Proptech panel: de-stressing selling, settling and moving

4 hours ago

32 min read

Selling and moving home involves more than finding a buyer. Funding repairs, tracking settlement and arranging utility connections can add pressure at an already demanding time. In this 2022 Proptech Association Australia panel, Jennifer Harrison brought together three businesses working on those problems.

Portia Miller of SaleFunder discussed vendor funding, Kylie Dillon of Realtime Conveyancer explained digital settlement workflows, and Belinda Seers of Direct Connect covered support for movers and agents. The panel examined how technology could improve visibility and reduce administrative friction across the property journey.

On the panel:

Jennifer Harrison, Vice President, Proptech Association Australia (moderator)
Portia Miller, Marketing, SaleFunder
Kylie Dillon, Co-founder, Realtime Conveyancer
Belinda Seers, Business Development, Direct Connect

The conversation covered:

(00:04) Marie-Anne Lampotang opens the webinar for Stone & Chalk and the Proptech Association.
(01:24) Jennifer Harrison introduces the theme of life stage events driving property moves and the stress of the process.
(03:48) Portia Miller introduces SaleFunder and its vendor payment gateway.
(06:21) Portia discusses hidden costs and uncomfortable money conversations around deceased estates and separating couples.
(08:28) Portia explains SaleFunder's custom CMS and API integrations that process thousands of loans monthly.
(11:06) Portia covers loan use cases, from advertising packs to repairing properties damaged by tenants.
(14:04) Kylie Dillon introduces Realtime Conveyancer and the black hole of traditional conveyancing.
(16:57) Kylie outlines the tech stack behind Realtime Conveyancer, using React, Node and APIs to connect all parties.
(18:44) Kylie and Jennifer discuss consumer frustration with paper-based conveyancing processes and wet ink signatures.
(21:41) Kylie shares her backstory of visiting the US and building a platform to future-proof her conveyancing business.
(24:18) Belinda Seers introduces Direct Connect Australia and its 20-year history in utility connections.
(27:18) Belinda discusses the financial impact of energy referrals on real estate agency balance sheets.
(31:23) Belinda outlines upcoming roadmap items, including a partnership with Uber for mover rewards.
(37:06) Kylie answers questions about Realtime Conveyancer rolling out in Western Australia and targeting South Australia next.

In their words:

“A lot of agents that have swapped over to SaleFunder from them tell us they've got a significant increase in cash flow because a lot of them were taking on those pay later loans on there, which is not really viable for an agency when you're trying to grow and pay staff costs.” – Portia Miller

“The conveyancing process has largely been known as a black hole. The consumer has no visibility. The real estate agent and the finance broker have no visibility, and the only way they know what's going on is when the conveyancer picks up the phone or sends them an email to give them an update.” – Kylie Dillon

“We're not a comparison site. We're not going to do what someone can click on a web link and do themselves. We're there to alleviate some pressure.” – Belinda Seers

About the panel:

At the time of the panel, Portia Miller worked in marketing at SaleFunder, Kylie Dillon was co-founder of Realtime Conveyancer, and Belinda Seers worked in business development at Direct Connect. Moderator Jennifer Harrison was vice president of Proptech Association Australia.

Transcript:

This is an automated transcript of the panel, lightly edited for readability. Please excuse any errors.

Marie-Anne Lampotang: Good afternoon, everybody. I'd like to welcome you to this proptech webinar, and I'd like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which most of us are based. Most of us are in Sydney, except Kylie who's in WA, which is the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, and pay my respect to elders past, present and emerging. So this is a hello from me from Sydney. I've got the Sydney Opera House as inspiration because that is definitely not what it's looking like today. It's rainy and train-less in Sydney, but we're here and we're gonna have an awesome session. So my name's Marie-Anne Lampotang. I'm the s- uh, General Manager for Stone & Chalk in Sydney, currently at the Sydney Startup Hub, and soon to be at Tech Central from the 1st of July. I'm also the Treasurer of the Proptech Association, and I'm really excited to have an all-women panel today. Looking forward to International Women's Day on the 8th of March. So the topic webinar is about de-stressing, um, buying, moving, et cetera, and many people don't know that moving is actually one of the big stresses in life, together with getting married, um, having a death in the family, and having a child, et cetera. So the last time I bought a property and moved in, I wish I had all these services available to me, and I didn't at the time. So everyone who's doing it out there, they're very lucky to have awes- a- awesome access to all these services now. So on that note, I'll hand over to Jennifer. Thank you.

