An entrepreneur behind a chatbot that helps renters understand their tenancy agreements and renting rights is looking to raise £500,000 to build an automated estate agency.
Faisal Khalid, whose RentersUnion chatbot provides guidance for renters, has now launched Tenence in an attempt to take the “pain out of buying and selling homes by automating the process”.
Khalid said the business, which is set to launch in London to start with, was still in development but would list properties on Zoopla and Rightmove.
Vendors would initially interact with a ‘chatbot’ – essentially computer software that stores and provides certain information such as property details – through the Tenence app.
There are no branches or offices, but aside from an agent coming round to value the property, the actual transaction would be managed solely through the app, up to offer stage.
A seller needs to download the app and arrange a time for an agent to come and view the property or arrange a video viewing.
If they decide to go ahead and list their property, a floorplan will be drawn up and an appointment made through the app for a photographer to come round.
Properties will then be listed on Rightmove and Zoopla with a blurb that sellers can approve in the app.
The ‘bot’ will provide updates each time the app is opened of how many people viewed a property on the portals and when actual viewings are booked.
All viewings are accompanied by an agent and any feedback or offers from the buyer is recorded in the app.
Sellers can ask the chatbot questions throughout such as how many people have viewed the property and can accept, reject, or ask the bot to negotiate further once and offer is made.
The chatbot only works up to the offer stage. Once accepted, the rest will be left to real life lawyers to sort out.
Once launched, sellers will pay 0.75% on completion.
Buyers who purchase properties listed through Tenence will get a cashback.
This will be funded by the platform by sharing part of the fees it gets from the seller.
Khalid said: “When sellers appoint us to represent them, then it’s easy.
“When the seller has another agent already and we are representing the buyer, then we ask the seller’s agent to share part of their commission with us.
“It sounds far-fetched but actually isn’t. If a seller’s agent is making £10,000 to £12,000 on average in fees, having him share £1,000 to £2,000 of that with us isn’t a big deal.”
He pointed out that this is already happening in lettings with Homie where agents pay agents pay to access a service that vets would-be tenants so they only see the ones who are serious about renting a property.
Tenence is also providing a valuation tool that will show the price of properties by postcode as well as price history, recently sold properties in the same area and details on size, floor height, local authority, whether its freehold or leasehold and the type of windows.
It also provides details on planning permissions and has a tool that lets you see how much your return on investment would be if you were to sell, as well as what the capital gain, legal and moving costs would be.
You can also perform a “deep search” that will tell you how much the values of specific properties in the surrounding area have increased by.
The data is sourced from public sources – Land Registry and local government sources.
In contrast, Rightmove and Zoopla’s valuation tools typically just provide average values as a point of comparison when assessing growth, although you can also see what neighbouring properties sold for.
The Tenence tool mainly works for London postcodes but some of the home counties such as Hertfordshire do show up.
Khalid said: “Tenence is about taking the pain out of buying and selling homes by automating the process.
“Most people really dislike dealing with estate agents.
“It’s a £1bn industry in the UK, but ultimately we believe every big city in the world should have this. If you can have self-driving cars and self-managing personal assistants, then why not this?”
“We’re taking the pain out of the process by making you talk to a chatbot” at .75% in London your way way behind existing business who charge a fixed fee and have far better tech than a chatbot . I would have a rethink …
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–Shat Bot—– ‘Just type what you want to do here and we will do the rest’ ——
‘I want to rent a house and not pay rent’
Iam sorry, i dont understand….you want to sell a house and pay me rent?’
No, i want to rent a house , not pay rent and then get shelter to defend me…’
iam sorry, i havent been artificially programmed to intellingentally understand that…
CRASH.
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So this takes the pain out of dealing with estate agents. With Chatbot…
An estate agent does the valuation
An estate agent does the viewings
An estate agent does the offer negotiaton
An estate agent presumably does the sales progression.
So all chatbot does is arrange viewings and provide Rightmove stats etc. Not being funny if this gets funding then there are some people out there with money to throw away.
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Eye should have saved this piece for 1/4/18.
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So, the selling agent will happily pay 25% of their commission to a competitor who’s building a model designed to eliminate the industry that provides his livelihood.
And what does the buyer do when they’re told that they can’t actually buy their dream home because the agent selling it isn’t prepared to part finance their purchase?
Are these people for real?
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My comment is as follows…
******* ******* ***** ** * ******* ***** ** **** * ******* ******* **** ******** ** **** ****** ****** *** *** **** **** **** ** ******** ** ***** ‘********’.
There you go – saved the playground bully-bot a job.
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Harsh use of the moderation to my earlier comment Eye, no profanity was used, it was merely implied.
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But you upset the entrepreneur – a heinous crime in the eyes of…
…well – of someone, perhaps. Somewhere.
On an island.
With no internet.
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£500,000? I wouldn’t be holding my breath if I was Mr Khalid. Might just raise enough for a new ipad.
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I’ve got a spare one in the First-Aid kit if it will make him bot-off.
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Clearly the guy doesn’t know the law and legal responsibilities etc … Money Laundering comes to mind plus all the other add on’s. Is this not a private sellers charter … so how does he intend to get around RM criteria?
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