Katie Hill has a dream home in mind, though it is not currently for sale. She hopes to have the first chance to buy it when the time comes. This personal goal, combined with a desire to spark some neighborly envy, inspired her to create her startup, Unlisted Homes. The company is a Top 20 Startup Battlefield finalist at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025.
Hill has long pictured her future retirement. She imagines herself as an older woman wearing a large hat and sunglasses, relaxing by a pool with a martini. As her children grow up and move away, the house across the street owned by her neighbor seems perfect. It is a smaller home ideal for downsizing, and it has a pool.
She once approached her neighbor while he was mowing his lawn and expressed her interest in buying his home if he ever decided to sell. She knew it was a bold move but felt compelled to ask. Her neighbor was excited by the idea and revealed he was starting to think about retirement.
That casual conversation became a potentially life-changing discussion. Hill and her neighbor agreed that when he is ready to sell, she would have the right of first refusal. This agreement brings her closer to her dream and provided a sense of relief, knowing she would not be surprised by a for-sale sign one day. This experience made her wonder how many other people on her street were having similar thoughts.
Unlisted operates like a Zillow for homes not yet on the market. Originally a web platform, the company announced at Disrupt that it is launching an iOS app. Using public records for 21 million homes, Unlisted creates a profile for each property, providing the same details found on standard real estate sites.
The platform places a waitlist on every property profile. A buyer who admires a home can add themselves to this list, expressing their interest. Unlisted then notifies the homeowner that a waitlist exists for their property and directs them back to the site. From there, homeowners can update their home’s listing, add more information, and communicate with interested buyers.
Unlisted does not plan to handle the real estate transactions directly, as those resources already exist. Instead, the company will sell sponsorships for individual ZIP codes to real estate agents. These agents will be listed as local experts on every home in that area. In the future, the company hopes to connect homeowners with local service providers like roofers or electricians.
The goal is to be a national platform while recognizing that real estate is local, so connecting people to local resources is key. So far, most partners have been real estate agents, and the company just had its first mortgage company join.
In June, Unlisted launched its waitlist feature. This has already generated waitlists for 5,700 homes, representing about four billion dollars in potential real estate transactions.
Hill credits mentorship as a crucial component for getting the business off the ground. After hearing Kayak co-founder Paul English on a podcast, she emailed him an early pitch deck asking for technical guidance. English was intrigued and connected her with Kayak’s former chief architect, Bill O’Donnell, who became an angel investor and board member for Unlisted. She notes their incredible experience, having taken Kayak public and then private for two billion dollars each time.
Hill founded the company in 2022, working nights and weekends with one other engineer. She eventually transitioned to working on Unlisted full-time and raised close to one million dollars from angel investors. Last November, she raised another 2.25 million dollars in a round led by HearstLab, which funds early-stage companies founded by women.