Jennifer Harrison: Thank you very much, Marie-Anne Lampotang. Hello, and welcome to February's The proptech Panel. I'm Jennifer Harrison, and I'm the Vice President of the Proptech Association Australia. We'd love you, if you don't already, to follow us on LinkedIn. And if you are a proptech and you're not a member, please consider joining us as a member, and also enter for our Proptech Awards, which are currently open, and entries close on, uh, March the 18th. Now, moving home is typically driven by some kind of life stage event. Growing families need to upsize. Empty nesters don't need the space. They're motivated by luxury and lifestyle to enjoy those golden years, and they're looking to downsize. Often, people get offered a career opportunity in another city or another state, or their partner does, so they move to embrace that opportunity. Now, if you'll forgive my pun, there are a lot of moving parts involved in selling and moving home. When you're selling, you're interested in top dollar, but most owner/occupiers have a certain amount of repairs and maintenance that they just live with, and buyers have an expectation that's a bit higher than that. Now, beyond the time and hassle of taking care of those repairs, you might think that you might want to actually do a wow factor, like a new bathroom or a new kitchen, and that's more th- than just some time and hassle. There's tens of thousands of dollars of investment there. How do you fund that if you don't have access to that capital? Now, once you've sold, you're now in a process. You're now in a bit of a pressure cooker process. You have to go through the conveyancing and settlement process. There are inquiries. There's documentation. There's money that needs to move, and there are deadlines. And once you're through all that, you need to move out and move in, and you wanna have the lights on. You wanna be able to plug in the kettle, and if you've got children, you definitely need the Wi-Fi enabled on the day that you move in. So I'm absolutely delighted today, not only do we have an all-women panel, but we have women who represent a depth and breadth of proptech, showcasing solutions that help you to sell, settle and move home. So let's meet the panel. My first guest today is Portia Miller, who is the marketing lead at SaleFunder. G'day, Portia. Thank you for joining us today. How are you?

Portia Miller: Hi, Jennifer. Thank you for having me. I'm very well, thank you. Besides, obviously, the terrible weather in Sydney this week. We're supposed to still be in summer, but it's not putting it on for us, is it?

Jennifer Harrison: That's right. Perfect. Perfect. Thank you. And so you're joining us from Sydney today?

Portia Miller: Yeah, that's correct.

Jennifer Harrison: Yeah. All right. My second guest today is Kylie Dillon, who is the co-founder of Realtime Conveyancer. Hi, Kylie. Thank you for joining us today. How are you?

Kylie Dillon: Jen. Thank you for having me.

Jennifer Harrison: And where are you joining us from?

Kylie Dillon: I'm joining you from sunny Perth, Western Australia.

Jennifer Harrison: Yes, we're a bit jealous of the sun today. Like, Sydney is very gray with torrential rain coming down. And my third guest-

Kylie Dillon: We have, uh, I think it's sunny and 37 or something here today, so beautiful.

Jennifer Harrison: And my third guest is Belinda Sears, who is the Head of Business Development at Direct Connect Australia. G'day, Belinda. Thanks for joining us. How are you?

Belinda Seers: Hey, Jen. Delighted to be here. I'm very well, thank you. Yeah, also in Sydney. I'm, uh, working from an unfamiliar space. This is my in-laws' house in Middle Cove in Sydney. 'Cause like most people, I got bored of my house over the last couple of years and we've got some renovations going on there at the moment. So, uh, yeah, it's also been challenging with the, the storms and things, and I think the jacket might come off soon given the humidity as well.

Jennifer Harrison: Yes. And actually, one of the, one of the benefits of the storm today is my neighbors are doing a knock-down rebuild. So the bricklayers who turned up this morning have now left, so I have some peace and quiet to do the webinar.

Belinda Seers: Oh, that's amazing. I thought, "Oh, no. That's not gonna be great. That won't fly with a podcast." But they've disappeared home for the day.

Jennifer Harrison: Oh, it's worked out. Portia, let's come to you first and talk about SaleFunder. We always like to ask people to start off by t- explaining in a nutshell what their proptech does. Or another way of saying that is, can you please give us your elevator pitch?

Portia Miller: Yeah, of course. So at SaleFunder, we provide real estate agents a payment gateway to help vendors get their mark- uh, properties to market. So we offer secure cash payment, um, requests. We offer a PCI compliant credit card facility and also a pay later option, which is our biggest product that we run. So we pay vendors' loans to fund all sorts of things that come with selling, and, um, styling and preparing a home for sale, and some of those loans we can pay in up to 40, in as soon as 48 hours. And unlike a lot of our, uh, competitors, we don't make any agency liable for our loans. It's all vendor- Loans, so

Jennifer Harrison: What are some of the problems or challenges people might experience if a solution like SaleFunder wasn't available?

Portia Miller: As you mentioned before, Jennifer, there's, um, a lot that goes into selling a home and it's usually around a big life event. And a lot of the time we take away, we don't think about what is actually involved cost-wise. You've got your typical things, moving costs and actually getting out of the property and buying the new one, but no one thinks about is the property ready for sale? Do we have to pay for marketing? What if I, what about the conveyancer? What about everything else that goes on top? And there's situations where possibly it's a deceased estate or maybe you're a couple that's separating. There's conversations about money that people don't wanna have around that time as well. So we make it easier for these people and all vendors to get to market that way.

Jennifer Harrison: What you just said there about deceased estates and couples separating, I hadn't actually thought about that before, but that makes a lot of sense and, and it, it to, helps smooth over those difficult times of life. It's fantastic that solutions like SaleFunder are available.

