VISTOO – A True Canadian Real Estate Startup

Vistoo operates in the new home market across Canada. It is a multi-service marketing platform that connects potential buyers and tenants (prospects) directly with property developers who manage the process of building, buying and selling new real estate.

Inspiration behind our business

Since its launch in the spring of 2021, Vistoo has been revolutionizing the advertising approach used in the past by developers for their new real estate projects in Canada.  The two pioneers behind the concept, Stephanie Darras and Enzo Fernandez, believed there was a gap in the market for a platform to facilitate the online search for new properties in Canada.  Stephanie, with her impressive corporate management skills learned in the automotive industry, and Enzo, with a degree in administration and top-notch talents in digital marketing that he acquired at a young age, decided to combine their experience and fill that gap. Hence, they founded Vistoo with one goal in mind: to optimize the user experience for both buyers and sellers.

Problems the business solves

Builders have been working tirelessly to keep up with the demands for new housing, so the options for buyers are more varied than ever before. Vistoo’s website enables users to find quick and easy solutions in their searches for a new home, and thus select the property that best meets their needs and expectations. Its mission is simple: streamline the process for researching the perfect home using high resolution images and map search tools. Through Vistoo, potential buyers can assess extensive demographic data on all the properties they view.

Our magic recipe

In building its website, Vistoo reached out to leading search optimization specialists and information providers, including LocalLogic, Google Map Search, Planpoint, 3D Tours, Property Videos and Mortgage Calculator. Being able to access these resources gives buyers and renters the opportunity to visualize neighborhoods that appeal to them, check out their dream home and its proximity to schools, banks and shops, parks, etc. Moreover, since this platform was built from the ground up, it’s been able to adapt to its clients’ evolving needs with input and collaboration from Vistoo’s rapidly growing client base, which already numbers over 200 builders across the province.

Competitive advantages

One of the benefits most appreciated by Vistoo’s clients is how the number of conversions on the site itself are maximized through multiple website portals, making every visitor a sales potential. Developers have access to a dashboard where they can get their statistics at any time, on any of their projects. And a faster connection to developers’ CRM ensures accelerated and better informed contacts, thereby greatly reducing precious hours spent between developers’ sales teams and prospects. 

Compared to other websites in the industry, the Vistoo platform offers a superior user-friendly experience. This is achieved through a combination of the abovementioned search tools and a thoughtfully designed, state-of-the-art functionality that Vistoo’s creators have been perfecting since the website’s inception.

Another feature that makes it unique is that it operates in English, French, Spanish and Chinese, exposing real estate in Canada to the widest audience possible.

What we would do differently if we could go back in time a year or more

Hindsight, of course, is 20/20. As the website gained traction in its first year, Vistoo’s architects began to realize that a more aggressive marketing strategy of their brand in the early stage of startup would have made a difference. They also relied on some third-party services that were not very cost-effective with respect to return vs investment, proving to be a waste of time and resources. Finally, more focus on outsourcing dynamic personnel to conduct sales calls would have given the company a major boost. That said, growing too rapidly can sometimes also be harmful.

Biggest challenge(s) so far

Vistoo started proposing its online advertising model at the peak of the real estate bubble in 2021. On the whole, builders and developers, whose projects were selling faster than they could be built at the time, didn’t really see a pressing need for Vistoo’s marketing services. When the market started cooling down, however, interest in Vistoo began to escalate rapidly.

5-year goals

Vistoo already has a remarkable presence and inventory in Quebec and plans to expand across Canada in the near future. Its ultimate ambition is to become the go-to reference for potential buyers and renters of new real estate. Since its launch less than two years ago, the website has had over 100,000 visitors, and the company now foresees only sustained growth in its future!