by combining physical elements like proximity to a good school, with lifestyle elements like easy access to restaurants, or the social climate of the neighborhood.

"Our goal is to simplify this whole process for consumers," she said. "There has to be a better way to search for homes! So far, we pull up properties from Multiple Listings Services and match them with external filters. But once we get listings on the site directly from sellers, then we can slice the filters any way we want. You'll be able to ask it questions like, 'Is this neighborhood gay-friendly.' But we haven't gotten quite there yet."

Shahi and her partner have seeded the start-up themselves, and are now looking for investors to move the operation to the next level. Combined with caring for their sets of six-year-old and three-year-old twins, Shahi has been very busy!

But as she said, "Kids motivate you to do something in life." And if that thing is making home buying easier for everyone, then we're doubly grateful for it!