Portia Miller: Yeah. And, you know, like I said, our, our main product is our pay later. It's an uncomfortable conversation about money to have even with a real estate agent that you might not know that well, and most people are not very forthcoming with, you know, money issues or the fact they don't wanna pay for things up front. And so m- more than 50% of our loans are pay at settlement. And it just takes away that need to have that conversation about how people will pay or possibly losing a listing for an agent because a vendor's not comfortable with saying, "I don't wanna pay for this up front."

Jennifer Harrison: Mm. So can I ask you, how do people apply for a SaleFunder loan? And what's your process to screen them and approve that credit?

Portia Miller: Yeah. So we have a two-prong approach for our loans. So our first one is through their real estate agent. So we have a, an online portal where they can apply for their vendor, obviously with the vendor's, um, sign off and with their I- correct ID checks. And then we also have a direct model where vendors can come to us directly and get the funds that way. Obviously, we have our own credit criteria that we check through internally, so everything is screened out. The agencies are checked. We make sure funds are going into the correct place. All our payment gateways are secure. Yeah.

Jennifer Harrison: And so how are you using technology in that process?

Portia Miller: Yeah. So we process thousands of loans a month, and without technology it just wouldn't be efficient or possible. So we have a custom CMS that we use that does everything from sending out automatic emails to generating loan documents, to generating PDFs, to contacting people. So without technology, it just, it wouldn't be possible. We also run a lot of APIs with all our partners other providers in the market as well as Domain and REA.

Jennifer Harrison: Fantastic.

Portia Miller: Yeah.

Jennifer Harrison: So is your go-to-market approach, would it be more through real estate agents? Can you give us a bit of an understanding of what's the split between applicants who come via a real estate agent versus applicants who come direct? And what are your strategies for boosting both of those channels?

Portia Miller: Yeah. So we've got the, the B2B, um, so that's with, where we work with our agencies, and they're approached directly by our BDMs and they would probably account for around 60 to 65% of our loans. Obviously when you're selling, the agent is the first port of call, so they're gonna be the highest, uh, number of people that are applying for our loans on behalf of their vendors. So they're approached directly by our BDMs, and we've got a, um, specific onboarding team because obviously every agency is different and everyone has their unique challenges, so we have a specific onboarding team that takes on every agency how they are. And then with our B to- B2C approach, we use a lot of Google, we use newspapers. We've, we're featured on A Current Affair with a very positive article about us. Social media obviously, advertising plays a huge part as well.

Jennifer Harrison: Yeah. And what kind of positive feedback are you getting, whether that's from real estate agents or from the vendors? Can you share some of the, the praise you've received from the market with us?

Portia Miller: Yeah. So a lot of, there's a lot of competitors out there and a lot of dinosaurs who have been around for a long time who haven't had any competition in the market for a while. Agents that have swapped over to SaleFunder from them tell us they've got a significant increase in cash flow because a lot of them were taking on those pay later loans on there, which is not really viable for an agency when you're trying to grow and pay staff costs and all those sort of things that come with running a business. We pay a lot quicker, and most importantly, we can save 30 to $40,000 for the admin costs in house. And you just have to read our Google reviews of how vendors feel about our product. It's there in a time of need. It's something they didn't realise that they thought they would need. It's something they didn't know existed, and they're just happy that they had it.

Jennifer Harrison: Mm. Fantastic. So you've mentioned some of the uses. I think it might be interesting, is there any limitation on what the 60,000 can be used, used for? Or can you give us some more examples of what people can pay for with the $60,000 credit?

Portia Miller: Yeah. So it, it really can finance a, a whole range of things. Our main product is people pay for their advertising, so actually getting the property live, so putting listings on Domain and flyers and bill- billboards and banners and whatever the, the pack that the agency has offered up the vendor. We've seen people do landscaping, retiling houses. We've seen full scale renovations taken on with it. Um, so we've got a current situation at the moment where a tenant has trashed a property and they need to fix it up before they can sell, and that's a huge job involving tradespeople, everyone, and the agent as well.

Jennifer Harrison: Again, I thank you for saying that because that's a use, that's a use case I actually would, wouldn't also have thought of. And again, it's fantastic to know that you can help property owners who are experiencing those difficulties.

Portia Miller: Yeah.

Jennifer Harrison: So can I ask, what, what, what's coming up in terms of SaleFunder's product roadmap? Is there anything you can share with us that you're planning to launch later in the year? Any improvements or new features?

Portia Miller: Sure, of course. So we're working towards a more upstream and cost savings and efficiencies for agents at the moment. We, we work closely with all the agencies that we have, which is why we have the dedicated onboarding team, and we take on feedback and improve our product all the time depending on what's needed and required out there in the market. And so we're hopefully not only gonna be providing cash flow solutions, but also lo- solutions to lower administration costs for our agency partners as well, further saving them time, money, and helping their vendors.

Jennifer Harrison: Yeah, definitely, like time, money, and hassle is a bit of a mantra I often use when I'm explaining the benefits of a lot of emerging technology solutions. And some, I think sometimes it's actually just that hassle factor that-

Portia Miller: Yeah, a lot of people-

Jennifer Harrison: ... really resonates with people

Portia Miller: ... use our product just purely for convenience. So it's, they don't have to think about the money, they don't have to put their own money into another account. They don't have to do anything but agree to our terms, and that's it. It's all sorted.

