Kylie Davis: (00:54)

Welcome to the PropTech Podcast. It's Kylie Davis here, and I'm delighted to be your host as we explore the brave new world where technology and real estate collide. I passionately believe we need to create and grow a sense of community between the innovators and real estate agents, and sharing our stories is a great way to do that.

Kylie Davis: (01:11)

The aim of each episode of the PropTech Podcast is to introduce our listeners to a PropTech innovator who's pushing the boundaries of what's possible, and will explore the issues and challenges being raised by the tech and how they can create amazing property experiences.

Kylie Davis: (01:26)

My guest in this episode is Kate Chalk, chief executive of a South Australian-based startup called RESO. Have I said that right, Kate?

Kate Chalk: (01:35)

You have said that right. RESO.

Kylie Davis: (01:38)

RESO. Fantastic.

Kylie Davis: (01:39)

So you might have heard about them in their previous iteration when they were called REBid. So RESO are working to make the private treaty process of making offers and negotiation more transparent, while still offering the real estate agent complete control. So let's dive right in.

Kylie Davis: (01:56)

Kate Chalk, welcome to the PropTech Podcast.

Kate Chalk: (01:59)

Hello, Kylie. And thank you so much for having me.

Kylie Davis: (02:02)

No, my pleasure. So, we gave a quick overview in the intro, but tell us what your elevator pitch is for RESO. How do you explain what you do?

Kate Chalk: (02:13)

So, to agents, how we explain ourselves is that we help an agent facilitate a paperless transaction, particularly in the private treaty space. So through our integrations with REI Forms and lots of CRMs, we can collate buyer information on an agent's behalf and all their special conditions so agents can get to contracts quicker.

Kate Chalk: (02:36)

So there's a seamless flow of data from the sales agency agreement, or depending on what it's called in each state, because obviously each state it's different, right through to the contract. So we're really trying to minimise how much an agent spent in what at the moment is a manual process.

Kylie Davis: (02:55)

Right. So what are the pain points that you're solving with RESO?

Kate Chalk: (03:00)

I think a lot of the pain point is around how much...

Kate Chalk: (03:08)

Oh, can I start again?

Kylie Davis: (03:09)

Yeah.

Kate Chalk: (03:10)

Sorry.

Kate Chalk: (03:13)

The pain points are really around that we're human and the consumer's behaviour and expectations have changed, and our behaviour, I mean what we expect has changed as well.

Kate Chalk: (03:27)

So obviously the consumer is really connected with information that they can get online, particularly about the property. They've got, obviously, the computer in their hand constantly. They have the currency of convenience, I think is what everyone's talking about it now, so just the immediacy that they expect.

Kate Chalk: (03:49)

But we're human, so agents are only human. So what can we automate about the process as much as we possibly can so they can still give a really high level of service and create some transparency for their buyers and vendors?

Kylie Davis: (04:04)

Yeah. I know from the research that I did when I was at CoreLogic, buyers have a lot of complaints about the buying process, and one of their biggest complaints is always around that transparency. You know, has their offer been accepted? Has the agent even received it? Is it even in the ballpark? What's the next step?

Kylie Davis: (04:28)

There's a whole lot of opacity around that whole buyer experience that, as I understand it, you guys deal with.

Kate Chalk: (04:37)

That's right. I think it may have been from one of your podcasts, Kylie. There was about 58% of buyers say they received average to poor service. So that's obviously a lot of buyers that will hopefully become sellers one day.

Kate Chalk: (04:54)

So I think really about with RESO, what we help the agent do is basically...

Kate Chalk: (05:04)

I'm losing it here. I just started getting [crosstalk 00:05:05].

Kylie Davis: (05:05)

Okay.

Kate Chalk: (05:08)

You're better at it than I am.

Kate Chalk: (05:11)

So with buyers, obviously one of your podcasts, I think, Kylie. I think I read it on one of yours. So, 58% of buyers received average to poor service, and they're really looking for that extra transparency around the buying process and just even the what's next.

Kate Chalk: (05:31)

I think what happens with agents, they can invite everyone into a RESO sale that they meet, so whether that's from the database or they meet them at opens, and what happens from there is that they can every time they update the sale, so the agents are kept in the centre and they basically negotiate as they normally would. But every time there's a change in the sale, everyone gets instantly updated by SMS and email.

