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Nobroker.com Homes, one step closer to making estate agent obsolete , new round of funding




Brokers, agents and middleman are needed " Now " ,some have even go far as to say a pain the backside ,when it comes to finding and renting a new house.


NoBroker, an India-based startup that operates a peer-to-peer rentals site, has closed an impressive $10 million Series B [£7.1m] round to continue its quest to eliminate the estate agent.

The premise is simple. Agents and brokers have the supply when you’re seeking a new home, but their fee / and in some cases commission is based on the amount you spend. 





NoBroker - Flats, Houses, Home Rentals




They typically pocket part of your deposit and take a cut of your monthly rent. That, NoBroker argues, incentivises them to push you into the most expensive rental, not necessary what is right for you.

To combat that, NoBroker has a peer-to-peer site that allows home owners and prospective tenants to connect directly, eliminating the need for a broker. The service is currently in four cities with around 250,000 current listings and 650,000 registered users. The startup claims it facilitates 500,000 ‘connections’ per month.
It’s nearly a year to the day that NoBroker, which was founded in 2013, closed its $3 million Series A. Since then the company has grown impressively, doubling its coverage from an initial two cities and growing from 35,000 users 

But one secret to its growth is ‘click and earn,’ a program the company runs to incentivise anyone to add listings to NoBroker from within its Android app. 


Users that run into a property that is listed offline, simply take a photo of the building and send the details — which could be displayed on a board or inside — inside the app. On receiving the info, NoBroker’s team follows up on the lead and calls the owner. If the property is listed, the user who snapped the first photo is compensated with 100 INR (around $1.50 / £ 0.70) inside their PayTM wallet.

That doesn’t sound like a huge amount of money, but the company said students and others that use the program to make a little pocket money. The feature itself is responsible for around one-third of all new listings on NoBroker, a hugely impressive stat.



India Market / Millennials factor & why its working in Asia pacific 


The emergence of millennials (the 20 to 35-year-olds) is a vital part of the population driving consumer demand in peer to peer. As any retailer would agree, to sell to a particular audience, you have to first understand the audience. 

Whats App

Notice how what's app is incorporated underneath search box on landing page . Early adopter / users of whatsapp are the millennial generation
Take Note readers...

India is among the top 5 countries where Millennials (90 percent ... “Millennials want more from business see below







Attacked

NoBroker’s mission was validated by the broker community itself, which attacked NoBroker’s office last year. A mob of around 50 brokers, presumably irritated at the company’s service cutting them out of deals, attacked its Bangalore base in September.

“Their objective was to break furniture, scare employees and force us out of the office,” NoBroker CEO and co-founder Amit Agarwal in an interview. “That showed us that what we are doing is making a disruption.”

"The incident galvanized the company and its mission, CTO and co-founder "Akhil Gupta .

“We split our team into two,” he recalled, saying that half of the staff worked from a rented apartment. “It it was so exciting, we were energized and merely working from a mattress on the floor.”




A NoBroker campaign Rivals

NoBroker is up against some formidable rivals in the property space in India. Japanese telecom firm and high-spending investor SoftBank backed Housing.com, which has had well-documented problems, while PropTiger grabbed $30 million from News Corp  , which give it a 25% stake of India platform, PropTiger.com




But Gupta and Agarwal said NoBroker has taken a more nimble and lean approach to the business — indeed, they claim that half of their previous round is still in the bank.

“I won’t name names, but many other startups have burned a lot of money without serving real customer pinpoints. We’ve been extremely level headed,” [above]Agarwal 

Now, though, the company decided it is time to bring on more money to kick things up a gear. Agarwal and Gupta believe that India’s top 20 cities have $4 billion in real estate, so the company has its mind on expansion — but first of it all it wants to truly own its patch.


Focus On Revenue

“Right now, our single minded focus is on revenue and these four cities we service,” Gupta said. “We believe we can break even in next 18 months. When we start seeing our cities break even we’ll expand to more.”

The company recently began monetising its service using a freemium package, which includes two paid-for package priced at 999 INR (around $15 £10.7 ) and 1,999 INR ($30 £ 21.5)


The company also supplies the necessary legal documents, which are customised for each rental agreement and are sent direct to a tenant’s home, even on weekends. That, Agarwal said, is far more flexible than broker-led agreements which require a tenant to go to the broker’s office during the week.