Jennifer Harrison: Fantastic.

Portia Miller: Mm.

Jennifer Harrison: And now before I come and chat with Kylie, Portia, have you got your proptech Award entry in for SaleFunder?

Portia Miller: It's in drafts. I have been working on it. As mentioned before, I'm not insane, just rocketing. I do have a newborn at the moment, so uh, she's just sitting on my lap.

Jennifer Harrison: Oh.

Portia Miller: But I do, I'm doing it in between her demands.

Jennifer Harrison: Perfect. Wonderful. We, we, we look forward to that. So in case people aren't aware, the Proptech Awards for 2022 entries are currently open and will close on the 18th of March, and more information about that is on the proptechassociation.com.au website. Thank you very much, Portia. Kylie, let's come and chat about that middle bit I said. I described it as a pressure cooker, and I think, Kylie, my personal opinion is that what you do as a conveyancer is hugely underrated. In terms of the risk that you carry, um, the conveyancing piece is hugely underrated in the whole property selling, buying, and mo- moving journey. So can you please tell us-

Kylie Dillon: Absolutely

Jennifer Harrison: ... what is, in a nutshell, what is Real Time Conveyancing? Give us your elevator pitch.

Kylie Dillon: Real Time Conveyance, uh, automates and streamlines the conveyancing process from contract to keys. We do that through digital innovation. We're aiming to bring all parties into the transaction to be able to provide complete transparency by way of our core platform and our mobile application.

Jennifer Harrison: Wonderful. Can you give us a bit more of the backstory? What are some of the challenges and hassles that pe- conveyances, but not just the conveyancers, but also the stakeholders in this, this process, of which there are multiple, right? There's a buyer.

Kylie Dillon: Absolutely.

Jennifer Harrison: There's a seller. There's mortgage provider.

Kylie Dillon: Yep.

Jennifer Harrison: There's s- solicitors or conveyancers for the buyer, solicitors or conveyancers for the seller. There's real estate agents. Tell us a bit more of the backstory of the problem that you're solving for with Realtime Conveyancer.

Kylie Dillon: Yeah, so we come to understand that the way people buy, sell, finance, and settle property is changing. We also know that up to or between 34 to 64% of consumers have a less than ideal experience when buying and settling a home, and the time that it takes to settle a property. Given the fact that the consumers, they have so much transparency and visibility in every other aspect of their life, there's not, there's nothing that they can't track. Now, until recently, so until the introduction of PEXA, there had been very little change in the conveyancing process for 150 years. Now, given it is the, you know, it is somebody's biggest purchase of their lifetime, 150 years of doing something the same way is a really long time to have no change. The conveyancing process has largely been known as a black hole. The consumer has no visibility. The real estate agent and the finance broker have no visibility, and the only way they know what's going on is when the conveyancer picks up the phone or sends them an email to give them an update. And in today's busy world, there's a lot of people that just can't take, just can't take phone calls. They're either on the run, they're in a meeting, they're at work. Like Portia could be in the middle of a brand new baby and just do not have the time to spend with a conveyancer asking all these questions about where her transaction is at. The other thing is we find also too, quite often when we get the client on the phone, because they're in the middle of doing so much other stuff, there's only a really small component that they actually hear and that they actually take on board. So they hang up, and they, they're really not sure. Yeah, the fact that the consumer is starting to demand that visibility and transparency because they have it in every other aspect of their life is what Real Time is aiming for. We're aiming to make sure that ex- that experience for the consumer is an amazing experience because it absolutely should be.

Jennifer Harrison: Mm. Agree with that. So tell us a little bit more about how you're using technology at Realtime Conveyancer.

Kylie Dillon: Okay. So we offer a cloud-based solution which is driven by APIs. It is using modern reactive web application development technologies, like React for the front-end user phase and Node to build a strong, um, back end and support our API integration strategy and which is largely all about making sure that we connect all parties in that ecosystem to give them that visibility and transparency over the process.

Jennifer Harrison: Yep. I think you're right that it's, it's, it's, it's one of those things that it sounds like it should be a simple problem to solve to give all parties visibility, but I can imagine it really wasn't a simple problem, simple problem to solve. Tell me-

Kylie Dillon: Absolutely not. It, it, when you think about the fact that you have, when you can have a dozen different types of sellers with a dozen different types of buyers with a dozen different type of properties who may or may not be an investor, an owner/occupier, or a, um, first-time buyer or a pensioner who may or may not have paid their rates and taxes. So there are so many variables in play. And the fact that most people buy or sell, what do th- they say? I think it used to be every 10 to 12 years. Now they're saying it's every seven to 10. But they forget what the experience is and they forget what they need to be doing. So by... And the fact is m- most consumers don't actually know what a conveyancer is or why they need one. They know they need one because the real estate agent or finance broker tells them they do, but they don't actually know what it is that we do. So by giving them access to a platform that allows them to not just track their, their milestones or track their settlement, but actually really brings them into the process by way of being able to receive their documents, sign their documents, return their documents, chat to their conveyancer. We are also hoping that that level of education brings about a whole new level of professionalism as well.