Kate Chalk: (06:00)

We're only human, so I think it's very difficult. I mean, a lot of agents tell me that they often just focusing on the top three offers or the top three people that they're going to be most interested. This way, basically, all buyers get to be kept informed.

Kate Chalk: (06:18)

An agent said to me the other day that she had, I think it was a block of land. So she had a lot of people interested and there was quite a few interested people. I think there was about 13 and she focused on the top three who she thought were. But she invited everyone in and it was actually about the fifth offer, the lowest offer was actually the one that ended up buying the property through the transparency of the whole process. So she was really surprised about that.

Kylie Davis: (06:48)

Right. So let's just step this through. So I'm an agent and I'm at my open for inspection. I meet a whole bunch of people who come and look at the house that I'm showing and they say that they're interested.

Kylie Davis: (07:02)

The question I then ask them is, are you interested in buying the property? Would you like to be part of my RESO updates?

Kate Chalk: (07:13)

Yep.

Kylie Davis: (07:13)

Is that the question?

Kate Chalk: (07:14)

Yeah, so it probably starts a little bit before that. So depending on the state you're in, so there might be they've obviously just got the listing agreement from the agent so they can actually set up the RESO sale straight from the listing agreement in REI Forms with just literally a press of a button, and they set the sale up. They upload all the documents, the relevant documents. In some states it's a Form1, it might be the floor plan, it might be a draught contract, all the information that you often would be emailing buyers, all that information separately. So all that's loaded up. You're just sitting in registration. It's all free to do all that for the agent.

Kate Chalk: (07:52)

Then you go obviously to the open inspection, as you said, and you can, depending on how you're using your CRM and what CRM you're using, you can literally invite buyers to view the documentation.

Kate Chalk: (08:04)

So most agents are using it, so would you like to be kept informed about the sale, or if you'd like to review the documentation? So they just get a text message immediately as soon as the agent invites them, either through the CRM or just manually they can do it just on their phone. All they need is their phone number and they can then view all those documents 24/7.

Kate Chalk: (08:28)

So when the agent's ready to make an offer... Sorry, I should say, when the buyer's ready to make an offer, the agent can open up the sale and that starts the RESO process.

Kate Chalk: (08:39)

An agent the other day was saying she was going from one open to another, as they do on a Saturday, racing. She only gave herself 20 minutes. She needed a bit longer, she said. She got a phone call from a buyer who was saying, "I want to make an offer from that last property."

Kate Chalk: (08:53)

She had the sale set up. She literally pulled over to the side of the road, invited them into the sale, and by the time she got to the property 15 minutes later, there was actually an offer-

Kylie Davis: (09:03)

Wow.

Kate Chalk: (09:04)

... for the next open. So it's just so quick.

Kate Chalk: (09:06)

So in that manual process, what would often maybe, like if you'd sent them an offer or you've been talking to them, it might take 24 hours to get that back. Because this is so instant, the feedback from the agents has just been how quick the offers can come in, because it's so easy for the buyers to access that information and make an educated decision because they can see all the documents and then make an offer.

Kylie Davis: (09:30)

Cool.

Kate Chalk: (09:32)

So it's really, really easy.

Kylie Davis: (09:32)

I guess there's a couple of areas where it's automating and streamlining the process.

Kate Chalk: (09:36)

Yes.

Kylie Davis: (09:37)

From an agent's point of view, when I'm creating the paperwork and the contracts, because I've just listed a property, I've just got the agreement to list, and then I do one more thing which is put all of those documents into my RESO platform, which means that I don't have to send them all out individually every time someone says that they're interested in a property, or I don't have to go through all my email and find that template that I set up for 37 Potter Street and accidentally send them 59 Smith Street, or whatever.

Kate Chalk: (10:11)

That's right.

Kylie Davis: (10:15)

And then basically you're also streamlining the open process, or the follow-up process, because you're allowing people to see everything that they need to see in a really quick turnaround. Fantastic.

Kate Chalk: (10:27)

That's right. Obviously, everyone wants transparency, but also transparency as much as just being able to see things when you want to see them and knowing what the next steps are. Like it's not some big secret anymore. People are expecting to be able to know what they want to do next.

