Kylie Davis:

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. It's so great to have you here and to share stories of innovation and opportunity across real estate property and building services. And the aim of each episode is to introduce listeners to a PropTech innovator who is pushing the boundaries of what's possible across how we design, build, buy, sell rent, and invest in property and all of the associated behaviour and activities around that. Now none of this would be possible without our sponsors. So, a big shout out to the Direct Connect team, making moving easy; Dynamic Methods, the innovators behind the Forms Live and Realworks Forms; and the PropTech Association of Australia. Thank you for your support of the podcast.

Kylie Davis:

My guest this week is Amber Keogh, the national manager, and face of an exciting new PropTech in the off-the-plan space called Release.Me and Release.Me makes releasing new developments and land sales fair and equitable. Amber has an impressive career in business development and transformational projects in the PropTech building and asset space, including consulting to major property businesses. And in this interview, we talk about the importance of transparency and fairness in releasing your apartment or land developments and the workflow advantages to developers and real estate agents from having all of that information in one place. So, here to tell us all about it, Amber Keogh, welcome to the PropTech Podcast.

Amber Keogh:

Hi Kylie. Thank you for having me. I'm delighted to join you.

Kylie Davis:

Yeah, I'm glad we finally managed to catch up because we were trying to catch up towards the end of the year and it all got a bit crazy and I'm really excited to hear about Release.Me. So, the first question's always the hardest. What's your elevator pitch?

Amber Keogh:

It's always hard to keep short and sharp, but I'll try and do that for you today. So, Release.Me is an end-to-end online release management platform, sits between the sellers and the buyers of off-the-plan real estate and improves the transaction for both sides.

Kylie Davis:

Awesome. Well done. That was great. So, what are the specific problems that Release.Me is selling? Why is this a problematic space?

Amber Keogh:

Yeah, it's a problematic space for a number of reasons. One, the residential real estate market in particular off-the-plan is just ripe for digital change and transformation. The problems that exist within the market and specifically why Release.Me was conceived is that purchasing off-the-plan property is an unfair and inconvenient process for a lot of people. And the issues really stem from that supply and demand factor, those lineups and camp outs that you might see in the news and the developer or project marketing team's ability to meet the volume of interest.

Kylie Davis:

Yeah. How big is that as a problem? How much off-the-plan is happening at the moment?

Amber Keogh:

Nationally, there's around over 80,000 lots. They get sold per year in Victoria alone. That's around 30,000 and that's of 2020-2021 data, that's was growing in Southeast Queensland and markets like that. And then that's just lots sold units, it's above 50,000 nationally and hopefully there's a lot of supply comes up in the unit space. Those sales will continue to grow as well. So, it's a large problem and not necessarily from the volume side, but purely from the customer experience side.

Kylie Davis:

I did always wonder how they would manage that because you see an advertisement in the paper or on pop up somewhere on online that says, "Bloody blah project is happening." But you never really know the types of apartments inside, one, two or three bedrooms or whatever it says, but how do you know which ones that you want and are you likely to get it? And that does seem a little bit Russian Roulette.

Amber Keogh:

It is Russian Roulette and particularly when you think about the process as it exists, it's a first in best dress process and very analogue in person, often that's where the lineups come out. And that first in best dress process means that if I've got an apartment or a lot or a land size in mind and I get to that release at 9:00 AM on a Saturday, I'm 50 people down the queue I've missed out. And then I've also been precluded from participating in estates nearby releases on that day. So, it is a Russian Roulette process, it is inequitable. And it's unfair on the types of people who are looking for off-the-plan real estate. You've got young families who maybe were working multiple jobs, who have to cart their kids around. You've also got migrant families, downsizes. And at the moment, we're seeing a lot of interstate migration, obviously through to Queensland, apparently 66% of Queensland's purchaser coming from Sydney and Victoria. And there's an inability for those buyers to participate in off-the-plan release if it's in person.

Kylie Davis:

Yeah. Okay. So, some fantastic benefits using Release.Me for consumers, but if I'm a developer, why would I want to do it? What's the upside for me?

Amber Keogh:

Yeah. So, looking from the inside out from the seller's perspective, it's a really long, costly and arduous sales process. There's an inability to capture the full available buyer market, because you only capture those who can be in person or online a particular time. And there's also limited data and insights to plan and price future stock because you're only capturing the people who can turn up and not the preferences of all the buyers that are interested. Additionally, there's serious expenses when they do put on a release upwards of $50,000 to hold a release day. There may be cost in terms of security or food, provisions and staff. Staffing to handle the volume of interest from home buyers. The online process takes care of all of that.

Amber Keogh:

For property developers and project sales consultants, you've also got dealing with buyer frustrations who've been through this process multiple times before and they do take it out on the sales consultant at times. So, all of those problems can be solved and improved upon with the use of an online platform like Release.Me.

