Industry Relations Episode 56: Pacaso: A New Proptech Venture – with OGs Spencer Rascoff & Austin Allison

What happens when real estate tech royalty get together to brainstorm business ideas? Not surprisingly, a general discussion of underutilized assets lends itself to a new proptech venture.

Spencer Rascoff (former CEO of Zillow) and Austin Allison (founder of dotloop) are the Cofounders of Pacaso, a startup working to democratize access to second homeownership. On this episode of the podcast, real estate tech OGs Spencer and Austin join Rob and Greg to discuss how Pacaso solves the problem around the underutilization of second homes and explain how consumers, agents, and brokers alike benefit from the service.

Spencer and Austin describe how Pacaso manages scheduling and dispute resolution, sharing what differentiates their product from a timeshare or the traditional DIY co-ownership model. Listen in for Spencer and Austin’s insight on current events in the industry, including the radical acceleration of tech adoption through COVID, the long-term impact of the DOJ lawsuit against NAR, and CoStar CEO Andy Florance’s attack on Zillow.

What’s Discussed: 

How Pacaso solves the problem around underutilization of second homes

How consumers, agents, and brokers benefit from Pacaso

What differentiates Pacaso from a timeshare

How Pacaso handles scheduling and what happens if one owner uses the home much more than the others

Why Spencer & Austin don’t see Airbnb as competition

How Pacaso manages dispute resolution and governance of a property

Why friction among owners is less likely with Pacaso vs. the DIY model

Spencer & Austin’s response to the idea that Pacaso is ‘rich people solving rich people problems’

How COVID has inspired a demand for co-ownership in city centers

How the digitization of real estate has accelerated through the pandemic and what that means for the industry

Why buyer side representation will not go away (despite the DOJ lawsuit)