Kate Chalk: (10:45)

I mean, I understand. I was in sales for many, many years, and one of the things we always got taught was to hold something back so you could then give more information. But the more you hold things back-

Kylie Davis: (10:56)

I hate that.

Kate Chalk: (10:57)

... from the consumer now... But that's how we were trained. Because then it gave them a reason to ring. It then gave you a reason to ring them and contact them again and it made you look a lot more helpful.

Kate Chalk: (11:10)

But now the consumers are just so connected that they expect all that and they get a bit, you know, if they can't access it immediately when they want to. And of course that's after hours often.

Kate Chalk: (11:23)

So I think that that transparency's not just about knowing where you stand in the process, which I'll get to shortly, but it is about knowing what the next steps are as well.

Kylie Davis: (11:36)

I think it's great, too, because you're basically making agents know. You're removing the bottleneck of an individual agent's ability to respond to a phone call or an email or a text message or something, aren't you?

Kate Chalk: (11:46)

That's right.

Kylie Davis: (11:49)

And that kind of work has intensified enormously over the last sort of five years as we've all gone from just taking phone calls to responding to emails to then responding to text messages to responding to messages online or Facebook or however people want to-

Kate Chalk: (12:03)

That's right.

Kylie Davis: (12:03)

... communicate.

Kate Chalk: (12:07)

It's really interesting, actually. A lot of the agents' feedback has been around, because of the text messages that come from the platform as soon as they open up the offers or they progress the sale some way, the offers are coming in faster. They're getting a quicker response from buyers because you can email everyone all the time, but people are getting thousands of emails.

Kate Chalk: (12:23)

And so, yes, we back it up with emails, but I think text messaging is that immediacy, so being able to text message whoever's in the platform that said they're interested.

Kate Chalk: (12:32)

So we're really trying to take that buyer to help the agent take the buyer on a journey of getting to the contract a lot quicker and the sale. So I think that's really important.

Kate Chalk: (12:43)

The other thing we have found from the feedback is that, well, there's actually two other things, that because really the problems we're solving are around admin.

Kate Chalk: (12:57)

So some of the operations managers or sales support, or depending on what agency you're in, they're really loving it because often they're the ones that do set up all the sales, so it's so quick for them to be able to load.

Kate Chalk: (13:11)

Like I saw the sales coming through this morning, the property's been loaded this morning and it was just sales support going bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. And there's obviously a sales support person in one particular agency loaded 10 up this morning, because obviously they had offers in and they had, you know, for whatever reason. So it's really quick for them to do that, to load that sale up and have it ready. So the sales support people are loving it.

Kate Chalk: (13:33)

But then an agent said to me the other day that I feel like I've got a second PA because I've got someone while I'm driving around and doing what I need to do, which is what I'm best at is talking to buyers and talking to vendors and communicating with vendors and doing appraisal meetings. This is all going on in the background and helping me and everyone's getting that automatic response that they expect these days."

Kylie Davis: (13:57)

And so I guess, too, if the sale changes for any reason, so if there's a price revision or conditions change or anything like that, then that's also part of the automatic update to everybody who's on that list of interested parties.

Kate Chalk: (14:10)

Yeah, that's right. We've got a lot of email templates in the platform, so an agent, if there is a price reduction or they just want to let everyone know about something that's changed, then that goes out immediately as well to them.

Kylie Davis: (14:24)

So, Kate, how did you get involved in RESO? What's your [crosstalk 00:14:27]?

Kate Chalk: (14:27)

Basically, I got involved in RESO because I got approached by one of the founders, because my background was in sales and I got approached by one of the founders. He is a buyer's agent and a valuer. He also worked on behalf of vendors sometimes, so he's an agent, but he generally worked in that buyers...

Kate Chalk: (14:56)

So he was frustrated with that process of often having money left in his pocket that we thought the vendor could've got a bit more money, and that's where that ranking that came about. So he came through because of my sales background and basically dealing with a lot of the human touch and just working through how we can...

Kate Chalk: (15:21)

My probably biggest... I love sorting through solutions and working out how things can be made easier. So that's how I came on board.

Kylie Davis: (15:31)

Fantastic. There's a few other startups that are in this space at the moment, aren't there, that are doing this whole sort of negotiation and transparent kind of process thing. What makes RESO different to some of your competitors?

Kate Chalk: (15:48)

Okay, good. That's a good question. Thank you for asking that.