Kylie Davis:

Okay. Awesome. So, how does it work?

Amber Keogh:

So the Release.Me platform works by sellers. So, property developers, project marketing and sales consultants or real estate agents, they use the platform to go to their interested buyer market. So, they'll go online to Release.Me, they'll create a free seller account and then they can create a property release in under 10 minutes. So, that's uploading their property type and they get a unique URL, which they send to their buyers when they want them to put participate. And those buyers simply pop in all of their preferences and there's no limit to how many preferences they can put and they submit an application. Now Release.Me is fair and equitable. An algorithm underpins the platform and it allocates properties fairly and equitably. So, every buyer that participates on Release.Me has an equal chance of securing a property of their choice. Sellers from that point, just sit back and they look at a sales dashboard and watch all that activity comes in. The platform handles, like I said, buyer applications, but it also handles particulars of sale, payment of holding deposits and booking of contract signing times as well.

Kylie Davis:

So, all of that becomes a lot more consistent.

Amber Keogh:

Yeah, a seamless end-to-end online process, as opposed to it, a time consuming process where an individual may have to go to that release, say line up in person, potentially miss out wait days or weeks even for the developer or agents to get back to them with available properties and then start that contract process from there. So, it can be quite time consuming for both sides of the transaction.

Kylie Davis:

And what can they see? I get that an open lot or a lot of land is an empty block of land, but if you're buying off-the-plan for an apartment, are you able to do virtual walkthroughs or how much of it do you see when that release happens?

Amber Keogh:

So, from the Release.Me perspective, sellers will use Release.Me as that sales tool, but by using Release.Me, the cost that they would usually spend on a release or on a transaction, they can invest ahead of time to take their buyers through that lead nurturing process, investing in their own marketing online virtual tools. When sellers direct their buyers to the Release.Me platform, they can include any information that they want. So, buyers will see a table of properties that they can compare. Any brochures or engineering plans, links back to that project website, where they can view all of that information from the developer, but for buyers who get to use the Release.Me platform, it gives them opportunity to sit at home with their partners or family and make that considered choice of which property they do want to purchase. And they have that time to do it instead of at the sales office where they may be rushed or under pressure.

Kylie Davis:

Kids screaming [inaudible 00:09:50] I want to go home, I don't like this. I can imagine it. So, I'd imagine that the data that you're getting out of this is quite extensive too, because you think about it as an analogue transaction, you've got Joe and Mary blog who have queued up with couple of kids in [inaudible 00:10:10] say that they either want to buy a lot or they want to buy an apartment. And they're telling you as a sales agent that they're interested in a two bedroom and that the price is kind of right, but I guess if you're collecting data earlier on, you're actually getting a much richer picture of what Mary and Joe are capable of and where their preferences might lie.

Amber Keogh:

Yeah. So, when buyers go through that process of popping in their preference, and that is once the release is live, so it is on the available properties. Because they are putting in multiple preferences, they can view them all in tandem, they've put them in a list. So you may have preference one to five, that data there is quite rich because you may have a hundred people participate in a release and you can see that lot number one or apartment number 12 is popular by [inaudible 00:11:11] so far in advance, you've got 50 people interested in lot number one, you wouldn't have known that if it's a first in best dressed because they just get the next property in line. So, that does allow property developers and agents to plan and price that future stock a lot better than they ordinarily would be able to.

Kylie Davis:

Imagine a real estate forms and contract solution that's always accessible up to date with legal changes and cuts admin time by 40%. That's the beauty of the Forms Live platform from Dynamic Methods. With Forms Live, Dynamic Methods have created a form system that is easy, online and best of all, compliant. Every month, 50,000 agents and property managers use Forms Live in seven and a half thousand agencies across every state and territory in Australia. Plus, Forms Live has over a hundred integrations, including the industry's most popular CRMs connection services and digital signatures with DocuSign making it the national platform of choice for real estate forms. Check them out at formslive.com.au.

Kylie Davis:

Amber who pays for the service? It's the developers or the property sellers?

Amber Keogh:

Yeah. Yeah. Anyone to a developer, project sales and marketing team, real agent who has an upcoming project, they pay for the service. It's absolutely free for the buyers. So, it's a simple flat fee software as a service pays, you go type platform. There's no locking contracts, no subscriptions. It's as easy as setting up a Facebook account.

Kylie Davis:

Awesome. Okay. So Amber, I'm really curious to understand is Release.Me part of a way of making property more affordable or addressing the housing shortage?

Amber Keogh:

What Release.Me offers is a solution to the symptom the housing shortages creates, which is desperation, which is lineups, which is camp outs and the symptom becomes buyer frustration, seller frustration, and inability to capture that market need, the demand and ability to do things simply. So, it really makes the process of participating in off-the-plan releases and sales convenient. Sellers can meet the market where they're at, which is at home and online and reduce that buyer frustration.

