People spend between 5k to as much as 30k (logistics and tour stipends) in their search traditionally and as much as 2 months just to come up with a shortlist.
We charge btw 2k - 6k for unlimited search in Lagos only, delivered in 360 images and videos. And Of course with some follow-up services, but that’s for later.
We’ve already had our first set of orders. We charge between 2 to 6k for unlimited coverage; meaning we will keep covering places in your target area until you find what fits.
[EDITED - i felt the rest was too much to digest]
Signed
Mazi Tim Chuks
Chief Evangelist, Chief Intercessor & Bootstrapper @ Koborent.com
Premature exposure? Wouldn’t say that. Its a ready to offer service [just not sitewide yet].
We are doing coverage at incredibly low costs per property. Its takes several months to get your rhythm with realtors/landlords and groom them for this (when they’re available, when you can come). Competitors are definitely welcomed…at their own expense. Its a market afterall.
You are right, just never heard of the product till now. You can be sure competitors will pick up the 360 view and it’ll be cool for hotels and event centres too but hey everyone is welcome, free market right?
Ours is LIT but maybe not for the reasons Ralph may cite.
Properties [ for sale or rent ] are in and out of circulation quicker than events centers, and may never be available again. Hence our obsession with coverage cost ( including time) per property.
Between covering and uploading the images it’s takes any of our people at most 10 minutes. A 3 bedroom takes 2 minutes.
Our Camera device is a single shot device and there’s a controlled interface for tagging and uploading plain images / 360 images and videos on site.
And we own the library for that 360 player.
Alas what would any of it mean to the end user, just maybe absolutely NOTHING.
I salute Chuks! Just some thoughts on checking your platform:
• Have you thought of trimming the payment ‘request’ choices down - to say 3 rather than 5? Then in that way, you can make it easier to choose.
• Still on payment, it makes perfect sense to charge. But, do you think this will impact adoption in the short term?
• I know you’re aware mobile is not the best platform to view your site. But it seems to me that this is an activity that will be done on the go? (Like when they get your SMS alerts). And the tags are currently laid out in a confusing manner.
• Is it correct to say that you’re placing more of a bet on the end user who needs to rent (instead of agent)?
In all, well done. It feels like a decent stab at a hard problem.
The surveys are great, they give you that extra necessary info. You can know exactly what’s obtainable because choosing a good property goes beyond the building.
If you can add the state of power supply in the neighbourhood survey, that would be great.
Koborent should reduce the number of visits potential renters have to make
We sure can. You feel the different packages are a distraction? We thought it served to appeal to disparate search interests; Like if you didn’t think we could help you get started with space/land for your fish farm or fruit farm, while we did.
Truly, we can charge a N100 for any of the packages and it would make little difference to us. But to establish seriousness (readiness) on the side of the users they need them to be able (willing) to part with something, that’s the only way we can keep the lights on.
Imagine a situation where someone sends in a request and we comb an entire area delivering 2 dozen property choices in hours, matching the client request only to realize that client was never ready to make a buy/rent.
Infact, if you watch the video on that request page, you’ll see our rules of engagement was a little bit different.
True. Most part of the site is a mess on mobile right now. What tags do you mean?
Yes we are pro-end user. Agents/landlords are a difficult bunch to charge upfront. They don’t bulge, infact it’s a bad rap when your services are not free for use. But they are usually more willing to share commissions if you can supply the leads they close. Very willing.
For the users we are simply followimg the sore points and trying to apply balm. We believe he who owns the buyers owns the market, sellers will find you and beat down a path to your door.
• No I don’t think the packages are a distraction. I feel the way you’ve named them, might be the distraction. For instance, ‘About to wed special’ if it were called ‘Home Special’ or ‘Luxury’, it could open the doors for more people to purchase. Then in that way, you can write copy like: Luxury search is suitable for newly-weds moving to their first home, next home after that big promotion, larger premises for growing family with specific requirements, etc. Summary, more people will be attracted to that a well named package (even if you will do the same tasks to get them the property). than boxing it to just ‘about to wed’.
• I agree with charging. I think in Nigeria, it makes sense to do so. And I like your approach as non-paying users would still gain value from using your platform.
• I suspect you know already, but agents and landlords are two different users, even though they’re on the same side in this 2 sided marketplace. For instance, years ago I used to rent out a flat to tenants - and happily paid (a few quid), for listing on a site. The tenants made enquiries directly to me in response to the listing. But now, I’ve opted to use an agent (charge one month’s rent), because I didn’t have the bandwidth for all that activity - take pictures, book appointment with tenants, etc. In summary, if I had a chance to use a platform that charges more (but less than agent), and can manage the activities required, then surely a good thing to consider.
• In respect of the tag, below is what I was referring to. It’s covered the whole screen and a lot to take in.
(1) I see your point. That’s a nice copy by the way. Permission to reproduce. However those titles came as a result of the kind of requests we’ve had to service at one point or the other in the past 4-5 months. I agree that we could bundle them.
(2) Direct briefs from landlords are a better deal for us. However we won’t get treated any differently. We cant charge for something agents already do for them at a post paid (on commission)…unless we prove a cheaper option along the way; If we can connect prospective tenants directly with Landlords, while handling rents collection at no additional cost to the Landlord save usual rent commission and the landlord won’t need to worry about parting with his/her rent collection as it’s usually done.
But our landlords are not ‘online’, and they won’t be for another decade or more. Forget the island, come to the mainland and you’ll understand home ownership in its warts and glory. We nearly fainted for the sheer choas.
However we do not actively chase Landlords atm so we don’t appear as competition to avoid by these agents.
(3) I don’t think I’ve scrolled through that homepage in weeks. We’ve been obsessed lately with distribution for the tech that runs KoboRent and the brand herself.
Currently part of a property radio show on a premier Radio station (Ibadan & Lagos), where people send and call in requests and listings live on radio and the tech behind KR powers the parsing, matching and delivery without intervention. Bare with us, we will get to all the CSS and experience issues.
From my personal experience when I was searching for a new place using similar sites like yours … I usually take the address, paste it on Google map to take a close look at things around the location. Not sure if this is a big problem but for me, it would help me decide quickly base on if a shopping store, bus station or other things are close by.
The property was initially added via SMS; what our parser does is try to determine the part of the text message that contains street name, when it doesn’t find, the rule was to map area instead (e.g Yaba) but we haven’t pushed that update yet. Need to come around testing it properly before we do.