Kate Chalk: (15:52)

Basically, there are about three I know of, and they're generally what we would consider an auction. So basically they obviously create transparency, but you can actually see the offers, so all the other buyers can see the offers.

Kate Chalk: (16:09)

Where RSEO's different is we are ultimately an admin to get contract execution as quickly as we can, because we collect buyer data all the way through, so there might only be one offer. But if you've got a lot of offers and you want to try and elevate the competitiveness of the sale and help you negotiate, you can press a ranking button where we rank the offers.

Kate Chalk: (16:35)

So the buyer will get a text message saying the agent has chosen to rank the offers. Your offer is ranked two out of four offers currently in the platform.

Kylie Davis: (16:45)

Right. And that's the old REBid angle to it, or is that-

Kate Chalk: (16:48)

Yeah, that's the REBid angle. So that sits inside it. Because how we came about, we started with REBid and agents were saying, look, obviously it was a drop in the market and they're saying often we've only got one or two offers, but we need to be able to automate that process and go to contract and collect all that data. So we know we needed to automate this process. We know that. But we may only need the ranking sometimes.

Kate Chalk: (17:16)

So REBid now sits within the platform, and so we've got some agents that use it and some agents don't. It's just when they feel the need and it helps them negotiate.

Kylie Davis: (17:25)

Right. So the difference between RESO and some of the other startups that are in the space, and I think, what, Open's one and then Dave [Stuart 00:17:36]?

Kate Chalk: (17:37)

Yean, so Market Buy. Market Buy and-

Kylie Davis: (17:38)

Market Buy, yep.

Kate Chalk: (17:38)

... and Open. Yep, yep.

Kylie Davis: (17:40)

[crosstalk 00:17:40].

Kate Chalk: (17:41)

They probably wouldn't say that they're similar, but from my perspective they look pretty similar in that buyers can see... Like it's an auction online with conditions, so buyers can see where the people... So they'll be going up 1,000 or $500 until that comes about.

Kate Chalk: (17:57)

Some people aren't going to be comfortable with using that, and obviously auctions are a massive part of Australia's real estate landscape, so everyone says you can't beat an auction because of that true transparency.

Kylie Davis: (18:11)

Unless you're in Perth. No one likes auctions in Perth.

Kate Chalk: (18:13)

Yeah, so obviously we're dealing with a lot of Western Australian agents. Why open negotiation have done well is because there was no auctions in Perth. So this is like a hybrid of an auction and a private treaty process.

Kate Chalk: (18:28)

But where I think probably the difference is, when you use the ranking in RESO, obviously we call REBid ranking, is that the difference in the offers can be substantial, so it could be still $10,000 between the difference. Whereas maybe in those other platforms there may only be $500 difference, or whatever.

Kylie Davis: (18:48)

But if the REBid side of it is being used, then if I'm a buyer, I can't see what everyone else has offered. I can just sort of put forward my best offer.

Kate Chalk: (18:59)

That's right. Your best offer. That's right.

Kylie Davis: (19:01)

And then you'll tell me if I'm in the ballpark or not.

Kate Chalk: (19:04)

That's right. Yep.

Kylie Davis: (19:06)

Yeah, okay. Cool.

Kylie Davis: (19:07)

Now, also just a little side note. So if the fellows from Open or Market Buy are listening to this podcast and they want to come on the show, drop me a line and we'll organise that. That's not a problem.

Kate Chalk: (19:18)

Yeah, that's good. I think there's a place for everyone, to be honest with you.

Kylie Davis: (19:21)

Absolutely.

Kate Chalk: (19:24)

And I'm sure we can learn a lot from them, so we don't really consider them...

Kate Chalk: (19:27)

We've actually got some agents in Perth who use Open and us-

Kylie Davis: (19:32)

Right, okay.

Kate Chalk: (19:35)

... because they see-

Kylie Davis: (19:36)

There you go.

Kate Chalk: (19:37)

... us as two different... Because some people want the full auction or feeling like an auction, whereas obviously we're not in that space.

Kate Chalk: (19:42)

I think where we're... so an agent can open up the offers with us and then they can decide later if they want to expose that full transparency of REBid or not. So it's leaving them to decide, and that's why vendors are really, really liking it.

