Grocery delivery app Shipt founder Bill Smith has just launched Landing, a membership-based spin on apartment rentals, throughout several of the most sought after cities in America, as reported by Alabama NewsCenter.
The company provides short-term furnished rentals to members at a slight markup, offering much more flexibility than typically found in an apartment lease.
Here’s how it works. Once someone purchases a $199 yearly membership to Landing, they can rent one of the company’s furnished apartments, which are strewn throughout cities like New York, San Francisco and Nashville. These apartments cost 10% to 13% more per month than if they were rented directly from a landlord, but members can stay indefinitely on a month-to-month basis, with only three days notice required before moving out.
“Renting needs to change,” Smith, who helped fund Landing with $15 million of his own money, said. “The whole point of renting is to have freedom and flexibility, and the way it is today, you don’t have flexibility because you’re locked into a lease. You have to move all this furniture around and do all this work and you just want to focus on your job and your friends and living your life.”
The flexibility to leave with only three days notice is key here, with most landlords requiring 30, 60 or even 90 days notice before vacating the premises.
“You sign a 12-month lease, and you get an empty apartment – that’s been our business model forever,” said National Multifamily Housing Council VP Rick Haughey. “Providing more flexibility than that traditional model is likely to take hold in the future. That is the potential disruptor for our industry.”
Landing also acts as a member’s surrogate if there are maintenance issues, sending someone over to wait for the plumber, as an example, another perk that has helped grow the company’s paying base. They also provide housekeeping and concierge services to its members.
“With Landing, we’re introducing a new way for people to live,” Smith, who sold grocery delivery app Shipt to Target in 2017, told The Tennessean. “[We have] a mission of building the first company that’s enabling a new generation to live with more flexibility, while maintaining the convenience and comforts of home.”
The properties on offer are on the expensive side, with a 670-square-foot one-bedroom apartment at AvalonBay’s AVA High Line in Manhattan being offered at $4,785 a month plus $259 in utilities. An apartment in New York City’s One Hudson Yards is being offered at $6,437 a month plus utilities.
“We’re focused on more mobile professionals, and people looking for freedom, flexibility and great experiences– but they don’t want to be tied down,” Smith concluded.
The company expects to operate in 30 cities worldwide by 2021.