Jennifer Harrison: I can't believe that in 2022 anyone really wants to be printing out documents and doing a wet ink signature or drawing a check. You know?

Kylie Dillon: Absolutely. And the fact that the real estate agents have so much amazing technology that's been delivered to them over the years, the consumer, um, is starting to receive. They're signing contracts digitally, they're interacting, they're viewing properties digitally, they're interacting with their real estate agent digitally. And then they hit the conveyancing process and it's such a paper-based process that they're actually quite frustrated. Then by the time they come back to us, it's like, "What's with all this paperwork and why are we still having to sometimes deal in checks?" Because, yeah, they just, they've come to expect that it should be happening in a digital environment.

Jennifer Harrison: Yeah. Absolutely. So Kylie, what kinds of positive feedback are you getting from, you know, other conveyancers? And also if you've got some feedback you can share from other stakeholders in the process, lenders or real estate agents and the buyers and sellers themselves.

Kylie Dillon: Yeah. We've had, the feedback we've had, Jen, has been absolutely brilliant. Feedback from, "Oh my God, this is absolutely what the market needs. Why hasn't somebody done this before? We're really excited to see you bring this to market. How much longer till we can use it?" But I think looking back, the most rewarding feedback that we have received is that conveyancers and industry stakeholders really appreciate the amount of passion and care and thought leadership that's actually gone into building the platform. Because this is something that the one thing that you cannot mess with is people's lives, and the biggest asset of their life deserves a ton of respect. This is not, you know, introducing technology for technology's sake doesn't play in-

Jennifer Harrison: Mm-hmm

Kylie Dillon: ... there's no space for that in this particular process. So that's been probably the, the most rewarding feedback that we've had, is that they really do appreciate the effort and the care that's gone into it. From our logo all the way through to our, you know, our values and the actual platform itself, we've always, we ask ourselves a question in everything that we build, "Is this going to provide a greater, a, you know, a great or an amazing experience for the conveyancer and the consumer? Yes or no?" And if it's a no, then we don't build it. That human element is just so important, and we do keep coming back to that all the time.

Jennifer Harrison: I think one of the extra special source features, if I could put it that way, of Real Time Conveyancing is, and sometimes we do see this in proptech ventures, is sometimes people have built a solution to solve their own problem for where they were already in the property industry. So for example, last month on the panel we had Mikhail Rodger from PropHero, who is a very enthusiastic and experienced property investor, and he was astounded that there wasn't an app that would let him get all the information he needed quickly and efficiently to assess whether something was a good investment property, so he built it. Um, yeah, so-

Kylie Dillon: And that's exactly what happened. As a conveyancer the, the platforms that I w- the platform that I was using, and then the other platforms that were available to me, I was looking thinking, "It's just not quite hitting the mark for me. It's not..." I guess my vision was so great, and I was really concerned that the platform that I was using was not going to get my business to 2025, 2030. Which just, yeah, led me to flying to the US to spend some time over there doing some research and really just loved and, you know, fell in love with the way that they really care about the c- the consumer. But were also really happy to play around and have a bit of a, to change things up and, you know, the whole disruptor. It's not about d- you don't have to disrupt I- disrupt an industry for the sake of disrupting an industry. But if you really wanna make sure that your business is gonna remain relevant and go forward, I'm exactly where PropHero was in, in that regard.

Jennifer Harrison: Mm-hmm. So tell us a little bit more about what's coming up next for Real Time Conveyancing. What are your plans for the rest of 2022?

Kylie Dillon: Yeah. We have been beta testing the platform for several months now, and we've been incredibly blessed to have some really great, uh, conveyancing firms reach out to us and ask if there was the opportunity to be part of a pilot or to have a play as a beta tester. They themselves, uh, you know, totally acknowledged the fact that what, what we needed was missing, and they wanted to be able to say, "Look, if you're open to it, can we please, let us play and let us provide feedback. Let us help us grow your platform." Which I think speaks volumes, right? When, conveyancing is a cot- it is a, a small industry. It's a cottage industry. And our competitors are often our friends at the same time. So to be able to have your, your competitors and your colleagues jump on board and wanna help you grow your platform has just been so incredibly great. But we've settled over 700 properties through the platform now d- or during the testing phase, so we're super excited to be approaching go live.

Jennifer Harrison: Fantastic. And very important question, have you got your Proptech Award entry in for 2022?

Kylie Dillon: Tasha, it's in draft. You know what it's like, Jen.

Jennifer Harrison: Fantastic.

Kylie Dillon: There's 100 balls in the air right now-... and y- you just, yeah, you jump onto it-

Jennifer Harrison: That's right

Kylie Dillon: ... when you've got time. But yeah, absolutely.

Jennifer Harrison: It'll happen. Awesome. Okay, thank you very much, Kylie. Belinda.

Kylie Dillon: You're very welcome.