Kate Chalk: (19:56)

Like in the listing presentation, if people are talking about RESO, they're talking about, look, ideally we want you to get a lot of offers on the property. But if there's only one, this is obviously a process, an online process. It's been automated to digitise all that and collect all the buyer data and makes it really easy for buyers to put in offers at 9:00 at night or if they've got their kid's swimming lesson or what have you.

Kate Chalk: (20:19)

But if the sale, which hopefully happens, really hots up and for some reason we haven't chosen to auction it for whatever reason that is, we've got this REBid process. So it just leaves another gear for the agent to go after if they need to.

Kylie Davis: (20:36)

Fantastic. And so that agent control is really important, isn't it? It's completely in the agent's hands as to how much they're going to expose.

Kate Chalk: (20:47)

Yep.

Kylie Davis: (20:47)

[inaudible 00:20:47].

Kate Chalk: (20:50)

I think that's important. As the sale goes on, it is critically important because it's all about momentum in sales, and in particular in real estate. So the more momentum you can create, the better. And obviously the consumers are looking for a faster, you know, and that's the vendors and obviously the buyers, they're looking for fast conclusions as much as they possibly can.

Kate Chalk: (21:11)

We had an agent last week close down a sale within 24 hours. He said, "I just would not have been able to get to contract in 24 hours. I just simply would not have been able to." And another agent, so he actually...

Kate Chalk: (21:25)

And that's actually another thing, the point I wanted to make. I think it's critical that one of the pain points that is talked about a little bit, but I think more agents I speak to, and obviously I'm trying to speak to as many agents as we can all the time and just pull apart the workflow, is just how stressed they are.

Kylie Davis: (21:42)

Oh, yeah.

Kate Chalk: (21:46)

But particularly this consumer expectation about the 24/7, that they have to be on 24/7.

Kate Chalk: (21:53)

I was talking to an agent the other day. She's sitting there with her 13... I think she's 13-year-old, 13-year-old child in the car and about to go in to get an offer on paper and said, "This is the last time you'll have to wait in the car for half an hour while I get an offer because [inaudible 00:22:10]. Because the new process I've gone to means the buyers will be online and I'll be talking to them on the phone." And I'm thinking happy children, happy agents, I say.

Kylie Davis: (22:21)

Mommy will leave the windows open for you.

Kate Chalk: (22:26)

I know. Exactly. That's right. And another agent said she was at home, it was pretty hot and the kids had jumped in the pool. So she had these two kids in the pool and then someone wanted to put an offer in.

Kate Chalk: (22:36)

So she's out by the pool watching the kids, but she's actually literally inviting them into RESO and they're putting offers online, and she said-

Kylie Davis: (22:45)

That's how you want to do it.

Kate Chalk: (22:46)

That's how you want to do it. But that's life. You have to be able to... If they want 24/7 access to consumers, how is an agent going to balance that with the stress of it?

Kylie Davis: (22:55)

No.

Kate Chalk: (22:55)

I think that's a really important point, important pain point that helps the agent in the long-term.

Kylie Davis: (23:05)

So one of the benefits I see that could work for you guys as well is that if an agent, and, well, agents often, you know, every time you sell a property, often there's buyers who have missed out who are unhappy.

Kylie Davis: (23:16)

But when your next property comes up and you've set it up in RESO, you'd be able to really easily kind of email your buyer base of previously disappointed buyers and say, "Hey, you missed out on that three bedroom in Ross Street," or whatever, "last week. But we've just got this new one on the market." Best offers in to help you kind of even work out-

Kate Chalk: (23:41)

Yeah, so you can-

Kylie Davis: (23:43)

... where your levels are.

Kate Chalk: (23:44)

... transfer that over.

Kate Chalk: (23:44)

So I think with the integration with CRMs, a lot of it's one way at the moment as we build up. We're obviously talking to [inaudible 00:23:50], because obviously key CRM, obviously agents are sitting in their CRM as much as we can, but I think that that's really...

Kate Chalk: (23:58)

David Howell's obviously our developer, and we've got this rule about if it can't be clicked on a mouse then it probably shouldn't be in there, so we're trying to do as much clicking on a mouse and not too much typing for the agent-

Kylie Davis: (24:09)

[inaudible 00:24:09]-

Kate Chalk: (24:09)

... because that's-

Kylie Davis: (24:10)

... clicked on a screen, yeah.

