followit, Australia’s first real estate dedicated social media platform that supplies live property information via a friendly, ‘Instagram-like’ feed, to any smart phone, device or laptop, was recently rolled out via a national webinar.
The national rollout follows its successful testing phase in Sydney’s Northern Beaches, Perth and Freemantle. followit was developed by leaders within the industry as a response to the use of social media and to eliminate common communication issues that plague the profession, and in doing so, improve their relationships with consumers.
The company also recently announced that it was valued at AUD$20 million following a successful raise of AUD$2 million from several leading real estate agency players.
Selling like hot cakes
Demand from agents and property managers around Australia following the company’s initial launch compelled the directors to make the platform available to everyone sooner than expected.
“The buzz around Australia from real estate agents has been immense for followit,” said Managing Director Tony Moussa. “They wanted a more effective way to communicate with consumers and I feel we’ve delivered.”
“followit cuts through the clutter and improves the overall real estate experience for buyers and sellers. It offers what no other real estate technology in the country can – real time communication. followit is social media combined with real estate portal techn. It allows agents to push out live information in a matter of seconds to an audience.
“We are also excited to be working closely with Macquarie Business Banking, which is making the technology available to its database of clients nationally to support their businesses,” Tony said.
Since being launched on Sydney’s Northern Beaches and in Perth and Freemantle, 2,285 agents have registered to use followit. On the Sydney’s Northern Beaches alone, 75 percent of offices have gotten on board with it. Agencies in Australia currently using followit include: LJ Hooker, Rain & Horne, Century 21, Belle Property, Professionals, First National, Real Mark, Abel McGrath, Acton, Remax, Peard and Cunninghams.
followit is free for house hunters to use and is competitively priced for real estate agents to use as a marketing tool.
Who are the people behind followit?
The founding team of followit comprises of six individuals; all are authorities in their own fields. The combination of this experience in followit’s formative stages has allowed the business to flourish and become scalable operationally.
The founders are: Joe Arthur – marketing & design with 20 years+ experience running his own design and marketing company; Christopher Azzi and Alan Hashem – IT and real estate tech startup, whose experience includes developing and launching Australia’s most successful online rental property inspection portal, Inspection Manager; Charles Baynie – leading auctioneer and real estate agency coaching; Peter Grant – Director of Domain Residential, which specializes in residential marketing; and Tony Moussa – law & investment banking management specializing in sourcing institutional capital for property opportunities.
“Our goals are to establish ourselves in the market place and to cement both the agents and consumer’s confidence. We had our first national rollout via a webinar on June 15, which was very successful. We plan to replicate that on a regular basis as more real estate professionals hear from their colleagues how beneficial the social communications platform is for their business,” Tony told Anthill.
“Joint ventures and integration with complimentary technologies will also be important. There are already a lot of companies wishing to integrate with us, which will expand our relationships and our product.”