Jennifer Harrison: Let's come and talk about the moving part of selling, settling and moving. So I've sold my old home, I've bought my new home. I've now got a big logistics and project management task ahead of me. Can you tell us what, in a nutshell, is Direct Connect Australia? Give us your elevator pitch.

Belinda Seers: Yeah, sure can, Jen. So look, our, our mantra at Direct Connect is we make moving easy. We're a utility connection company. We've got a team of, uh, moving experts and consultants provide a concierge service to those busy, stressed movers, uh, to connect the gas and electricity as well as things like internet, telco, Foxtel, and so forth. We've been doing this for 20 years. We know how to do it extremely well. We know how to get the power on and being owned by an energy company, even more, we've got the smarts and the connections behind the scenes, so it's very seamless. And but over the past few years, what we've had to do is become more of a blended service. There was that traditional human call centre element, and we've had to digitize that somewhat to complement-

Jennifer Harrison: Mm-hmm

Belinda Seers: ... without taking away the, the fact that somebody still does want, uh, a voice at the end of the phone to alleviate their concerns and to give them back that time in the day. Yeah, it's become proptech with a traditional service to e- effectively be able to scale that and, and provide a better customer experience over the past few years.

Jennifer Harrison: Yeah. There's something about that human element that just goes to trust. Even though there's the convenience of the digital, nothing compensates for being able to actually get through to a human when you need to. So can you tell us a little bit more, if I wasn't going to use a service like Direct Connect Australia, what kind of challenges would I be facing to try and do this myself?

Belinda Seers: Yeah. You try and call up your existing services, so there's several phone calls there, lots of on hold. You might be sent around the place. You might not have your customer numbers. It can be a bit of a, a challenge. So for us, it's everything in, I think it's about 14 or 16 minutes, so saving people about an hour of their time. And as we've talked about today, moving is a, it's either a really happy life event or it's a, it could be a sad life event, but it's always got that emotional kind of angle to it. And so for us to help people to manage that big transition in their life or, you know, families, children, you know, uh, relocating partners for careers, I- I've seen that in my, um, future, sorry, not my future, my, my previous role. So I used to work in global mobility, managing, uh, contracts with PwC and big banks and things, and seeing families have to shift from, you know, Sydney to Azerbaijan or London or New York, and it's a huge transition. And I think, "Oh my gosh, if this service had been available for, for them in all of those places, it would've been one less thing to worry about." And I've seen the raft of what people have to stress about when they're moving. Whether it's down the road, interstate, or across the world, you, they, you still get that sort of emotional, human sort of, um, stress and the bell curve of acceptance and denial and, and then eventually you're happy with it, um, most of the time. So look, we, as I said, we take about an hour out of, or we give people back about an hour into their life, which I think we all appreciate. We'd love an hour back. Portia, you've got a baby at home that's multitasking on your lap. It's, it's just brilliant. It, we all have busier lives than ever, and today is probably the slowest day that we'll ever live. So we've just gotta continue to nail this and make it better.

Jennifer Harrison: Mm-hmm.

Belinda Seers: But also that's kind of the mover perspective. For real estate owners who, who we work with, we pay a referral fee for those customers that come through, whether it's proptech or a traditional entry method, and it used to be beer money. Even when I started at Direct Connect three years ago, we were talking relatively small amounts. It was, yeah, five, 10, 20 bucks here and, and the impact of energy referrals today on the bottom line is something that everyone has gotta be nailing because one, it's a great service, but two, it really should be having an impact on your balance sheet. So if you're not seeing that today, I'd, um, say to anyone listening in, get in touch. We, we can make sure that we can turn that situation around because a lot has evolved in the last couple of years.

Jennifer Harrison: I think it, it's probably a natural observation here that consumers do value convenience. So Belinda, are you connected in, for example, or, or maybe we can make some connections right here. Are you connected into real time conveyancer and sale funder for those kinds of referrals and joined up service?

Belinda Seers: Do you know what? We're not, but I've been listening intently today going, "Wow, I've gotta look into this." And, and to be honest, our development and our partner pipeline is through the roof. You know, I was told again yesterday, "Cool your jets. We can only choose so many." And it's a wonderful problem to have because there are so many awesome proptechs out there, and whether it's energy, proptech, real estate, there's so many brands that are knocking on our door and we're meeting in, uh, networking events 'cause we're back out in the market again. And even some people that I met at the, uh, Proptech Association Awards last June, Jen, they're now partners. So th- there are so many opportunities and Portia and Kylie, at the right time, I'd definitely like to, uh, have the conversation, see if there's anything we can do there.

Jennifer Harrison: I'm glad we're all thinking the same thing on that one there. It's my first thought when I saw who was on the panel.

Belinda Seers: Okay.

Jennifer Harrison: So Belinda, is, would it be true to say that, uh, that Direct Connect Australia, while, whilst there's a high human touch at the consumer facing piece, there's lots of technology in the back end? Is that correct? And can you tell us a bit more about how you are using technology at Direct Connect Australia?