Kylie Davis:

I like the idea too that you can, instead of having to get the kids up early, go to wait and then take your place in the queue to try and secure the home of your dreams. You can sit at the breakfast bar with your partner and a glass of wine and then choose and put all your details to find a property. That seems awesome.

Amber Keogh:

Precisely [crosstalk 00:13:56] that the property itself may not exist for 12 months or more, buyers can go and see an estate in their own time in the lead up or after. They can sit at home and have that convenient and that time back in the day to spend with their family.

Kylie Davis:

And that makes you feel like you're making a better decision too, because you're not being rushed or pressured or any of that stuff. So, tell me about your background. How did you become involved in a PropTech and what get into this crazy world called PropTech and join Release.Me?

Amber Keogh:

Yeah, well, myself, I started in the commercial side of real estate. I was with a company for a number of years and helped them to launch and scale three PropTechs. The three named in AFR Most Innovative of the year awards. From there, I had an interest in consulting for startups. I had a number of opportunities come up on the commercial side, but none seemed like the right fit. There was in most cases, a saturation of those types of products. And when the opportunity of Release.Me came around, it was a product where I could see a real market fit because I'd had friends and family members who'd gone through that [inaudible 00:15:04] process and the rigmarole of trying to find it off-the-plant property lining up, missing out, spending their weekends, going through that process. And I knew this customer dissatisfaction in the experience. And I could see the obvious challenges for property developers and agents too.

Kylie Davis:

Yeah. Awesome. So Release.Me is still a pretty new startup, isn't it? How big are you? What kind of framework can you give us to help us understand how much traction you're getting?

Amber Keogh:

Yeah, so we launched only in beta of August last year. And since then, we've had some earlier adopters come on board who allowed us to move an agility, develop the platform to where it needs to be, and the challenge of the industry. And then we went to commercialise late last year, and since then we've developed the product to be available in new markets. We started out for land lots, and now we're available for apartments in medium density. And we've also launched a new eCommerce tool at the last property developers and agents to passively sell off-the-plan property online, which is an industry first as well. So, both solutions, releasing platform offers releasing in the traditional sense and the eCommerce solution of both industry first. And we're glad to be the only player in this space.

Kylie Davis:

So tell me a little bit more about the eCommerce solution.

Amber Keogh:

Yeah. So, basically when a seller or property developer uses Release.Me, they have three release options, so they can release their property. They may launch in a particular time of day and their buyers participate. The other options included buy now function. So, if a project potentially has lagging stock, potentially you didn't sell all of your stock in that initial release, you might use a buy now function, which effectively allows the property developer or agent to list the property online. And they get that unique URL, which they can host on their project or develop a website, or even use an EDM to encourage their buyers to buy now. And transact that process, which now enables them to sell while they're sleeping, as well we've seen in the typical industry shut down over Christmas, our clients have been able to sell property without having to be in the office or available for their buyers, which really is a game changer.

Kylie Davis:

And I guess that has a real cumulative benefit. Doesn't it? Because you may be interested in project A and it just doesn't pan out, or you put in your details and you either can't get the one that you want or something happens and you don't quite... But if then something comes up later, as a developer, you've got that database list of everyone who expressed interest in it but never then took to the next step. So, you can go back to them and say, "You could buy it now, if you want to."

Amber Keogh:

Yeah. And people browse online all of the time, and that's what they're doing. And off-the-plan property, they use the project website together, the information about what they want, and then they either have to wait for a release or wait for somebody to get back to them. And so if you do enable that eCommerce solution, Buy Now, it enables property developers and agents to convert online. And I guess in passive sales or a big part of business, and the future really ecommerce will be integrated into real estate across the typical existing real estate. And also in the off-the-plan market. So, that ability to sell passively is really fundamental for small developers. It means they may not need to put on additional staff for a new project and for larger developers with that strong interest that they're ticking over sales while they sleep.

Kylie Davis:

So, are you visualising Release.Me as Australia's only as a solution? Or are you intending to scale and grow up globally?

Amber Keogh:

Yeah. The global solution we've founded in Australia and launched in Australia and we'll use the Australian market as that real test market. But certainly it has application in many other countries and I've already received interest from some players in the USA today, so yeah.

Kylie Davis:

Okay. Awesome. Do you run a PropTech business or are you the founder of a PropTech? Make sure you join the PropTech association of Australia. It's Australia's new, not for profit association, made up of tech people who are passionate about the property industry and committed to improving experiences in how we buy, sell, rent, manage, build, and finance property. Joining will give you access to events and networks across Australia and globally to help you promote and grow your business. Go to proptechassociation.com.au and follow the prompts to join.

