The real estate process is commonly regarded as one of the most frustrating and disastrous experiences that most people go through. However, Properly wants to alleviate some of the stress of the home selling experience through its full-service, online brokerage. This NYC Startup makes the sales experience entirely transparent and cost appropriate. Sellers oversee the entire process through a cloud-based platform, and after each showing the platform automatically asks for feedback from potential buyers and helps users negotiate incoming offers. An average home on Properly spends 18 days on the market versus the 72-day industry average.
AlleyWatch spoke with cofounder Ben Kubic about the company’s expansion plans, recent funding round,and what makes this platform a favorite for home sellers.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
Our seed round investors were NextView Ventures and Lerer Hippeau Ventures. We raised $1.5M.
Tell us about the product or service that Properly offers.
Properly is the first full-service, online brokerage designed to make the home selling experience transparent, convenient, and cost-appropriate. Sellers can oversee their entire transaction online with real-time updates and automated market analytics, while experienced agents handle every detail and negotiation. The average Properly client sells 3x faster than the market and saves $8.5K.
What inspired you to start Properly?
One night at the beginning of the second year of business school, a number of my classmates who had sold homes to move to Boston got on the topic of how terrible the experience had been. They all seemed to have the exact same issues with the process – the bureaucracy, the opacity, and the cost – no matter what type of home they sold or where they sold it. It became clear to me that was a widespread problem that went far beyond just the cost of the transaction.
How is Properly different?
Properly’s cloud-based real estate platform streamlines the home selling process, helping users sell their home three times faster with full transparency and without high commission fees. The homeowner follows the entire transaction on the platform — from listing their home based on pricing recommendations to expert photo staging recommendations and finally tracking and confirming showings.
After each showing, the platform automatically asks for feedback from potential buyers, helps users negotiate any incoming offers and lets them accept an offer with the click of a button, all for a flat fee. Homes listed through Properly spend a total of 18 days on the market versus the 72-day industry average.
What market does Properly target and how big is it?
$30B is spent annually on residential listing commissions by U.S. homeowners.
Why focus on the Atlanta market initially?
Atlanta is a fast-growing city with a younger homeowner population and fast turnover in home sales.
What’s your business model?
The traditional broker business model is to charge a % commission (typically 3%) of the home sale value. We’re big believers in transparency so our business model is to charge a flat $5K fee for listings, irrespective of what your home is sold for.
The traditional broker business model is to charge a % commission (typically 3%) of the home sale value. We’re big believers in transparency so our business model is to charge a flat $5K fee for listings, irrespective of what your home is sold for.
What was the funding process like?
We were fortunate to have a relatively easy process. We started fundraising just after the new year in 2018 and had a term sheet by early February.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
We had to clearly differentiate our model from anything else out there. There’s a lot of activity in the real estate space, so some investors just lumped us in with all the other startups in the space.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
Unlike a lot of startups in the space, we’re actually a technology company first, and we had to data to show it. We also had 2 years of revenue and growth to show that this was a product home-sellers really want.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
Launch in Charlotte, NC in January 2019. Expand to 2-3 other US cities next year.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
Take every meeting you can when you’re getting started because you never know who is going to make the right introduction at the right time. I was introduced to our eventual lead investor by someone I had met almost 3 years prior (before the business even launched).
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
Our platform allows us to collect one of the most unique proprietary datasets in the real estate world. We have a number of machine learning projects underway using that data to help make the transaction even easier and faster for home sellers.
Where is your favorite fall destination in the city?
The Highline.
