Web site geared to college rentals: Two young entrepreneurs seek fortune with national Web site for college rental properties
PrintNov. 5--Brett Stapper, just 19 years old, has been in business for years.
At 16, the entrepreneur launched Northvalley Advertising, a business that let local companies put their business cards -- at a price -- in boxes at high-traffic locations in Marshfield. People could retrieve the cards with the press of a button.
"It was called 'business-card display advertising,' " said Stapper, a Marshfield High School graduate who now lives in Eau Claire. He said the company enjoyed moderate success -- "pretty good for (age) 16."
Now Stapper is involved in another enterprise, this one concerning property management companies nationwide.
Stapper and UW-Stout student Andrew Tarcon, 22, launched Homejotter.com in July. Similar in format to Apartments.com, the Web site aims to help college students find off-campus housing near their schools.
Stapper said Tarcon approached him in March about helping him with the site.
"He was looking for housing for the next year ... and he couldn't find anything. That's how he came up with the idea," Stapper said of Tarcon, who declined an interview request.
Stapper said the site allows property companies to list houses for free. The only other site he knows that allows free listings is Craigslist.com, but he noted that Craigslist doesn't cater specifically to college students as Homejotter does.
People using Homejotter choose the state in which they want to look for housing then select locations according to the college they attend. As of Wednesday, there were listings in 30 states.
They hope to expand the business internationally by the end of the year, Stapper said. Partners in the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore and Canada are expected to help harvest listings for the site in those places.
Ed Garlick, who owns EDJ Rentals of Eau Claire, said the site "appears to be working very well," noting that he has received calls from people who have used it.
"Anytime you can get exposure without costing you any money, it's definitely a plus," Garlick said of the ability to post listings for free.
EDJ Rentals, which had six properties on the site as of Wednesday, caters primarily to college students in UW-Eau Claire area.
The site eventually is expected to make money through advertising, Stapper said. But first it must increase the number of daily online visitors; currently, the site gets between 500 and 1,000 hits a day, Stapper said. The site must get 10,000 daily hits before he and Tarcon will seek advertisers, he said.
"That seems like the magic number for (companies) to be interested in advertising," Stapper said of the 10,000-hit quota.
They hope to get that many daily hits by next summer.
Bennett can be reached at 833-9203 or 800-236-7077.
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