An online viewing booking app for estate agents has raised £150,000 from industry angels.
Apply.Property is an enquiry management tool that allows home movers to book viewings 24/7 directly into agents’ calendars and make offers online.
Founded in March this year by Sam Zawadzki and Bilal Khan, the technology is already being set up in 137 offices around the UK.
Bilal Khan said: “In a world of mobile devices, why is it so painstaking to view properties and make offers?
“We’re working with leading estate agents to remove friction in the property market.
“We envision a future where you can buy a house using only your mobile phone.”
Apply.Property’s software instantly responds to all emails and out of hours calls, with the aim of ensuring that no leads are lost.
The Apply software sends viewing reminders and provides directions to the property. After the appointment the viewer is able to offer for the property online.
By using an online application system tenants and house buyers are able to pre-reference themselves, providing income information, mortgage status and previous address details.
The firm’s pitch evening attracted 33 investors. The following day it had raised the full £150,000 seed round.
Some of their notable investors include serial entrepreneur Henry Yates, of EstateCreate, which provides technology services to Savills and Knight Frank; and Karen Darby, founder of Simply Switch, that she sold to the Daily Mail for £22m.
We’re an Agency that loves technology and believes the industry is going through change, but do one thing is taken for granted in all of this. The need for a personal touch and human decision making.
The idea of using a mobile app to book viewings sounds wonderful, but we ask prospective buyers so many questions in order to filter the correct viewers for our clients, otherwise it will be a free for all of time wasters, which is what will end up happening with apps like this. The app sounds time efficient but actually I don’t think it is. I’d prefer to book 5 seriously qualified viewers than 20 of the wrong viewers. Am I right?
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It’s for lettings only.
Mans it actually was created so none of the questions that need to be asked get forgotten.
That way staff training (or lack thereof) doesn’t get in the way of providing your landlord with the best outcome.
Landlords are, after all, an agent’s real customer and where the focus should be.
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Lettings only for now, sales soon to follow!
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In some ways, I think what you say makes complete sense and I would prefer the same.
But it depends on what questions the app asks and whether you can set up your own questions to get a better understanding of the clients details.
either way I think it’s a dangerous move for traditional agents to start using it, yes it’s a great offering and sounds fancy but I think a lot of negs and offices would start to become complacent and lazy with a tool like this. Then there truly wouldn’t be a difference between the likes of PB and traditional agents. Vendors would certainly start questioning the fees and services if their experiences with traditional and online become virtually the same. I know I would.
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Hey Aaron,
Great points! Would you question fees if your property let / sold faster and for more money…? Or if as a tenant / buyer it was super easy to view and very easy to apply?
Questions on the app can be customised! Would you like a demo?
Thanks, Sam – sam@propertytechnology.co.uk
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i think you’ve missed my point Sam but thanks for your response either way
good luck with your venture
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Hey NextChapter,
We’re all about using technology to do the boring bits, so people have more time to spend on that personal touch. All our innovations are about empowering agents and making the experience better for both consumers and agents!
We have some neat solutions to vet / pre reference applicants that you might like, get in touch if you’re like to chat it through over the phone or have a demo. sam@propertytechnology.co.uk
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This is pretty much the future guys, what’s more it will hurt the likes of PB just as much as our good selves.
Just saying
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‘Bilal Khan said: “In a world of mobile devices, why is it so painstaking to view properties and make offers?” ‘
Erm… might just be because homes are neither “mobile” (in the main…) nor “devices”.
Neither are the humans who own them, market them nor buy/rent them.
Seems obvious – maybe not the sharpest knife in the box, our Mr Khan?
A “mobile device” is only as good as the user… and if it has no user – it has no use. Except maybe as a doorstop. Or an expensive torch.
I like that feature.
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Ahhh… system is for Lettings only, I see.
TFFT.
So – please omit the word “buy” from the above to avoid confusion.
The rest is still just as relevant.
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Seems that ‘samzawadzki48’ bugged out before I posted.
Pity…
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