Well Timbr is finally here and I am happy to say that it was worth the wait. The overriding philosophy behind the app is that it makes chatting about houses fun, and rewards relationship building.
Let me walk you through how it goes.
Once you’ve downloaded the app, you have six on-boarding screens that explain what the icons mean and how to use the app. First, it encourages you to setup your profile. Because Timbr is all about communicating, it’s important that you set up your profile. A very brief bio will encourage others to reply to your message, and it gives you the opportunity to explain why you’re on the app. For example: ‘my husband, two preschoolers and three cats are looking for a fix it upper within 30 minutes of the city’ or “having just completed our renovations, I am looking to share what I learned’ or even ‘Help! Just moved into my first home and I’d love advice from those of you who are going through this or recently done it too’.
The next on-boarding screen mentions adding props. ‘Props’ are the name Timbr gives to any property cards but props for short (like ‘props to you for being so great!’). It may take a while to bed in, but we didn’t know what a tweet was until we started doing it so, hey… A prop can be a whole house or just a small part of it, like asking for advice on the bathroom or showing off your gorgeous redecorated hallway. It’s not a listing, but like an online dating bio with a maximum of 6 photos and a 500 character max description. The point of this is not to answer all questions preemptively, but to stimulate curiosity which will lead to a message - Timbr is all about the chatting!
The next screen explains the traffic light system - when you upload a prop, you signal your intention to sell (or not). Red means ‘just for show’, orange means ‘twist my arm’ and green means ‘all systems go’. When it comes to viewing the props, each one needs to be filtered in or out before you get the next prop - swipe right to add to favourites or swipe left to never see it again. To help you make up your mind, you can expand the prop by clicking on the i icon and see the full bio and the other pics. You can also message the owner from this screen, without favouriting it first.
Messaging can be anything you want but it will broadly fall into the following categories: praising the work done (giving props to the owner!), asking questions, offering advice or discussing buying.
The lovely thing about Timbr is that you can not only achieve the price you want when you do finally go to sell your home, but you can do it with full transparency to someone you can negotiate with directly. Instead of doing up your home and presenting it for weeks of open homes, you can agree with the buyer what is important to them and save yourself a lot of stress and money in the process. And it is completely free. The functionality that you see now will always be free to browsers and owners. So, check it out and upload props - the more there is the more fun we will all have!
Angela Howell, CEO Timbr