Why is Patrick Grove starting a new property marketplace?

Years ago, when Eric Tan was searching for a place to rent in Malaysia, he had to contact multiple agents, wait for days to get information from those who replied, and track his research on a spreadsheet.

By the time he received responses, he was traveling out of state, so he had to ask his cousin to inspect the properties on his behalf. Tan also had to answer the same set of screening questions from every agent before viewing the property. Some listings ended up being duplicates, which meant that his cousin ended up visiting the same place twice.

Frustrated with the process, Tan approached Patrick Grove, his then-boss at internet firm Catcha Group, to discuss how they could improve the home-rental hunting process. Grove knew that Tan had always wanted to be an entrepreneur, and they had talked about launching a business together.

Patrick Grove, co-founder of Catcha Group / Photo credit: Patrick Grove

“We realized that much of this process can be streamlined and deployed online. Five years ago, there was no accessible technology to make this happen at scale, but now we have a lot of really high-quality, consumer-grade 360-degree hardware and software that allow you to do that at scale in a cost-efficient manner,” says Tan, who was Grove’s chief of staff at Catcha Group.

The result was Instahome, a startup co-founded by Tan, Grove, and a few Catcha Group colleagues that launched in October. Tan serves as the company’s CEO while Grove sits on the board but isn’t involved in the day-to-day operations.

What makes Instahome different from other rental property portals is that Tan’s team will do in-person visits and take photos and videos of each place. The new company also promises not to allow duplicate listings.

While this business model has the potential to solve a lot of issues for renters, is it truly scalable and sustainable?

What Instahome offers

In Tan’s view, Instahome aligns the interests of tenants, agents, and landlords through a streamlined system.

For instance, in a typical property listing site, agents pay for a certain number of ad credits. When the credits are about to expire, agents might use them by putting up ads to attract inquiries and leads, even if the advertised units are no longer available.

Landlords also fail to realize that rental properties aren’t exactly the passive investment they assume them to be. Leasing a house to a tenant involves managing issues like delayed rental payments and arranging maintenance and repair services.

Eric Tan, CEO and co-founder of Instahome / Photo credit: Instahome

Kuala Lumpur-based Instahome aims to solve these problems by offering incentives for agents, tenants, and landlords.

Making it work

Market response and outlook