Belinda Seers: Yeah. Very much so. As I said, that human voice at the end of the phone needs to remain. That's, that's constant. Um, and customer feedback continues to say that they want that. We're not a comparison site. We're not going to do what someone can, uh, click on a web link and do themselves. We're there to, to alleviate some of the, some pressure. But what we've had to do is to replace the traditional entry methods, phone, email, even fax. We still get fax today. But over the last three years we've gone from having just the DC referral and the rest button to I think we're up to about another 16 or 17 entry methods across home and property trust accounting platforms, application forms. So, you know, all of the big ones, PropertyMe, PropertyTree, ROI forms, you name it. And we haven't gone into them gently either. We are a very compliant, a very values driven organisation that approaches each methodically, and we have to prioritize the customer voice over, over others. It's all a, a secure API based on a Java platform. We do things methodically. We run UpGuard scores to minimize cybersecurity risks, and we hold all of our- ourselves, our brands, and our partners to account on that. So what we, we do is we run that periodically and say to those partners, "Hey, did you know you're a little bit exposed here? Your score's weak." And they go, "Actually, brilliant. Thank you. We did some work. We didn't realise we're exposed." 'Cause the last thing that we want for anyone in the industry, but particularly those in our ecosystem, is for a small change or a small advancement in, uh, proptech to, to leave one of us open. And I just think of the worst case scenario of all of the data that we have out there in real estate, that privacy information, the PII, keeping that secure is absolutely paramount in everything that, that we do.

Jennifer Harrison: Yep. Totally. Good to hear. Okay. Belinda, can you tell us a little bit about, you know, what's coming up from Direct Connect Australia for the rest of the year? Are there any major product roadmap deadlines, any new features and benefits we can expect to see you launch?

Belinda Seers: I sure can. Yeah, there's plenty. There's too many to list at the moment, which is awesome actually. Probably the most exciting is that we've just recently launched a first in market partnership with Uber. We did a small pilot on that, and we're about to open up that trial to all of our entry methods. One of the most reputable, well-recognized brands in, on the planet working with little Direct Connect in Australia. How good's that? All we're doing is it's actually a mover reward, and the mover of each individual can choose what they do with it. We are all about choice, and that's why we're in all of the entry methods. We don't say, "If you're with Direct Connect, you used to... You need to use this proptech, and here's the only reward." Instead we're saying, "Here's 20 different ways you can send us referrals. And, oh by the way, here's an Uber voucher for your movers." And they can create their own adventure. So Jen, if you were the mover, you could use that as an Uber ride to get from rental property one to swing by your agent to grab your keys and get into your other one. You could do e- even a parcel delivery. There's an Uber Connect parcel delivery now. 'Cause I'm surprised that none of our doorbells have rang every single-... 0 day. "Sorry, just got a delivery." So you know, we can use it at that, or the wonderful thing is local cafe. Keep them in business. Coffees, order Thai on the first night. Get a really good quality pizza when you move in and you can't be bothered to, to eat. And, and what I super love about it was COVID taught us that we wanna keep our local barista in, in business. They were probably the constant when we didn't see our family and our friends. We still saw that person. They saw this part of our face. It's hyper local and, yeah, hyper personal. So that's the most exciting thing. Without going on, just a couple of other digitization, uh, journeys that we're on. We're working with the REI in New South Wales to, and Dynamic Methods, the, the tech behind REI forms, to continue to digitize the digital signing journey and, and the experience of where referrals come through. Again, trying to get to the mover to save property managers some time, and we all know that they need one less administrative step in their life. So really excited about that. And probably the other one to mention is we didn't previously go down the white label tangent at Direct Connect. Some of our competitors decided to. We've opted out of that until now. But 10 years of partnership with Raine & Horne, and they said, "Represent our brand. Go on, we trust you. W- we know that Raine & Horne Connect has legs." So we have white labeled that and will continue to roll out white label services. So I think that's, uh, a really exciting time as well. And you know, that just went live on our socials last week. So between that and rei.com ignites, and now I've gotta find time to speak to Realtime Conveyancer, and Sale Funder, and a plethora of others. It's, as I said, a really good problem to have.

Jennifer Harrison: Wonderful. And have you got your proptech award entry in?

Belinda Seers: I have it in draft. And yes, we are submitting. One of my favorite moments in 2021 was putting on a dress and bra and shoes and all those-... things to wear, and heading into the city. And I remember saying to my wife, "I won't be late." But that room was electric.

Jennifer Harrison: Yeah.

Belinda Seers: I absolutely loved it. And yes, I did stumble in at 3:00 AM, and probably had only had about two or three wines. I wasn't... You know, it's not like I stumbled in because I'd had too many. It was just awesome. So we'll be there again. And Portia, you mentioned an 11-week-old. My wife is due with our second, a baby girl, in three weeks. So we do have to methodically plan the calendar, and that, that date is earmarked on there with a big red stamp. So I'll be there this year. And, and DC will hopefully be picking up a, a gong or a nomination like we did last year.

Jennifer Harrison: Fantastic. We'll look forward to that. Absolutely. So if you would like to ask a question of Portia, Kylie, or Belinda, please use the Q&A function in the Zoom webinar features. And if there's anything else you'd like to share, you can also use the chat. Portia, if we can just come back to you for a minute. Is there anything else, while we're just waiting to see if there's any questions that do come through from the live viewers, was there anything else we didn't touch on that you'd like people to know about Sale Funder?

