Marcin Rybinski is an entrepreneur with 25 years of experience in direct marketing, accounting, IT and property development. He is an advocate of investing in leveraged rental properties, and the iNajem.pl online rental service system allows him to realize his ambitions and bring this industry to the digital world. We talk to Marcin Rybinski about the platform he co-founded, his plans for development, and the share issue that iNajem.pl is running.
You are creating an application to manage real estate rentals. Are you aiming it at owners of large premises, such as office buildings or shopping malls, or maybe at owners of apartments who make them available to private tenants?
We are developing a mobile application, but it will only be a part of the already existing iNajem.pl portal. It is a comprehensive online system for long-term rental of rooms, apartments and commercial premises. Practically every landlord is our potential customer. People renting their own properties, professional property managers, real estate agents and large funds receive a tool that streamlines and automates their work. Practically every property can be rented and accounted for in our system. As far as the shopping center is concerned, it would require individual implementation, for which we are also prepared. Let’s not forget about the other side of the lease contracts – the tenants. For them, a user account will always be free and will improve the relationship with the landlord when it comes to contracts, protocols, as well as billing and possible failures.
I myself rent an apartment, i.e. I am a tenant. And to tell you the truth, from my point of view, managing a rental property is not particularly complicated – signing a contract, collecting a fee, inspection visits from time to time. How is it from your perspective? What are the problems faced by owners of premises making them available to others?
The same could be said, for example, about banking 30 or 20 years ago. The customer went to the bank, stood in line, and then did everything he wanted in the window with a nice employee signing a pile of documents. Today, banking has moved to the Internet with the automation of service processes, and the same is and will be in the management of real estate for rent. Landlords who do not use the benefits of new technology have to perform many activities “on foot”, not to mention the rapid verification of tenants or their accounting for rent and utilities used. The time spent on calls to repair failures, to determine the balance of settlements or tax liability on earned income is significantly increased using standard management models.
Since the question was asked about the problems, the solution must also be asked. What exactly does the iNajem platform enable?
Our system allows to digitalize leased items along with their equipment, verify tenants, remotely conclude various agreements, annexes and delivery and acceptance protocols, semi-automatically issue sales documents and settle utilities, automatically settle accounts with tenants, and what’s interesting and quite innovative for initiated landlords, introduces the possibility of applying base and effective rents in an automated manner. iNajem.pl is also adapted to the legal and tax conditions applicable in Poland, and the module is designed so that it can be easily implemented to the conditions in other EU countries and beyond. We have ambitions and plans to appear on other markets.
By the way, there are several similar platforms on the market – it is good, there is a market. But you have to stand out on it with something. Please tell us what makes iNajem different or better than its competitors?
I can immodestly say that we don’t have such typical competition in Poland. There is one, or maybe two online systems for property rental, but they differ significantly in functionality and philosophy of operation. We are creating a marketplace for property rental by connecting not only landlords with tenants, but also with providers of services for rent and legal and tax service of renting. Automation of processes in long-term rental is the main goal we had while designing our portal. Everything is based on our own experience, as the partners have been involved in renting their own residential and commercial properties for many years.
I also know that you have recently started with the issue of shares, during which you want to raise over 500 000 PLN from investors. What are you planning to spend these funds on?
As a startup, we have done a lot of work and also invested our own money in this project. The web version of the product is ready. We can already start making money, but we want to accelerate the pace of development and introduce a mobile application, a search engine and implement other original ideas, about which I cannot talk today. They will certainly have a positive impact on strengthening our position on the market. A large part of the funds raised will be spent on product promotion and customer conversions. These are necessary actions to increase revenue for the company and thus build its value.
What will happen after the successful fundraising? How will you develop for the remaining months of 2022?
If we manage to raise all the funds (although the timing may seem unfavorable, as war has unfortunately broken out behind our fence), it will accelerate our development and increase the value of the company. We count on the whole community of investors in real estate for rent, who are also our potential users of the system. For them we have provided special bonuses when buying shares. Of course, we also have a plan B, which we will independently implement to achieve the best possible results.
Article written in cooperation with iNajem.pl
