Offr, a prop-tech platform digitising the buying, selling and leasing process for real estate agents and buyers, has announced that with £2.7m seed funding from Barclays, and others, it is launch in the UK & Australia.
Existing investors Delta Partners on behalf of Bank of Ireland, AIB, Enterprise Ireland, The European Investment Fund and Frontline Ventures also participated in the round.
Offr claims that in March it enabled the world’s first fully remote, end-to-end, digital property transaction. The property was sold entirely online for 61% over the asking price.
Launched ten months ago, Offr digitises over 85% of the process of buying and selling property for agents and their customers and says it enables fast, digital property transactions, from offer to exchange, on any device, at any time, and from anywhere in the world.
Up until now, the company says, property transactions have largely been restricted and confined domestically, with no easy, fast, and secure way of buying properties cross-border available. Offr says it is changing this by making international trading of property possible for buyers online, using traditional real estate agents.
The seed funding brings Offr’s total funds raised to date to over £3.6M (€4M) and will be used to accelerate international expansion. The company also plans to further develop its transaction infrastructure platform over the next 12 months.
Offr’s white-label platform allows buyers to securely submit offers and close deals on real estate agents’ own websites. Agents can track the progress of a sale or lease on their mobile device or laptop, in real-time, with instant alerts when an offer is received, if there is an upcoming viewing, or if legal documents have been updated.
Similarly, buyers can book a viewing online, upload proof of funds and ID, make an offer, pay a deposit, connect to their solicitor, and sign contracts – all with a few taps of their smartphone. Behind the scenes, Offr connects real estate agents to solicitors and banks to digitise the entire end-to-end sale and leasing process with speed, transparency and trust.
Offr’s three founders, Robert Hoban, CEO; Niall Dawson, CTO; Philip Farrell, CCO, have over 75 years’ combined experience in the property and technology sectors, working with companies such as Bidx1, Allsop, Savills, XSellco, UltimateRugby.com, REA Group, Real Estate Alliance, among others.
Doomed.
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Is it me or is their press release really difficult to understand? Maybe English is not their forte, nor perhaps, proptech or properties but good luck to them, and good luck to those who invested as well.
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This is a really promising development as we start the long ( and boy is it going to painful ) transition to Digital Conveyancing.
From my workings with Rob and the team at Offr its always been clear that they know what they are doing.
Collecting data at the start of the process is absolutely critical – Straight Through Processing ( STP ) – because let’s face it – that’s what we’re talking here – revolutionised the financial sector – and will do the same for the property market.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating – and these are guys are actually doing this right now.
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There must be a hell of a lot of data variables in digital conveyancing when writing the IT code.
Un registered titles, covenants, rights of way, leasehold nuances etc etc ….and thats before you get into the Commercial Arena.
My guess and it is a guess, is this will only work well with a clean set up and a chain that embraces technology.
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61% over the asking price. What does that mean? And why would you include that in your press release?
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As long as the I.T. infrastructure is robust (from code to platform characteristics) I don’t see why this shouldn’t work.
I believe that people should view properties in person before putting in bids. Does the platform allow for at least that ‘manual’ intervention in the process?
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I think in reality this will be considered only by the techno geeks who believe blindly digital conveyancing is the answer whilst they employ untrained ‘case handlers’ to bumble along with their conveyancing files and miss the point entirely. As usual overlooking the fact that even if the tech is good, it can only be as good as the people operating it. And the calibre of that person is likely to be pretty low.
Any conveyancing firm with money to burn looking at this and similar platforms, would surely be better off investing in decent, experienced staff in the first place, or even training those they have. A radical suggestion I know, but the conveyancing process in this country will never improve in terms of speed or competence until that happens. I seem to say this weekly now, as do others, but bizarrely the same old people who bang on about technology being the future continue to miss the point. Remember what Einstein said. And it is the poor old client that continues to suffer. It’s frightening to think where conveyancing as a profession will be in a few years.
Interestingly in that muddled press release I see no mention of this process improving the buying and selling process for clients, which is what all conveyancers should be seeking to do.
Good luck to these people for trying but again you wonder about how much due diligence gets done, do they ever speak to real, experienced conveyancers to find out the particular nuances of the housing market and whether their product really is practical? This may hang around for a few months and no doubt someone will complete a transaction using it and then flood social media with the news. But I think in a few months it will be filed with the Sega Megadrive and Sinclair C5 amongst others.
Doomed to failure unfortunately.
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Car Crash – assemble at the roadside to witness the abyss of problems resulting from this fag packet digit-tech
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I love the asberbic eloquence of those who grace the pages of PIE. I often wonder if it is only one person with six or seven accounts, maybe even GW from EAT. Would that not be a treat. I think maybe everyone should actually say who they really are, in truth many of you I know and you know me, but for those reading these comments that end up on google forever, it can be a bit naughty if a company’s SEO has ‘fag packet digi-tech’ strapped to it for all time. Especially, if in the case of OFFR the tech is anything but fag packet.
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