Charlotte dads make home maintenance easy with new app
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — As homeowners begin planning their spring cleaning and home maintenance projects, many are now using StreetFair, a new app developed by two Charlotteans.
The free website and app allow users to see which local businesses and home maintenance services, like lawn care or painting, their neighbors use and trust. It also shows which companies are scheduled to do work in the neighborhood. Users can then schedule their own service on the same day the existing booking is for a discounted rate.
Co-founder and CEO Teddy Fitzgibbons said it began as a pandemic project.
“Honestly, we got started by complaining to each other. We both have young kids. My co-founder, I and our wives work. So two working parent households and the last thing we had time for was spending hours trying to get a recommendation for a local business or going back and forth on quotes and scheduling,” he said. “I just remember thinking, ‘You know, I wish I could see who my neighbors are to use and when those companies are going to be here, because I’ll just tag along.’”
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Fitzgibbons said the platform has grown to nearly 13,000 users in the past two years. He said StreetFair is different from sites like NextDoor or Facebook in that it is solely for home maintenance.
“It’s not a social network. You can’t comment or complain or post anything like that. It’s just where you can go and see which local businesses your neighbors use. And you can book right through StreetFair, unlike a social network where you then have to call the company or figure out which business they’re referring to,” he said.
Each user must sign up with a verified address. If the neighborhood is not registered with StreetFair, homeowners may request to join.
“On average, we have 20 percent of the households in a given neighborhood that sign up for StreetFair within the first couple of weeks,” Fitzgibbons said. “We’ve really seen that resonate on the homeowner side pretty immediately. And we now have more than 500 local businesses that have been recommended by users and then vetted and added to the platform.”
Employees research service providers before adding them to the list of suggested professionals. They are not required to offer services at a discounted rate if multiple homeowners book through the app, but Fitzgibbons said many elect to do so on their own.
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“They spend a lot less time driving, a lot less time on gas. And that’s part of why they pass those discounts along to neighbors through StreetFair.”
The app is currently used in more than 200 neighborhoods and, according to the owners, is ready to roll out to neighborhoods across the country.
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