Kate Chalk: (24:11)

Yeah. But, well, so click on a mouse if you've got a laptop, but click on a screen if it's obviously on your phone. So that's really critically important. Absolutely. So that's right.

Kylie Davis: (24:21)

And a shout out to David Howell from Dynamic Methods. That's where Dave's from.

Kate Chalk: (24:27)

Yes, that's right.

Kylie Davis: (24:28)

So where is RESO in the startup journey right now? What are the challenges that you guys are facing? How new are you?

Kate Chalk: (24:35)

I think agents have been concerned that we're trying to take their, you know, we'll go direct to the buyers and everything. I think that's probably the major concern. And also, agents are absolutely inundated with what... They know they need tech, but what tech? So it's about just helping an agent.

Kate Chalk: (25:00)

I think what's fantastic about RESO is [inaudible 00:25:03] really easy to test. With some tech you just have to go in and you've got to actually try and change the workflows. There's quite a bit of workflow that you need to change as an agency, so the principal's trying to make those decisions.

Kate Chalk: (25:17)

Whereas this one, what we're finding how it's working the best is a couple of agents try it and then they're the ones that say, "Hey, you should try this. I've saved nine hours a sale." As an agent said to me, "I saved nine hours on that last sale just by using RESO. You should give it a go."

Kate Chalk: (25:33)

So I think that you can really easily test it. You don't have to change a lot of processes. So I think getting over that stigma of we're trying to take agents' jobs is probably one of the key challenges that we had.

Kate Chalk: (25:49)

But that's why we went to the REI and spoke to them, and that's why they in South Australia and Western Australia, they backed us immediately, because they could see that we're keeping the agents totally relevant and totally in the middle of the transaction and not some [inaudible 00:26:03]. Obviously they wouldn't have done that unless they had the best interests of agents at heart.

Kylie Davis: (26:09)

So you've got a lot of South Australian, or a growing number of South Australian agents joining your platform-

Kate Chalk: (26:17)

Yeah, and Western Australia.

Kylie Davis: (26:17)

... and Perth.

Kate Chalk: (26:18)

Yep, Western Australia and Queensland, because they're the contract-led states.

Kylie Davis: (26:19)

Right.

Kate Chalk: (26:22)

So Queensland as well.

Kylie Davis: (26:22)

So what about the other states? What are your plans for rollout in those states?

Kate Chalk: (26:33)

I think we've mapped out workflows in New South Wales and Victoria and we're now just working with some agents to work out how the products would work, because some obviously being not a what we call a contract agent-led, you know, where they actually fill out the contract, it just changes the platform and what the best workflow is. So we've done that.

Kate Chalk: (26:58)

So hopefully in the New Year we'll be in New South Wales and Victoria.

Kylie Davis: (27:02)

Yeah. Are you looking for agents to trial or to beta it for you in those states?

Kate Chalk: (27:06)

We are, yes. We'd love some beta agents. We've got a couple that we've spoken to already, so yes, shout out to any agents out there that would love to beta test. We'll look after you, we promise.

Kylie Davis: (27:16)

Yeah, cool. We'll put how to contact you in the show notes.

Kate Chalk: (27:20)

Okay. Excellent.

Kylie Davis: (27:23)

So what about Tassie? Because Tassie's still very private treaty-led as well.

Kate Chalk: (27:27)

Absolutely. We've been talking to Mark Berry in REI Tasmania, and we've just actually been down there recently. We did a presentation to the REI board and we're just going through that process now of making sure.

Kate Chalk: (27:44)

So I've got a couple of agents down. They're really, really keen to try it already. Because obviously in the [inaudible 00:27:49] there's a lot of driving and there are agents that are keen to test it down there.

Kylie Davis: (27:56)

[crosstalk 00:27:56].

Kate Chalk: (27:56)

And Northern Territory as well. So Queensland as well in Northern Territory. It'll just be a matter of and making sure, because obviously every state's different with legislation, and making sure it's good to go in those states.

Kylie Davis: (28:11)

But because you're connected to REI Forms, if it's tied into the forms, you guys have got a pretty good understanding of the process that it's got to go through.

