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Remoov helps people declutter responsibly and the Miami market rolls in fast growth

Nancy Dahlberg
Nancy Dahlberg
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By Nancy Dahlberg

Moving? Decluttering? Remodeling? Remoov, now in Miami, makes it easy for consumers and businesses to shed their stuff.

The startup kicked off its nationwide expansion earlier this year, starting with the Magic City. Remoov Founder and CEO Luis Perez is betting that in time Miami could become the San Francisco-based startup’s largest market.

Remoov helps homeowners and corporations declutter by picking up unwanted goods, selling what they can for the owner, donating what can be repurposed and responsibly disposing of remaining items. It uses proprietary algorithms to automate the appraisal and resale process of pre-owned items.  

Remoov’s expansion to Miami brought a third showroom location where consumers can buy secondhand goods. From well-known brands to rare finds, items are valued by Remoov’s appraisers and sold at a significant reduction from its original price. Remoov’s Miami showroom, called The Local Flea, is at 7457  NW 55th St. in unincorporated Miami-Dade County and open weekdays. 

The Local Flea is at 7457  NW 55th St. in Miami-Dade.

Perez reports that the Miami expansion is going strong for the venture-backed startup, despite a slowdown in real estate sales and the economic downturn. “We are essentially a marketplace for secondary goods and inflation tends to spur sales of secondary goods,” said Perez, in an interview with Refresh Miami. “And sadly, when the economy goes a little sour, we end up working with a lot of businesses that are downsizing or shutting down.”

About 20% of Remoov’s  customers are companies redecorating, moving or downsizing. Their stuff tends to be mainly furniture, computers and other electronics.  The 80 percent that are consumers also includes real estate agencies and property management companies working to help their clients, Perez says. Their stuff can be anything from furniture and appliances, to clothing, art, electronics, you name it.

Customers pay a pickup fee based on volume and receive 50% of profits from their resold goods and tax benefits for donated items. Beyond the efficiency of the end-to-end process, what helps set Remoov apart, Perez says, is its team of appraisers who know the market.

Remoov started Miami operations in March and will be doing about 60 pickups a month in the Miami area by the end of this year. The average pickup is about 350 cubic feet. The team in Miami is about 7 employees plus contractors. Remoov also has several Miami investors, including Mark Kingdon and Krillion Ventures.

Perez is so bullish on Miami and the South Florida market that Remoov’s next expansion areas may be Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, he said.

Luis Perez, Founder of Remoov

Born and raised in Venezuela, Perez visited Miami often as a child. The Wharton graduate with a finance and investing background worked in Miami in the early 2000s before moving to New York and then California. Remoov started as a solution to help college students find places for their possessions but quickly grew from there.

 “The circular economy is a humongous market – the resale market is growing 25 times faster than traditional retail – but for an end user it is a pain in the butt. You’re essentially relying on like Facebook and Craigslist, which is really time consuming, it’s stressful and it doesn’t really work,” Perez said.

Remove set out to “build up an operational model that allows us to get the end user what they need, which is ‘I want to click a button and I want all my stuff to disappear,’ while also ensuring that not everything is just going  to landfill and people can essentially unlock some of that value,” Perez said. “And that’s what Remoov is.

Launched in 2015, Remoov is a life events company. People usually use the startup’s service when they’re getting married, divorced, moving for a job, or downsizing when their kids have flown the coop. But Remoov also targets real estate agents, property management companies, stagers and designers – giving Remoov a recurring customer base. Businesses use it when redecorating, moving, or closing down.

“What we’re trying to do is make it easy for people to essentially reclaim their space, with the mission of reducing waste by increasing reuse,” Perez said. “The fact is that 45% of CO2 emissions comes from product manufacturing. If you want to have a real environmental impact, the most efficient way to do it is find a new home for that sofa.”

Follow Nancy Dahlberg on Twitter @ndahlberg and email her at [email protected]

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