Unlisted connects owners with potential consumers earlier than they even put their properties up on the market and is a part of TechCrunch Disrupt 2025

Katie Hill’s dream house isn’t in the marketplace — however someday, will probably be, and she or he desires dibs. That, and a little bit of neighborly envy, is how she acquired the concept for her startup, Unlisted Houses, which is a Prime 20 Startup Battlefield finalist at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025.

“I’ve all the time imagined myself as an outdated girl with a giant hat and large sun shades, sipping a martini by the pool,” mentioned Hill, a longtime entrepreneur. As her kids develop into adults and transfer away from house, her neighbor’s lot throughout the road appears good: It’s a smaller house that’s good for downsizing, however extra importantly, it has a pool.

“I discussed to my neighbor someday whereas he was chopping his grass that if he ever desires to promote his home, I used to be concerned with shopping for it, which I knew was type of a daring transfer, however I don’t know, I used to be possessed to do it,” she informed TechCrunch. “He lit up, and he was like, ‘Are you severe? As a result of I’m beginning to consider retirement.’”

An off-the-cuff dialog became one thing doubtlessly life-changing; Hill and her neighbor determined that when he lastly places the home in the marketplace, she’s going to get a proper of first refusal, getting her one step nearer to her dream poolside retirement.

“I’m not likely out there to purchase a home, and he’s not likely out there to promote a home, however we have been having a fairly significant dialog a couple of future transaction,” she mentioned. “I felt a way of aid that I used to be going to listen to from him earlier than I drove house from the grocery retailer and noticed an indication within the entrance yard and needed to scramble, so I used to be pondering, what number of different individuals up and down the block are pondering the identical factor?”

Unlisted is like Zillow, however for homes that aren’t but in the marketplace — beforehand, this was an online platform solely, however the firm introduced on stage at Disrupt that it’s launching an iOS app. Utilizing public information of 21 million properties, Unlisted created “profiles” for every property, offering the identical type of info that you’d discover on every other actual property listings web site.

“We put a waitlist on each single property profile, so a purchaser that admires a house can add themselves to a ready record, after which what they’re doing is unquestionably expressing curiosity in a property,” Hill mentioned. “We notify the house owner that there’s a waitlist for his or her house and drive them again to the positioning.”

From there, owners can replace the itemizing of their house, add extra info, and chat with the individuals on the waitlist.

Unlisted doesn’t plan to facilitate actual property transactions via the platform, because the sources for these transactions exist already. Moderately, Unlisted will promote sponsorships on particular person ZIP codes to actual property brokers, whose info might be linked to each house in that ZIP code as a neighborhood knowledgeable. Later, the corporate hopes to attach native owners with sources {that a} house owner may want, like roofers or electricians.

“Our aim is to be a nationwide platform, however on the finish of the day, actual property finally ends up native, and so we wish to join individuals to these native sources,” she mentioned. “Up to now, most of these have been actual property brokers … We simply had our first mortgage firm be part of.”

In June, Unlisted launched the waitlist function, which Hill says has generated waitlists for five,700 properties, or about $4 billion price of potential actual property transactions.

“One of many actually vital parts of getting this enterprise off the bottom was the mentorship that I’ve obtained,” Hill mentioned.

After listening to Kayak co-founder Paul English inform his story on an episode of the podcast How I Constructed This, she emailed him an early pitch deck and requested if he knew somebody she may speak to for technical help. English was intrigued sufficient that he linked her with Kayak’s former chief architect, Invoice O’Donnell, who grew to become an angel investor and board member for Unlisted.

“They’ve been completely unbelievable,” she mentioned. “Their expertise is so wild. They took [Kayak] public for $2 billion, took it again non-public for one more $2 billion … They’ve seen all of it.”

Hill based the corporate in 2022, devoting nights and weekends with one different engineer. Over time, Hill was in a position to make the corporate her full-time job, elevating near $1 million from angel buyers. Final November, she raised one other $2.25 million led by Hearst Lab, which funds early-stage corporations based by ladies.

If you wish to be taught from Unlisted firsthand, and see dozens of extra pitches, attend priceless workshops, and make the connections that drive enterprise outcomes, head right here to be taught extra about this yr’s Disrupt, held this week in San Francisco.