The Real Group Blog

Media Release – For Immediate Release

LAUNCH OF SMARTLOANS.SG – SINGAPORE’S FIRST INSTANT ONLINE MORTGAGE COMPARISON PLATFORM

The Real Group develops new innovative solution to help home buyers and owners compare mortgage rates across 8 major banks in Singapore

Singapore, 6 April 2009 – New and existing home buyers in Singapore can now sleep better at night, knowing that their mortgage is the lowest it can be thanks to SmartLoans – the first-of-its-kind mortgage comparison platform serving the local market. Developed by The Real Group, SmartLoans is a free-to-use online mortgage comparison platform that enables users to easily search, compare and enquire about home loan packages available across 8 different banks. Through SmartLoans, what previously took a couple of hours of research can now take a couple of minutes. More importantly, the unbiased information provided could result in significant cost savings as users can determine which loan package saves them the most amount of money.

Previously, to find the best mortgage rates in town, users had to plough through multiple banking websites, educate themselves on the many loan packages available and calculate interest amounts manually; all of which were complicating and time consuming. Alternatively, they could approach a mortgage broker, resulting in added costs and time spent. With SmartLoans, users enjoy the flexibility of going through the process independent of a third party, as well as the ease and precision of having the system perform the calculations automatically – free of charge. SmartLoans monitors the market closely and updates mortgage rates as soon as there are any changes, ensuring that users are always provided with the most up-to-date information.

The process of getting the best rates through SmartLoans is simple. The SmartWizard tool guides users through a series of short questions and automatically creates the user’s unique “mortgage profile”. This process typically takes about 2-3 minutes in total. Mortgage-related terms such as “locked-in”, or “floating rates” are explained clearly throughout the process, to help first-timers. The SmartWizard also gives details on how to arrive at the best package. For example, it advises users on when it would be best to take up a fixed rate, or when they should avoid taking up a lock-in package.

Upon completion, the SmartWizard presents a chart and table of all applicable loan packages; sorted in ascending order of the cumulative interest they would have to pay throughout the loan tenure. Users can then opt to connect directly with the bank should they decide to find out more from the bank’s loan officer. Should the users eventually take up a mortgage with the bank through SmartLoans, The Real Group gets a commission from the bank. No charge is made to the user.

“SmartLoans gives users more control over the mortgage and refinancing process. We aim to help our customers find the best deal when hunting for a mortgage,” says Vinod Nair, CEO of The Real Group. “Many potential home buyers will find SmartLoans very useful. At the same time, it will also help home buyers who are looking to refinance their existing mortgage compare their options.”

“With the current economic downturn, we needed to refinance our mortgage. We tried SmartLoans and were delighted at how easy and user-friendly it was, even to someone like me who is not familiar with using the Internet. In the end, we found a bank that was able to give us the best refinancing option and are in the process of finalizing the paperwork. Refinancing our loan would potentially save us thousands,” said Mdm Poh, who bought her house in 2006 and is refinancing her $200,000 mortgage.

The Real Group developed SmartLoans using advanced Internet technology and a customer-centric business model. The Real Group is the same team behind HomeSpace.sg and RentSpace.sg – both map-based real estate search engines for Singapore. The Real Group’s founding members comprise of NUS graduates, who aim to enhance and simplify the home buying process.

“I am heartened to see The Real Group developing new innovative solutions for the real estate industry. Although the economic situation has had a dampening effect on the home buying scene, The Real Group have adapted their business model and developed new revenue-generating activities. More importantly, SmartLoans provides real value to its users,” said Prof Wong Poh Kam, Director of the NUS Entrepreneurship Centre, which is incubating The Real Group.

