Post Grad Partners: A Free Service Helping College Students Find Housing
Isabella Giner (left) and Katie Spencer (right). Photo by Katie Spencer.
Post Grad Partners (PGP) is an innovative new business focused on helping college students find housing after graduation. The service, which is completely free, pairs recent graduates with real estate agents in the cities they are planning to live in. Students simply fill out an application request for the city they are moving to, and PGP matches them with a trusted realtor in the area.
PGP was founded by Penn State graduates Katie Spencer and Isabella Giner in 2024, the same year they graduated. As they were making their way through the post-grad world, they heard first-hand of the struggles college graduates face when finding a place to live. The women saw an opportunity to help this demographic, while also leveraging their 10 combined years of realtor experience in New York City. The launch of PGP was the fulfillment of a dream that began in 2020, when Spencer and Giner were just freshmen.
“We were always bouncing ideas off of each other for businesses and we were pretty heavily involved in the [Penn State] entrepreneurship program,” said Spencer. “This one just came to fruition because it makes sense for us.”
Spencer and Giner were already licensed realtors, so the biggest part of getting PGP off the ground involved marketing and networking. They hired a recent Syracuse University graduate to help them create a website and brand identity. After that, it came down to networking.
When PGP started, they initially were going to run the business out of New York City, where Spencer and Giner are licensed. They went back to Penn State to ask for assistance with getting their business off the ground, and in doing so were advised to expand their reach beyond NYC. This feedback sparked the idea for the realtor referral system. This allowed them to help students all across the country without having to be licensed in every state.
The women have been rapidly growing their business outside of NYC through their ambassador program. Ambassadors are college students who represent PGP, utilizing their marketing and networking skills to help promote the services of PGP to graduating students. In the past year, PGP has hired ambassadors on campuses ranging from San Diego State University to New York University, with more than 50 schools in between.
Marist University has their own ambassador, Emma Cornfeldt ‘26, who has begun reaching out to the Marist community through clubs and via social media to spread the word about PGP’s services. Cornfeldt has been communicating with mostly upperclassmen to make them aware of the assistance PGP could offer as they start considering their post-grad life.
“I want to help share stories, spread information, learn how to communicate with others and give guidance,” Cornfeldt said.
Spencer and Giner already have established trusted realtors in 15 different cities and are working everyday to connect with more. When looking for a realtor, the women often look at younger realtors to help encourage growth for other young agents.
“We understand how hard it is to prove yourself as a young agent and build a rapport, so we see it as a tool for them as well,” Giner said.
“We really want to make sure we're giving these agents that came on board with us the best possible leads.”
PGP is also working to build stronger relationships with colleges and universities, with the hopes of one day becoming a resource used by career centers and establishing a more consistent presence at campus events such as career fairs.
“If we have a table there just as a resource, not to hire people, but if those kids are at that fair looking for jobs in Austin we can be there to tell them to reach out to our agent there and be that face-to-face connection,” said Giner.
While starting a new business fresh out of college may seem daunting, Spencer and Giner reminded themselves that “great things never came from comfort zones.” Putting themselves out there was half the battle.
“The people who created PGP are young women, and I think that's so awesome.” said Cornfeldt. “It spreads such a great message and I like that it's so directed towards our age group. I feel like that makes it kind of special, because real estate can be kind of intimidating, especially when you're a college grad.”