By Angela Gonzales | Phoenix Business Journal
A new iRenting model based on the iBuyer model is making its Phoenix debut.
Called Nomad, the Denver-based company gives individual landlords a guaranteed rent offer on their property and takes on the heavy lifting of tenant placement and management.
PJ O’Neil, a former Opendoor executive and co-founder of Nomad, said he and co-founder Matt Thelen thought of this concept in 2019 — with plans to bring what Opendoor does for home sellers to individual landlords who are renting out single-family homes or small multifamily properties.
Since launching in January 2020, Nomad has landlord contracts with about 300 units in the Denver area.
One of those landlords is Masha Nikolenko, who has a couple of long-term rental properties in the Mile High City.
“We were having a lot of issues with tenants in terms of rent collection and tenant turnover and making sure the property was the same as when we handed it over,” said Nikolenko. “We were doing it ourselves and we decided to look for a good property management company.”
That’s when she found Nomad.
“I’ve referred four different landlords to them,” she said. “They all had good experiences as well.”
When she heard they were expanding to Phoenix, she said it inspired her to look for property in the area.
“We followed (Nomad),” Nikolenko said. “We’re working with a Realtor there now and taking a look at the market. Having that guaranteed rent is something that just puts us at ease as homeowners.”
With 23 employees in Denver, metro Phoenix is the company’s first expansion outside of Denver.
Phoenix is ideal for the first market because it is the birthplace of the iBuyer movement, O’Neil said.
“The assumption is the general population is more educated when it comes to new real estate solutions than other markets because of the penetration of iBuyers,” O’Neil said.
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