As we head into the spring home-buying season, Wahi is giving Canadian couples another tool for their house-hunting arsenals — and inviting some much-needed innovation into the process, while they’re at it.
The digital real estate platform has officially unveiled the next generation of its inaugural app — users can now tap into a (totally free) house hunting feature for couples. The refreshed app helps facilitate a collaborative, streamlined, and, quite frankly, more enjoyable home-buying experience for those who are tackling the process as a pair.
As for why (and why now), Wahi CEO Benjy Katchen explains the reasoning is pretty cut and dried: they’re simply listening to their users.
“As we started getting more customers using the initial Wahi app and actually doing real estate transactions, many of them started saying, 'wouldn't it be nice if I could do this as a housing-hunting team',” says Katchen, who brought Wahi Realty Inc. into the Canadian real estate scene in May 2022.
“So we started really looking at what was out there, and came with the insight that there was an opportunity to build the best house-hunting app for couples.”
In formulating 'Wahi 2.0' (if you will), Katchen and his team quickly confirmed that they were meeting a timely need. They learned that today, 75% of homebuyers in Canada purchase with a partner.
House Hunting App for Couples by Wahi Realty Inc., Brokerage
“We talked to numerous consumers that have bought with Wahi, and really got deep into what they like — and didn’t like — about our app and house-hunting experience,” Katchen says. “And from there, the question became: how do we put this together so that it's a magical experience for couples, and unlike anything that’s existed before.”
In essence, Wahi’s new house hunting app for couples brings all of the steps of the home-buying journey to one convenient place.
Couples can swiftly share listings with one another, schedule showings, and chat with each other — and their Wahi REALTOR® — without ever leaving the app.
And beyond providing a centralized place to access the house-hunting must-haves, the Wahi app, as a rule, touts the best of tech and user experience. For example, it has a built-in recommendation engine (à la Netflix), as well as a matching service akin to Tinder’s.
“On Wahi, you can ‘heart’ a house and your partner can equally do that… And then we have that seamless communication where you, your partner, and your Realtor can text, chat, get a showing. You can book all of that, and be in communication with each other super fast,” Katchen explains.
House Hunting App for Couples by Wahi Realty Inc., Brokerage
It's not only couples who can benefit from the new app. Any homebuyer who's looking to collaborate in their property-hunt — with a friend, sibling, parent, or otherwise — will find ease through all the platform has to offer. For Wahi, the underlying intention is to bring smoothness and simplicity to a process that has a reputation for being, well, challenging.
“Everybody has to make compromises in real estate — whether you have to pay a bit more than you thought, or move a little bit further out of the city, or have a slightly smaller place — and then those compromises get more complicated when you’re a couple," Katchen says.
"What we're aiming to do is help people bridge those trade-offs quicker, so that people can find the right home faster, and at an affordable price for them. And the feedback we're getting from everyone has been nothing but positive.”
To download the Wahi app by Wahi Realty Inc., Brokerage and invite your co-buyer, click here.
This article was produced in partnership with STOREYS Custom Studio.
