This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Miami (OH) chapter.
Searching for off-campus housing in Oxford is stressful with a capital S. Should you rent a house or an apartment–and which houses are even available? Luckily, Sean Crowe and Thomas Gorczynski recognized this problem and came up with a solution: Hutster.com. Thier website allows you to search easily through potential housing options, greatly simplifying the process.
HC: What are your majors?
Sean Crowe, Junior – MIS Major, Entrepreneurship minor
Thomas Gorczynski, Junior – Electrical Engineering Major, Entrepreneurship minor
HC: What gave you the idea to start Hutster?
During our sophomore year summer, we started looking for housing for our senior year. After struggling through the chaos of inconsistent and sporadic information, we decided to fix the off campus housing search process. Oxford has a unique environment where students search for housing more than a year in advance in most cases. It was a pain point in our lives and we were in the unique position to be able to do something about it. We feature apartments, houses, and other rental options for Miami University students.
HC: How successful have you been so far?
We have seen outstanding success so far. First semester was a beta semester so that we could feel out the market and really get to know where we wanted to take the company and how best to run it. This semester is our launch, where we have a good idea of the business model and we’re developing relationships with the landlords, really proving that we can make an impact at Miami. We have partnered with PSE, a professional marketing fraternity, and could not be happier with the results.
HC: Are you making money by starting this website?
With our current model, Hutster is free to use, we generate our revenue by having realtors and property managers advertise properties on the homepage. So if a landlord has a specific property that is tough to sell, or they just really need to get it signed fast, they pay Hutster to have them on the Featured list.
HC: What are your plans for the future of the website?
Our goal is to be on 5 regional campuses by the end of our senior year (2014). It’s only a year away, but we’re confident that we can begin developing our brand on other campuses. As far as the website itself goes, we have a lot of amazing features in the works to continue the pursuit to streamline the off campus housing search.
We are so thankful for such an amazing solution to our housing woes. Thanks Sean and Thomas! Check out the site at www.hutster.com.