Selling a home can be stressing enough. Brian Bair and his team provided services above the status quo (house cleaning, landscape, pool service) for their clients, hoping to eliminate such stressful times that occur when selling a home. Brian credits his success in the field to what he calls the concierge approach. One problem, Brian offered so many benefits to his customers that they began asking for him to help eliminate the whole process of selling a home – “Can you just buy my house?”. Brian realized that this was what his customers wanted and he knew there could be a better option. So, here comes Offerpad! In three short years, Offerpad has helped thousands of home buyers and sellers in hundreds of cities. Offerpad is changing real estate, by meeting the consumer’s on-demand needs through technology and experience. We had a chance to interview Brian and asked about his journey, how he started his business and the future of Offerpad.
Tell us your story. Why did you start your business?
After working as a real estate agent for over 10 years prior to founding Offerpad, I learned that most real estate consumers have serious hesitations about the real estate buying and selling process. They complained that working out the transaction was just too complicated and frustrating of a process – even when working with a knowledgeable agent. I made it my goal to better serve these people by creating Offerpad and allowing consumers to sell their home more easily than ever and also be in charge of their own purchase. I want Offerpad to provide the best way for people to sell and buy a home.
How did you come up with your business name?
When the leadership team came together to define the company, it’s values and mission, we took time developing the company’s name. ‘Offerpad’ was simple, but also showcased the business we were creating – providing an offer on homes. We felt that ‘Offerpad’ would be a name that allowed consumers to connect the brand with exactly what we do.
Tell us about your products and services. How do you help your clients?
Offerpad implements the latest technology married with heavy real estate knowledge to allow home sellers to sell their home days, weeks, even months faster than was previously possible. Anyone interested in selling their home simply fills out a very brief online form, submits a few photos and within 24 hours receives an offer. We always provide our best offer on homes and allow our customers to take the lead on selecting closing and move-out dates that are most convenient for them.
Apart from home selling, we also have a solution for those looking to buy a home or both sell and buy at the same time. Offerpad homes can all be viewed in our mobile app or website. With Instant Access, house hunters can self-tour Offerpad homes at their leisure using their cell phone to enter. To facilitate home selling and buying back-to-back, Offerpad Home Loans can help our customer bridge that gap. Our aim is to make navigating the real estate process as easy and seamless as possible, two traits rarely used to describe the industry before.
What makes you unique? What is your unique selling proposition (USP)?
We are diversifying the real estate industry and providing consumers another means of buying and selling a home. All real estate consumers should feel free to move in to a home or out when they want and with the convenience of any other transaction. Traditional real estate doesn’t generally provide that chance for many. They shouldn’t have to be worried about the process of getting their home sold or buying a new one. Additionally, Offerpad will move home selling customers for free through our moving company partner Bellhops, and as mentioned, Offerpad’s home loan services is a key component to the trade-in program that allows customers to sell Offerpad their existing home and buy an Offerpad home at the same time. The real estate industry will largely continue to operate as it has previously for years to come, but Offerpad is here to provide another option, for many a better option, to enjoy their home purchase, sale and move.
Where do you see your business in the next 3-5 years?
Offerpad has been growing at light speed since its start in 2015. We’ve tripled year-over-year growth and plan to hit the accelerator through the rest of this year and into the next few years. We are currently operating in 534 cities in nine metro areas throughout the country. We announced launching another market in December and have plans for many more over the next two years that will quadruple our current customer reach. Right now, we are in 534 cities in 9 metro areas reaching 6.7M home-owning households. Next year we plan to grow to 1,143 cities in 16 metros reaching 16M households and through 2020 we expect to have grown to 2,189 cities in over 25 metro areas with an estimated reach of 24.2M homeowning households. By then we expect to offer additional solutions to further simplify the home selling, buying and moving processes.
Any advice you would give you entrepreneurs and business owners?
Be the best at what you do. Know what you want to achieve and make yourself able to do it. When you have a serious interest in the wellbeing of your customers and employees, positive things will happen as you work towards your business objectives. We are proud to earn a 94% satisfaction rating from our customers. That’s not just because we offer a great product. A lot of it has to do with how we treat our customers. We do all we can to understand what they want, how they feel, and the result they expect when they come to us. We make it our top priority to make our customers happy.
What have been some of your achievements that you are most proud of? Why?
We are excited to know that our work is met with a huge 94% satisfaction rating. Also, our market growth has increased exponentially over our three years in business and we are proud to be reaching so many moving households around the country. Employee onboarding is rising quickly; we’ve experienced a 300% employee increase over the past 18 months. We are also proud that our executives, including CFO Britt Chapman, are being recognized in the press and in the community for their excellent work at Offerpad.
Anything else additional you want to tell our readers?
Selling with Offerpad means circumventing the typical pain points of selling a home. Our offers are generated quickly after they are requested thanks to our state-of-the-art algorithm and local real estate experts. These capabilities allow us to always provide our best offer upfront. We are equipped to do almost everything with our customers remotely over the phone and online for added customer convenience. We are, however, available to have as much or as little contact with customers as they like. If they feel more comfortable working through a real estate agent, we welcome that and are happy to oblige. After an offer is accepted, we can have the transaction complete within a few days and customers will be on their way to their next home. Since Offerpad is the buyer, the only home visit sellers will ever get is from our inspector. No planning for open houses or unplanned, last-minute home tours – this is the most comfortable and convenient way for consumer to sell their home. No stress, no mystery, no waiting game. Offerpad’s purpose is to allow people to move freely.