* VTS launched its leasing marketplace, VTS Market and Marketplace, last month.
* The product integrates directly into the company's lease management software, which manages more than 60% of the country's Class A office space.
* The marketplace collects and displays 250 different data points about each space to tenants, including a virtual tour of every property.
* We spoke to CEO Nick Romito about the launch, and he gave Business Insider an exclusive demo of the product.
* Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
VTS, the commercial leasing unicorn, is doubling down on remote leasing.
Last month, it launched VTS Market and Marketplace, a leasing marketplace that integrates directly into the company's lease management software, after a few months of test-runs in markets like New York.
That integration into VTS's lease management software, CEO Nick Romito told Business Insider, is expected to facilitate fast adoption of the product, as its lease management product is in use at more than 12 billion square feet of commercial leases, including more than 60% of national Class A office space.
The news comes a few months after the proptech company announced its retail leasing management software, a new asset class for the company.
VTS, founded in 2012, has raised almost $200 million in funding, capped off by a 2019 $90 million Series D round, led by Brookfield Ventures, the VC-arm of leading landlord Brookfield Asset Management. Rumors about VTS going public have swirled since it hired Bob Bies as chief financial officer, who has extensive M&A experience from his time leading acquisitions at data company Syncsort, in 2019, but so far the company hasn't made moves towards an IPO.
VTS Market is a tool for tenant-side brokers to collect accurate information, professional photos, and videos of spaces that are on the market from a website, which they can use to help clients whittle down the spaces they're interested in.
"We basically built a remote leasing platform: a way to get excited about a space from their home or their phone," Romito said.
Romito said this will also be a powerful tool for landlords, as it allows them to replace their expensive, one-off marketing websites with a profile on a centralized marketplace, for which VTS charges somewhere between two to five cents per square-foot. Landlords and their brokers will be able to use the product to coordinate and track their deals and access online marketing data about properties.
Romito said that one data point, the number of times a company has toured a space on the platform, has directly correlated to leasing outcomes.
"Anytime we see a company tour a piece of space on our platform 25 times, they end up submitting a proposal," Romito said, highlighting some of the most interesting data from their trial run before launching the software more broadly.
"Once the online views on VTS are over 50, there's a signed lease attached to that space 100% of the time," Romito said.
While the product had been in development for years, the coronavirus crisis's drastic impact on real estate leasing accelerated its importance, according to Romito.
Callie Haines, executive vice president of asset management, Brookfield Properties, told Business Insider that she expects the current leasing climate will help be a powerful tool as tenants are looking to minimize in-person tours. Brookfield is already using the product.
"It will be very attractive to tenants, particularly given the current environment, as they look to minimize the number of spaces they need to see in person. Given that, we think adoption will happen quickly," Haines said.
Romito gave us a demo of the full platform, and explained why the company is the best prepared to bring commercial leasing online.
SEE ALSO: Here's a look at new software that proptech unicorn VTS just launched — it's a big bet on helping landlords fill space post-retail apocalypse
SEE ALSO: Meet Material Bank, a Bain-backed logistics startup disrupting the architecture industry. Here's a look at its vision for becoming the Amazon of design.
SEE ALSO: Here's the pitch deck used to raise a $4.4 million seed round for an AI chatbot looking to transform how people find apartments
The tour began with a demo of VTS Market's search function.
VTS Market's search function allows tenant's brokers to search for locations by size, price, space condition (whether a space is pre-built or already has an office buildout) and the submarket it is in.
The service is offered for free for brokers, who VTS envisions will be the main users of the product, using it to collect and display information on potential office spaces for their clients.
Once a user picks a specific building that they're interested in, they're brought to the building's page.
The building page displays a range of information about the building. At the top are photos of the exterior and public spaces of the building, as well as a video that shows what it looks like to enter the building from the outside and walk into the lobby. All of their video footage and photos are shot by VTS's production employees.
The page also includes a range of data about the building: certifications like LEED, notable tenants, nearby restaurants and subways lines, and the size, age, and history of the building.
The building information is pulled directly from what landlords have entered into VTS's lease management software. Romito said this helps make their listings more accurate than other companies that are trying to build online rental marketplaces.
The page also includes a list of all of the vacant office spaces in the building.
The listing page for specific vacant properties displays 250 different data points for the vacant space, from the listing broker's contact information to the ceiling height.
The format for the listing page should be familiar to anyone who has searched for an apartment on StreetEasy or Zillow. VTS provides a selection of photos and videos of the space, a listing of the office's amenities and features, and some facts about the space.
The company also includes a direct form to contact a broker, allowing the company to easily track broker interest in a way that integrates directly into VTS's lease management software.
The price section also allows a landlord to set a price that adjusts based on the lease term length, allowing for transparency into the cost of shorter leases.
The below video is an example of one of VTS's tours of an office space.
VTS actually started its business by providing stabilized video tours of office space. Video tours are an important part of the product, especially in a pandemic, allowing potential tenants to see if a space would work for their company remotely without having to enter dozens of buildings.
"They're a qualified lead," Romito said. "They've done their window shopping already."
The space above is a built-out office, but VTS also provides virtual test fits that allow potential tenants to see what a white-box, not yet built out location would look like if it was built out.
A potential tenant can tour through the virtual test fit, and adjust the number of seats in an office space. While this sort of software exists on its own for designers and architects, Romito said that VTS Market is the only real estate marketing platform to offer the virtual test fits.
VTS also offers a portfolio view, which allows a broker to look through the whole portfolio of a landlord.
VTS Market will also provide a wide range of analytics to its landlord, from the most interested brokers and tenants to a detailed view of the pipeline for a property, from when it is first viewed to when a lease is signed.
A landlord can also easily publish a listing directly in VTS by marking a space as available and then scheduling a time for VTS's video team to shoot a tour for the space.
While much of the marketing power of VTS Market comes from merely aggregating accurate information together, VTS also does a lot of distribution by sending properties directly to brokers who may be interested in them. Unlike some marketing platforms, landlords aren't able to pay for placement, instead, VTS serves up properties that fit brokers' search history and interest.
https://bit.ly/3es4EBg