Looking for a house can be a huge hassle for most people. It requires hiring a realtor, agonizing over price structure, and house hunting for months before a decision is made. It’s a process that many people face and most dread.
That was before Fizbeaux, a newly launched real estate website that attempts to eliminate the painful process of digging through the housing market. Created in October of 2011, Fizbeaux is the work of Phaseshift, a full-service web application development firm located in Baton Rouge, LA.
Matthew Vince, 30, Derek Williams, 32, and Mike Andresen, 42, created Phaseshift in the summer of 2008. The firm began doing projects for an array of clients, including IT consulting and hosting, but soon realized that they wanted to travel in a different direction. The three entrepreneurs made the leap into the realm of products, a much more independent, innovative sector of the app world.
Fizbeaux, which is a southern play on the common acronym FSBO (For Sale By Owner), was founded on the principle of making the process of looking for and purchasing a house user-friendly and smooth. The concept came to life after Williams and Vince discovered how bare and clunky most real estate sites are. “It was awful. You couldn’t even upload pictures. We can make it so much easier,” Williams said.
The best part about Fizbeaux is its depth and usability. Using the Google search model, Fizbeaux can find the house you want based on many combinations of criteria. It has advanced ranges that understand what you mean even if typed incorrectly. “We wanted the best possible experience for the buyer and the seller, “ Vince said, “You can create a listing in five minutes.” In order to ensure usability, Fizbeaux has been mom and even grandma-tested.
Phaseshift is producing some incredible work out of Baton Rouge, and hopes to expand its ideas as far as possible while remaining small as a company. They are located in the Entrepreneur Headquarters, or EHQ, in Perkins Rowe, Baton Rouge. “We like this space, and have no interest in corporate structure,” Williams said. The EHQ is a shared workspace, and often hosts tech socials for young professionals who want to network.
Phaseshift will continue to tackle a list of issues they have found in various sectors of the web application industry. As they advance, they remain faithful to their projects, focusing solely on perfecting the product. “We work on what we want to work on,” Vince said.
Just as they did with Fizbeaux, Phaseshift will identify problems and continue pursuing their passion, one problem at a time.