The Conveyancing Association launch "voluntary" online training courses for estate agents

NoBroker Paid Plans

NoBroker’s pricing plan



[ Looking Overseas asia pacific FOR NOW ...]

If things go to plan, NoBroker will begin to expand out in India during that period, but it also has its eyes on overseas markets. That’s where it believes its new investor base can pay dividends. The Series B was led by Japan-based investors Beenext and Digital Garage — which backed Twitter and Square — along with Singapore-based Qualgro, Asuka Holdings’ Mamoru Taniya, and existing investor SAIF Partners.

That’s a fairly diverse set of backers, and unsurprisingly Agarwal and Gupta
have their eyes on Southeast Asia and Japan.

A global expansion would come after 24 months as India is a big market and expanding too fast could be problematic,” Agarwal said. “We’re currently doing our homework, and talking to [our investors’] portfolio companies and learning from them.”

NoBroker even went so far as to run a test pilot in Manila, a city that the co-founders said they’ve never visited. The site is no longer running, but they said it attracted enough interest to assure them that their model can work and can be scaled globally when the time is right.

“This is a product that is missing in Southeast Asia,” Gupta and Agarwal said. “We know that peer-to-peer is difficult, and even harder in real estate, but because we can do it well [our investors] can help make us number one in Southeast Asia and Japan.”



Europe  , playing catch-up

With a more sophisticated , [some would argue ], European real estate industry which has evolved over time; rather than leapfrogging the middle man, NOW occurring in Asia; Europe is playing catch up albeit a trot compared to a canter.  

  For roughly a decade Online estate agents have slowly been growing, particularly in the united kingdom were, rather than paying commission, the vendor pays a fixed fee to the agent when the property transaction is completed .

Much to the dismay of the "old-skill corporate school boys and girls", who are literally up in arms, over this digital tsunami ,drowning the revenue streams of the Baby boomers. 



A property web site called emoh.com home spelt backward, founded by two London entrepreneurs, where homebuyers negotiate directly with sellers was also launched last year.

While there are more than few years in the tank, for the online estate agents in Europe ,And I stress online. 

why Frank Whittle and the Saville row tailor have more in common with Warren Buffet 

nobroker.com has nestled into the perfect consumer environment, high proportions of millennials, coupled with a relatively stable Indian economy, juxtaposed in a turbulent global economy. India also has a population that will over take china , so start ups like commonfloor have plenty of space / time to compete ,within the tech driven real estate environment. 

digital disruption in property portals and within estate agent industry 


Further Reading 

Common Floor India's Largest Property Search Portal , that keeps growing and leading in innovation

hostmaker.co/london/ bags £1.3M seed funding as Airbnb management Service 

feedback from Move Inc. to Zillow.com CEO's Comment on CNBC

GeoPhy Exodus-from-EU-may-spark-correction-in-the-rental-market.html

Google is shuttering Google Compare, U.S. comparison-shopping site for car insurance, credit cards & mortgages after 1year

Apple acquires Mapsense
Google has unveiled Project Sunroof a new global green


HMO manager fined £20,000 for allowing his tenants to live in “unacceptable” conditions.


estate regeneration statement GOV UK DCLG ,Lord Heseltine ,Brandon Lewis MP


Bank of England's unease over market's rate view Carney & Shafik


The Conveyancing Association launch "voluntary" online training courses for estate agents

Tax experts urge carve out from stamp duty hike for parents helping their children become first time buyers

A MILLIONAIRE Cyber-stalked a property developer who he thought was seeing his girlfriend

Persimmon plc House Builder announces profits for Final Results for the year ended 31 December 2015

Councils will compete to process planning applications and be able to offer fast track application services under new proposals.

Best of Both Worlds ,Social housing: tenants will need to live in an area for four years : the United Kingdom’s special status in a reformed European Union

UK International Development Minister Nick Hurd announces new mobile technology partnership with GSMA.


MWC 2016: Facebook uses Artificial Intelligence to map people's homes


UK online alternative finance market grew to £3.2 billion in, 2015 Real estate is the single most popular sector

Record profits for Bovis Homes sees record profits as housing demand climbs

housing project + COP21 Paris

Lords committee calls for government to refocus the planning system on high quality homes, not just housing numbers

land ready for homes in cities with property oversupply , limited by China +property tax lowered for chinese homebuyers reduced

Would a robot replace an estate agent in the future with artificial intelligence ?

Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge “Beyond Barriers” Official Launch Introduction

Nationwide sued over sale of property loans to Cerberus

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