Kate Chalk: (28:20)

Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's a press of that button, that's what we want, and they can just go to contract or have a statement of information that could be sent to New South Wales and Victoria, statement of information that could be sent to conveyancer and having all the details in there.

Kate Chalk: (28:36)

I think agents have been really surprised how much information buyers have emailed. It's often quite difficult to get a buyer to give an offer on a text message or they don't want to give much information.

Kate Chalk: (28:49)

But agents have been, I think, overwhelmingly surprised about how much information buyers are happy to give just on a platform and on their phone. Which is good obviously for us and good for the agent.

Kylie Davis: (29:02)

It talks to that whole point around trust and how early response builds trust.

Kylie Davis: (29:11)

I've been doing some work with OpenAgent and looking at their data that looks at how quickly agents respond to queries, and you can see the whole way through that data that if you take a long time to respond, the trust is broken from the start and it's impossible to get it back.

Kylie Davis: (29:28)

So from the buyer's side, I can see the flip side of that is, well, if you share all the information with me upfront really quickly and there's nothing to hide, so I don't need to hide anything back, we're not actually playing a game. It's all, you know, if I want the property, I've got to put my best foot forward and make a good offer and you'll tell me if I'm close or not.

Kate Chalk: (29:49)

Yep. And I think the way we ask the questions in a very gentle way on behalf of the agents, it doesn't look like they're filling out a contract or anything like that. I think it's just really easy. It's that whole touch button that I'm talking about, you know, press do I have finance or don't I? It's all that sort of press, press, press, press. And it's really quick and easy.

Kate Chalk: (30:13)

Whereas the PDF, a buyer might get to fill out an offer. I mean-

Kylie Davis: (30:19)

Oh, [crosstalk 00:30:20].

Kate Chalk: (30:20)

... [crosstalk 00:30:20] that would just put me off. [inaudible 00:30:22] for 24 hours I wouldn't do that. So it's really easy for them to put an offer in.

Kylie Davis: (30:27)

It's homework.

Kate Chalk: (30:28)

[crosstalk 00:30:28].

Kylie Davis: (30:28)

[crosstalk 00:30:28] doing my homework.

Kate Chalk: (30:28)

I mean, I don't know what you're like, and I'm like the perfect example because I hate paperwork, so it's been fantastic for me because I'm like, "No, no, that's actually too hard. We have to make it way more simpler than that."

Kate Chalk: (30:39)

So we want to get those offers and that information to the agent as quickly as we can.

Kylie Davis: (30:43)

Yeah. Fantastic.

Kylie Davis: (30:45)

So, Kate, thank you so much for your time. If there's people listening to us today who would like to get in touch with RESO, what's the best way to contact you?

Kate Chalk: (30:52)

Probably through our website, which is just Reso.com.au.

Kylie Davis: (31:00)

R-E-S-O? Yep?

Kate Chalk: (31:03)

Yep, R-E-S-O is probably the best way, and we've got some more information on there. But we're really excited to hear from anyone that like to try us.

Kate Chalk: (31:10)

As I said, it's really easy to implement us and trial it in your office with no extra... It's not so hard. It doesn't sort of impede in your workflow.

Kylie Davis: (31:22)

No, not going to make you change your entire process on how you do things, except make it easier.

Kate Chalk: (31:27)

That's right. Yes. Sorry, that's a better way of saying it. Thanks, Kylie.

Kylie Davis: (31:30)

No worries. Cool. All right. Look, thank you so much for your time, Kate. It's been great to talk to you. Kate Chalk from RESO.

Kylie Davis: (31:39)

If you'd like to get in touch with Kate or find out more, the bottom of the show notes we'll have Kate's email and contact details and some more information there.

Kate Chalk: (31:48)

Thanks, Kylie. That's great.

So that was Kate Chalk, CEO of Reso, which is looking to make managing the private treaty negotiation process more transparent and easier for buyers, sellers and agents.

Check out Reso - especially if you’re an agent in NSW or Queensland where they’re looking for agents to start to test them out. We’ve included information on how to reach them in our show notes.

Now if you have enjoyed this episode of the Proptech Podcast, we would love you to tell your friends, drop me a line or write a review on.

I’d like to thank my audio support, Charlie Hollands and our sponsors, Beepo - making outsourcing easy and HomePrezzo, creating content from your data.

Thanks, everyone. Until next week, keep on propteching!