Pest Share: The modern solution to pest control

Key takeaways

• Pest Share is an innovative SaaS-based pest control solution, reducing cost burdens by spreading them across properties.
• Pest Share is developing an AI system for easy pest identification and plans to integrate its software with other property management platforms for enhanced efficiency.
• By utilizing modern technology and streamlining processes, Pest Share is set to transform traditional pest control within the property management industry.

In an episode of Poplar Propcast, Justin Lieberknecht, VP of Marketing at Poplar Homes sits down with Tom Clements, CRO and co-founder of Pest Share to talk bugs! Pest Share is a company known for making pest control accessible, quick, and affordable for residents and property owners. 

To explore this topic in greater detail, catch the full episode on Google Podcast or in any streaming platform you prefer. Below is a summary of the highlights covered in Season 1, Episode 20 of the Poplar Propcast.

Issues with traditional pest control services

While pest control services have been around for a long time, they haven’t always served well for all types of customers effectively. Tom shares his perspective on the current issues of traditional pest control services:

• Pest control is charged to renters – “The pest control [cost] is on the resident,” says Tom, identifying one core issue. Often, renters are the ones burdened with pest control charges, which can be financially straining. With renters, “your value to that property usually ends at the point of having a roof over your head,” Tom notes. This mindset potentially limits the frequency and quality of pest control services that are accessible.
• DIY applications – Tom points out that some residents often resort to DIY pest control applications, which may be ineffective at times because of the knowledge gap surrounding pest treatment, “How much does everybody know about the actual treatment of pest control or the proper use of products? My experience is, it’s very little.” 
• Difficulty of finding pest control services – Tom points out that when property managers put the onus of finding pest control solutions on the renters, it creates additional work and stress for them. “Well, now the work to get ahold of them [pest control services] is on them [renters],” Tom explains, outlining the difficulty renters face when forced to shop around for pest control services.

Benefits of Pest Share for property managers and residents

The value Pest Share offers extends far beyond cost-effective pest control services; it significantly enhances resident satisfaction and alleviates the property managers’ burdens, leading to a healthier relationship between both parties.

As Tom points out, “There’s a financial benefit from this. There’s also an alleviation standpoint from having happy residents in comparison to the inverse of not happy residents.” This is an undeniable win-win situation; residents receive affordable pest control, while property managers can minimize complaints and improve their service scores.

How Pest Share works

Pest Share divides the cost of pest control across all units. Property managers are charged per unit which they can bake into the renter’s monthly fee in exchange for accessible pest control services. This eliminates having to pay large out-of-pocket expenses that often burden residents.

Tom further explains their unique approach, “We operate similarly [as insurance companies], obviously. We don’t do any kind of deductibles or anything like that. We offer a flat rate package to the PM [property managers] that you wanna allow your residents to use.” By offering customizable packages to property managers, Pest Share ensures each property in its portfolio gets the specific pest control services it needs specific to the area it serves.

To illustrate the benefit of Pest Share, Tom shares an experience he had when he was still operating as a traditional pest control service that inspired the idea for creating Pest Share. 

“There was a property management company that had a multifamily complex and one of their residents reported bedbugs. And so we went in there and we took care of the problem. And they came back,” reports Tom. “So then we sent a sniffing dog out and it turns out 18 units were affected. The effects were almost a $36,000 bill,” he added. 

“Now imagine if Pest Share was already on. I don’t have a resident afraid to make a claim because it’s already baked into their rent. Now as a property manager, I’m not trying to pass that bill onto the owner because nobody wants to pay a $10,000 bill. We try to prevent those things. That’s what this is.” 

Who should get Pest Share?

Pest Share primarily provides value to homeowners and property managers, offering an attractive feature to residents. Additionally, it holds the potential to introduce a new revenue stream for these key stakeholders.

As Justin observes, “Single-family [housing] specifically consolidates more and more and kind of gets these bigger, broader players.” This trend in the housing market underlines the growing need for regular pest control services, much like the standard in large apartment buildings.

Justin also offers an insightful analogy, comparing the Pest Share model to insurance. He states, “It’s harder to do on onesie-twosies, but the bigger the block you have, the easier it is to make the argument.”

What sets Pest Share apart 

One of the key differentiators of Pest Share is its software. Tom emphasizes on the software as “…the biggest thing that really kind of separates us apart. We operate as a SaaS company.” With a focus on making life easier for both property managers and residents, Pest Share provides crucial analytics, data, and reporting through its software.

Notably, pest control ranks highly on the list of services residents are willing to pay for. As Tom elaborates, “Pest control is ranked two, and it’s right behind lawn care”. Recognizing this demand, Pest Share offers its comprehensive services at affordable monthly rates per unit by leveraging the scale of property management companies, instead of a few thousand bucks per pest control service, “Now we go down to 5 to 15 bucks”, says Tom.  

The importance of utilizing software in the industry

Tom said that “When it comes down to it, why are we trying to utilize software? It’s because people are just unreliable. Now that does not apply to everybody, but in the market where you have to rely on people, if I can replace some of that with software, I speed up my processes, I can get the jobs done quicker, and more efficiently, which then turn into better revenue generation and money back in the pocket.”

Justin agrees with Tom’s sentiment on making processes more efficient and compared it to a concept used in the military, “It’s what the military calls a force multiplier. It makes it so that one of your employees acts as three employees. The software enables them to be more efficient.”

Justin illustrates the profound impact of software utilization in Poplar Homes saying, “We go in and find property managers with our systems, our backend. We’re able to make those same people that can handle 200 houses, handle 2000 houses.”

Essentially, ”…these things aren’t necessarily built to replace people. They’re built to make people more efficient and take away some of the stuff that’s just kind of, ‘oh, I’ve never seen that before. I’m gonna have to call a different guy,” Justin said.  By enabling efficient processes, the use of software increases productivity and drives better results.

The future of Pest Share

Answering Justin’s question about the integration of their software with other systems, Tom reveals that “…right now it sits outside of your current property management software. The integrations are coming.” Keenly aware of still being in the early days of its development, Pest Share recognizes the need for integration with other property management platforms and is actively working towards it.

Tom also drops hints about an intriguing innovation: an AI system in development. “We are currently in the process of creating an AI. That is also gonna make everything easier. I probably won’t disclose too much about it, but this is gonna allow pest identification to be super simple for property managers and residents out there.”

When Justin drew a parallel to apps that help identify plants and their needs, Tom says that  “There are concepts that we are utilizing in that area, and because it doesn’t exist right now for pest control, we’re working on that avenue.”

This software-based approach positions Pest Share uniquely in the industry. “The software aspect of it is crazy. It’s huge trust because that’s something that really separates us from being a service company. Right now, we’re really the only one in the space that actually does anything as far as ancillary revenue, resident benefit packages, or owner benefit packages for pest control.”

By eliminating manual work orders and harnessing technology to offer practical solutions, Pest Share is mapping out its presence and adding immense value for both residents and property managers alike.