FLOW IS DEMOCRATISING THE REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY’S ARCHAIC OPERATING MODEL FOR AGENTS, EMPOWERING THEM IN A DIGITAL WORLD AND GIVING BUYER, SELLER AND AGENT THE BENEFIT OF A BETTER, MORE TRANSPARENT AND COST-EFFECTIVE PROCESS. THE FACE OF TECHNOLOGY CAN STILL BE HUMAN – AND FLOW MAKES SURE THAT ESTATE AGENTS ARE CENTRAL TO THESE MASSIVE TRANSACTIONS, TO GUIDE AND SUPPORT BUYERS.
Flow connects estate agents to fast-evolving, hyper-connected consumers who are spending more time on digital channels. The real estate industry was being left behind in the world of online relationships that people have with businesses and services because of their complex and expensive nature – it’s a massively-fragmented space.
Flow works for buyers, giving them the opportunity to experience discovering relevant properties with trusted agents who can guide them through what is likely the most expensive transaction of their lives.
Flow flips the traditional ways of finding property on its head, enabling a massive industry which impacts agents’ income and buyers’ experience in finding their properties.
“Our technology creates dynamic ads and automated listings at a scale otherwise impossible for estate agents and developers to do. We wanted to incorporate speed and efficiency into the way that people find property to ensure prospective buyers and tenants view relevant, personalised content and listings to match them with the right, tech-savvy agents and developers who are experts in those chosen areas,” says Flow Co-Founder and Co-CEO Daniel Levy. “The way the property market works in South
Africa hasn’t changed in decades – it doesn’t make use of the hyperconnected world that digital natives, i.e. most people, are used to” Flow allows agents to laser-target specific properties to people who are looking in a particular geographical area, price range and with specific features, on the platforms where they spend hours every day.
There are 26 million South Africans currently on Facebook and Instagram and eight million on LinkedIn – and agents and developers in the country hadn’t been capitalising on that audience.
Using social media to sell and rent property is a totally new concept in most countries in the world. Flow has delivered 30 percent month-on-month growth, and the team has seen 10x growth in property-related social spend during the last 12 months – and expect that trend to continue. Some agents are now relying on Flow for around 90 percent of their leads.
An agent needs to build their brand on social media – because the major social currency of the agent/client relationship is trust. Flow allows agents to establish this area expertise with the power of Facebook targeting.
Flow also extends the benefit of online visibility to trusted partners of agents, who can use their platform to direct buyers and sellers to experts in the rest of the property ecosystem – mortgage originators, conveyancing and transferring attorneys, insurers and the like.
“Alongside geographic expansion, our long-term goal is to connect the entire property ecosystem. Searching for a property is only one component of a move – we’ve plugged in products from home & contents insurance to mortgage origination, deposit loan solutions, furniture sourcing, appliance maintenance and legal services,” says Sperling. “It’s an exciting journey to be on, designing a tool that fundamentally eases the complex, stressful and expensive process for a new buyer or tenant”.
