Uber co-founder is moving into real estate tech
Uber co-founder is moving into real estate tech
A new platform from the man that brought us Uber and StumbleUpon is set to empower real estate buyers in the negotiation process
Expa, the startup studio by Uber and StumbleUpon co-founder Garrett Camp, has now set its sights on the real estate world.
Yesterday, Expa launched Haus, an online platform that digitises the negotiating process between buyers and sellers from offer submission to acceptance.
With Haus, buyers obtain an unprecedented level of visibility on the vetting process of sellers or their agents. Whenever a listing is placed on the Haus platform, buyers can see other buyers’ offers and their terms in real time and make amendments as necessary.
“Haus is creating a platform we believe can revolutionize the way people buy real estate. The open and clear communication creates a more efficient and fair process for everyone involved,” Camp said.
Haus currently comes free of charge, although plans are in place for collecting broker fees in the future.
Concerns are rife that such a platform would be a springboard for bidding wars or the risk of shill bidding inorganically inflating prices — risks that Haus general manager Sarah Ham downplayed.
“Bidding wars are a common, almost accepted, part of the real estate process today. But with our approach, buyers know where they stand. Buyers will know what they need to offer to make their offer competitive, but they also won’t negotiate against themselves,” Haus GM Sarah Ham told TechCrunch.
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Some are concerned the platform would substitute for real estate agencies entirely. However, Camp assured brokers that the platform simply banks on efficiency and complements brokers’ irreplaceable human touch on marketing, valuation, and paperwork.
This is no different to the town car industry, a handy reference Camp used before with Uber.
“Collecting offers and presenting them is a very manual process, the way that town car companies would pick up a phone, write the fare on the board, and send the next available driver to that location,” Camp told TechCrunch. “It just seems much more efficient for agents to use a platform to coordinate all of this information automatically.”
Haus is available only in California at the moment. In Asia, Haus will be walking down a familiar trail blazed by a platform launched earlier this year by Thai developer Sansiri Pcl.
Built by ePropertyTrack, the Singaporean startup acquired by PropertyGuru in 2015, Sansiri’s app features live unit availability and pricing, real-time reservations, interactive site plans, and a virtual tour.
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Source: Property Report