Portia Miller: Oh, okay. I'm trying to remember what I touched on before. It's just a very simple, easy to use product. That's the main feedback that we get. We, we love making the vendors happy, and it's come from a very vendor centric approach in terms of how we run things and how our loans are processed and how everything's done. So I think people don't realise that it's available for them to use and what they can use it on. I know you can probably see my little sign. So everything from painting, renovations, landscaping. Um, and also at the same time for our agency partners, we make it easier for you to run your business in terms of cash flow as well as reducing admin costs for you. So it's a very good two-prong approach for our company, and hopefully we'll get some inquiries after this and people can-

Jennifer Harrison: Yeah

Portia Miller: ... yeah.

Jennifer Harrison: So what is-

Portia Miller: We can help these people

Jennifer Harrison: ... what is the best way for people to connect with you personally and also to find out more about Sale Funder?

Portia Miller: Yeah. So I'm on, obviously on LinkedIn. Uh, my contact details are pretty much all over there, as well as we've got the website. Our founder often picks up the phone when you call the 1300 number. So he's a good one to chat to if you wanna know everything about the company. And yeah, so it's just the website is really the best way to-

Jennifer Harrison: Okay, great

Portia Miller: ... come chat to us.

Jennifer Harrison: Thank you, Portia. Kylie, was there... Oh, hang on. I see a question has come in. Let me just quickly check, check on the Q&A. It seems to... Oh, it's a question for you, Kylie, so that's great that's come. So the question for you, Kylie, is your platform Australia wide for settlement?

Kylie Dillon: No, no, it's not. It's been built for WA. The plan is to actually head into South Australia, but before we do that, I'm touching on everything that I talked about earlier on where we are playing the biggest asset of somebody's life here, and there's no way that I'd be looking to take a platform beyond WA until I was... I guess until it had... I want it to prove itself. It would be remiss of us to just build some technology and just whack it out into the country and go, "Here you go, guys, have a play with this." Like I said, given we're still in that, you know, beta testing phase, I'm all about getting it right first.

Jennifer Harrison: Mm.

Kylie Dillon: But yeah, absolutely, the plan is to get into SA.

Jennifer Harrison: So you're live in WA.

Kylie Dillon: Uh, w-

Jennifer Harrison: And your next target market is SA. Is that right?

Kylie Dillon: Correct.

Jennifer Harrison: Okay. And Kylie, if people want to connect with you personally and also to find out more about Realtime Conveyancer, what's the best way for them to do that?

Kylie Dillon: Oh, LinkedIn and obviously the website. Both are really, both have all the details on there. There's a lot of information on the website talking about Realtime Conveyancer and how we are aiming to streamline that. So we talk about contract to keys. That obviously starts with integrations with the real estate CRMs so that the, the flow from the real estate CRM lands in the dashboard of the Realtime Conveyancer, and then obviously the integration with PEXA. So the client, the client being conveyancers, and their clients, being sellers and buyers, are never having to jump in and out of a ton of un- unintegrated systems and tools.

Jennifer Harrison: Thank you. And Belinda, finally to you, what's the best way for people to connect with you personally and also to find out more about Direct Connect Australia?

Belinda Seers: Yeah. I'm gonna sound very Gen Y here, Jen. Now there's a, there's a pun for you again. Insta, Facebook, LinkedIn, all the socials. And please do reach out, even if you wanna collaborate, share, give feedback if there's an opportunity. I, I respond to everything quickly. I love talking to people and hearing their journeys and seeing how we can help each other. So yeah, encourage you to re- reach out and, yeah, let's do some good things and move the industry forward together.

Jennifer Harrison: Wonderful. Okay. I think that's probably bringing us up to about time. So thank you so much for sharing your stories and journeys, intellects about your proptech solutions for selling, settling, and moving. Thank you very much to Portia Miller from SaleFunder.

Portia Miller: Sorry, I just got on mute. Thank you so much for having me, Jen. It's been fantastic.

Jennifer Harrison: Thank you very much to Kylie Dillon from Realtime Conveyancer.

Kylie Dillon: Thanks, Jen, really appreciate the opportunity.

Jennifer Harrison: And thank you to Belinda Sears from Direct Connect Australia.

Belinda Seers: Pleasure. Really enjoyed it. Thanks, everyone.

Jennifer Harrison: Thank you. The recording of this will be available. It will go up on the, um, Stone & Chalk YouTube. And if you are not already following us on LinkedIn, if you follow Proptech Association Australia, that is the best way to stay up to date with our activities and our news. If you are interested in becoming a member, there is lots of information on the website about becoming a member, and entry into our awards is free for members and entries will close on the 18th of March. So thank you very much for your company. And like I said, look out on the LinkedIn for information about March's proptech panel. Our normal cycle is that it's the fourth Tuesday of the month, and we'll be sharing all the details with people on the LinkedIn and also on the EDMs. Thank you very much and see you next-