Kylie Davis:

Well, what's your competitive landscape like? Because we interviewed open lot a couple of months ago. Who else is playing in this space and how do you differentiate yourselves from them?

Amber Keogh:

Yeah, so we don't really have any direct competitors or anybody doing a like solution. There are certainly other players in the Greenfield space or off-the-plan space who have the unique value propositions. Like you mentioned open lot and another, a lot of other lead generation tools, some other data and insights tools, but there is nobody who facilitate that end-to-end online release management offer or an ecommerce solution for off-the-plan. So, we are unique in that sense.

Kylie Davis:

So, what are the biggest challenges that you've faced in the launch of Release.Me and how have you overcome them?

Amber Keogh:

I'd say the biggest challenges, launching during lockdown is a challenge in itself definitely. However, the platform itself is geared towards solving some of those challenges that the pandemic created. People being at home and not being able to be face-to-face to enable those face-to-face transactions as well as regional migration being a big trend, particularly in Southeast Queensland and the growing market there. So, whilst there have been challenges and every startup faces them and growing pains, we've grown through those challenges and it's allowed us to develop the platform faster, bring forward some of our roadmap items to the market faster such as apartment medium density and this eCommerce solution. So, these are all things born out of the challenges of the last couple of years and brought to market sooner. So whilst the challenges to develop quickly, it's been a real benefit to us.

Kylie Davis:

And I guess, we've become very adept at shopping online, right?

Amber Keogh:

Precisely, the ecommerce market has blown up in Australia and that's not just for traditional retailers also for larger purchases as well. Things we would ordinarily want to see and touch. And of course, with an empty plot of land or an apartment plan, you can't really-

Kylie Davis:

You can't see or touch it anyway. No, I'm surprised. I love the project management space. I think there's so many opportunities for tech. Let me see that bathroom in purple. I don't know. Whatever your desire is. So, what do you think the next five years holds in this space? Obviously a new and dynamically changing, but get your crystal ball out. And what do you see sort of coming down the path next?

Amber Keogh:

Yeah. Looking to the industry, I think there's the potential population increase, there's migration returns. The constraint of supply, will have impact on that demand as well. The more demand in the industry, but looking for Release.Me specifically, I do think eCommerce is going to play a really big role in real estate transactions. And like I said, passive sales, automation, and seamlessly integrating solutions to benefit the customer and the customer experience.

Kylie Davis:

Awesome. Well, Amber, it's been absolutely fantastic talking to you on the PropTech podcast. Best of luck with Release.Me.

Amber Keogh:

Thank you so much. It's been lovely speaking to you Kylie.

Kylie Davis:

So, that was Amber Keogh from Release.Me and I think that was probably one of the tightest interviews that we've done on the podcast, but it's a testimony to how well Amber knows her space and how eloquent she was at sharing her knowledge. Off-the-plan and developer management tools are an emerging niche inside PropTech currently. We're seeing a growing number of PropTechs popping up in this space from CRM systems that manage the entire customer engagement through to specialised solutions, like Release.Me that plug into your existing database and what unites them all is that they're making the off-the-plan space fairer, more transparent and easier to understand for buyers.

Kylie Davis:

And I'd encourage everyone in the industry to embrace these opportunities because the inconvenience and opacity of the current system of having to physically queue or visit a display room is not just overwhelming and exhausting for all, but the very committed, but it's limiting and it makes people anxious and cautious about buying new stock. And what we now know about adding transparency to transactions is that it allows buyers to be more confident when they're making their decisions, that they're buying what they want, that they're buying what they need and that they understand the risks and rewards more clearly. And that makes smoother and easier transactions, which benefit the asset class as a whole. Release.Me looks like a really well thought out platform. It's got great UX and it's solving a real pain point elegantly, which can be easily used by project marketing teams, whether they're in-house developers or real estate agents. So, well done to the Release.Me team and check them out and you'll find them at Release.Me. There's no dot com, dot AU in that, just Release.Me.

Kylie Davis:

Now, if you have enjoyed this episode of the PropTech podcast, I would love you to tell your friend or drop me a line either via email, LinkedIn or on our Facebook page. You can follow this podcast on Spotify, Google podcasts, Anchor, and Apple iTunes. I'd like to thank my podcast producer, the fabulous Charlie Hollands and our sponsors Direct Connect, making moving easy; Dynamic Methods, the name behind Form Live, REI Forms Live and Realworks. And the PropTech association of Australia. Australia's industry body supporting the flourishing PropTech community. Now, if you're in Australian or a New Zealand PropTech, who would like to be on the show, drop me a line by LinkedIn or kylie@proptechassociation.com.au. Thanks everyone on until next time, keep on propteching.