Nesterly Makes Multi-Generational Living Easy And Reliable
Students need housing, older home-owners have rooms, Nesterly does the matching. This new app wants to make multi-generational living more attractive and reliable by pairing users who are in need of affordable living space with those who have room to spare.
Nesterly, created by MIT Urban Planning graduates Noelle Marcus and Rachel Goor, is aimed at solving the challenge of “neighborhood stability and housing affordability”. Established neighborhood households who have room to spare help those in need of affordable housing by offering them a room with a lower rent in exchange for help around the house.
“For instance, a graduate student might move in with an empty-nester and pay just $700 per month instead of the market rate of $1,000. In exchange for an additional rent reduction, the student might walk the homeowner’s dog a few times per week.”
Similar to Airbnb, Nesterly users create a listing for their space. Those who are looking to rent create a profile with relevant personal information before they browse listings, and choose one that fits their need. The host chooses whether or not to match with the renter. After the match is confirmed by the host, the two parties chat to get to know each other. If the match is successful and both parties decide to move forward, a homesharing agreement is made and a new household is formed. Nesterly is different to other home sharing solutions in that it puts communication and people at the center. “Communication is so critical, so we’re building out interfaces that encourage conversations about expectations and on what the interaction will look like before anyone commits to anything,” says co-founder Rachel Goor.
Nesterly is tapping into the gap between elderly who remain living in family homes, even after their children move out, and millennials who look for affordable living space in popular cities. The app’s founders have found taht with “more than 50 million bedrooms sitting empty each night, and many people living in housing that is mismatched to their needs, it’s time for a new approach.” Intergenerational living is not a new phenomenon, and with many homeowners and room hunters resorting to family, friends, Facebook, Craigslist, and other websites, Nesterly aims at offering a reliable and solid platform to facilitate intergenerational living.
With Nesterly, the housing squeeze in big cities can be relieved by filling in existing space more efficiently. Within neighborhoods, it could bridge the gap between generations while distributing people of one generation across the city more evenly. The creators of Nesterly hope to enrich lives of hosts and renters by bringing liveliness to homes.