A new website launched recently, homespace.sg, takes the tedium out of househunting, reports FELDA CHAY
HOUSEHUNTING can be a tedious process. It involves going through tiny listings in the classified ads, making phone calls to homeowners or their agents, and going down to view the house and surveying the surrounding area before deciding whether to put money down.
Many will be pleased to know that a more fuss-free option is now available on the Internet at a website called homespace.sg.
HomeSpace, the brainchild of NUS undergraduates Vinod Nair, Zhuo Weifeng, and graduates Jarrold Ong, Timothy Kua and Staelen Yew, aims to make the process of home buying and selling easier for all parties involved.
The idea came about after Vinod and Weifeng worked on a school project on Google Maps, where users enter an address or area to quickly find its location on the map.
‘I felt that our project was quite relevant to the real estate industry, so I spoke to Weifeng and we decided to bring the other guys on board to embark on it,’ said Vinod. This view found more support when friends who work as real estate agents spoke to them about the difficulties they encountered while advertising through print media and on various websites.
‘Our real estate friends complained that the websites they advertised on were very messy and disorganised,’ said Timothy.
The agents also complained that print ads were sometimes expensive and there was no guarantee that people would respond. Agents also faced the problem of limited space. Print ads, therefore, were ‘not targeted’ as a result, said Vinod.
For homebuyers as well, it can be a frustrating experience.
‘As a buyer, you had to call up the agents or owners to find out the exact details. The ads may say that the house is very near the MRT, but in reality it could be a 20-minute walk,’ said Vinod. ‘Because of this lack of information, we felt that there should be a better way to give people the information they needed.’
The five then decided to establish a company that deals with these problems through the use of an easy-to-use search tool, a friendly interface and Google Maps technology. This led to the set-up of a company called The Real Group to create an uncluttered online real estate search engine. After months of detailed research into the needs of real estate agents and homebuyers, the group launched HomeSpace last December.
All homebuyers have to do to find a house of their liking is to type in the area where they want their home to be, using the website’s search function. Homes listed with the website that fall within the search parameters will then appear, along with a detailed map at the side showing the location of these homes and nearby amenities.
For those who have no clue as to where they want their future home to be, they can also window-shop by region. Accompanying each listing are details such as the floor area and selling price of the houses.
Additional information such as the exact distance between the homes and nearby amenities are also provided. Homebuyers can also view pictures of the interior of these houses, provided home sellers put them up.
All of this reduces the chances of homebuyers physically viewing a house that they are not interested in buying. And the best thing is that this pre-viewing is free for them. For home sellers and real estate agents, the time of high advertising costs with no guaranteed results is now over. At HomeSpace, advertisers need not pay a subscription or listing fee. They pay only when an interested party ends up buying a house.
The company also makes advertising extremely easy, since the only necessary fields that advertisers need to fill up are the postal code and price. All other fields are not mandatory as much of the vital information like the exact address is deduced by the search engine through the postal code.
The company makes use of SMS to reach users quickly. Upon finding a home they’re interested in, homebuyers just have to type in a note on the website and the message will be delivered to the seller’s mobile phone via SMS and a viewing session can be arranged.
This ‘allows buyers and sellers to maintain an initial level of privacy while still getting the negotiation message across’, said Timothy.
Once the SMS is delivered, the seller will then be given the option to buy the lead’s contact details for $3.
Although it has been running for just over a month, the site has already drawn more than 3,000 listings. It has also managed to catch the eye of several venture capitalists (VC) from the UK and the US.
The five have, however, rejected funding offers from them, preferring to take up the recently launched NUS-MDA Microfunding Scheme, which has provided $55,000. This scheme supports start-ups in their early stages of development.
‘The reason behind not taking VC funding at such an early stage is because we wanted to retain ownership of the company,’ said Vinod. ‘When the business is unproven, early-stage VCs usually take higher equity because of the increased risk. However, when the business model has been proven and the money starts coming in, they have less leverage and the company has more control over the terms of the funding. The Microfunding Scheme has provided us with just the right amount of capital while not taking a major stake away from the founders.’
Soon, the group could expand their service to include a home rental portal. ‘This is not the end; there is always room to be better. If we don’t take the action and responsibility to continue improving ourselves, somebody else will do it,’ said Vinod. ‘The users are the king - if they like your stuff, they will continue to use it. Otherwise, they will go to somebody else.’
Source : Business Times - 4 Feb 2008