To check out SmartLoans, visit http://www.SmartLoans.sg

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About The Real Group
The Real Group was founded in 2007 and is the same team that brought the popular map-based real estate search engines HomeSpace.sg and RentSpace.sg. The Real Group is funded and supported by MDA and NUS Enterprise. The Real Group continually strives to provide pro-consumer solutions for the real estate industry. http://therealgrp.com/

About NUS Enterprise
NUS Enterprise was established in 2001 as a university-level cluster, to provide an enterprise dimension to NUS teaching and research involving the university’s students, staff and alumni. The functions of the Enterprise cluster complement the academic cluster of the University to nurture talents with an entrepreneurial and global mindset. NUS Enterprise promotes the spirit of innovation and enterprise through experiential education, industry engagement & partnerships and entrepreneurship support. www.nus.edu.sg/enterprise

Media enquires may be directed to:

Chan Yiu Lin
NUS Enterprise
yiulin@greenergrass.com.sg
Mobile: (65) 9765-5897

It’s one of the biggest bets you can place on another person: You hire a real estate agent to sell your home.

She sizes up its charms, snaps some pictures, sets the price, writes a seductive ad, shows the house aggressively, negotiates the offers, and sees the deal through to the end. Sure, it’s a lot of work, but she’s getting a nice cut. On the sale of a $300,000 house, you’ll typically pay a 6 percent agent fee of $18,000. That’s a lot of money. But you tell yourself that you never could have sold the house for $300,000 on your own. The agent knew how to - what’s that phrase she used? - “maximize the house’s value.” She got you top dollar, right?

A real estate agent is every bit the expert. She is better informed than you about your home’s worth, the state of the housing market, even the buyer’s frame of mind. You depend on her for this information.

As the world has grown more specialized, countless such experts have made themselves similarly indispensable. Doctors, lawyers, contractors, auto mechanics: They all enjoy informational advantage. And they use that advantage to help you.

Right?

Read the rest of this entry »

Amazing. Simply amazing. The power of the media that is.

The Business Times contacted us late last year wanting to do a story. It started off with the focus being the team rather than the product; with interesting angles slanting towards how the brightest ideas may occur not in big, pretentious boardrooms, but in messy garages occupied by “young-twenty-something-internet-punks”.

 Somehow along the way, the product started selling itself more and more (much to our delight) and the story eventually became a full feature about HomeSpace.sg, not the people running it. But hey, we ain’t complaining. Check out the article here.

Since the article was published on February 4th 2008, our site traffic doubled, SMS leads sent out via HomeSpace doubled and sign-ups TRIPPLED! We were very shortly asked to do another interview with Entrepreneur.com.sg. Article here.

The Real Group would like to thank Felda Chay for writing the article and tolerating our never-ending rants.

I’d like to thank our early beta testers for helping us sort out bugs and for giving us suggestions on how to improve. We’ve sorted out as much as possible in this short time frame and we’re finally launching our marketing campaign… From just  our little marketing “experiments” we’ve managed to garner about 40 signups in 24 hours and it doesn’t seem like its going to slow down. Look out Singapore, here we come! Thanks for all your support! We could not have done it without you.

We’re working on some cool features and are looking for talented software engineers who love what we’re doing and want to be part of the team. Drop a mail to vinod at homespace.sg and I’ll be in touch. 

I was recently interviewed by Gwen Tan from SGEntrepreneurs.  Actually, we did an email interview a few weeks ago, but I had to tell her to hold off on the publishing because I didn’t wanna generate too much buzz when the site was not quite ready yet.

Me and the tech team have been staying overnight at the office for the past few days to meet the requirements for the launch. Staelen looks zombified from the lack of proper sleep for the past 2 days… We’re just working really hard to bring the best damn product possible. Possibly even rivalling US sites… The Biz team and myself have been prepping for a couple of presentations we have lined up next week, which hopefully land us some funding so that we can market this

We’re definitely going to be one of the first few companies in the world to launch a full frontal assault youtube marketing campaign. I met a bunch of really cool and talented animation and film guys from NTU and we’re gonna be working with them to produce a series of hilarious viral video adn print ads. You can look forward to that sometime in November.  In the mean time, if you have any feedback or comments reply to this post and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can

A recent front page article on the Straits Times (Tue, Oct 2, 2007) brings cheer to many (or should I say… majority) Singaporeans. The headline “Property boom spreads to mass market” essentially talks about how “mass market” properties - suburban condominiums and HDB homes - have posted their best quarterly growth in years, bringing the overall prices of public and private housing in Singapore to the highest level in a decade. The article goes on to substantiate its claims, citing the latest statistics from research bodies and opinions from those high-and-mighty in the real estate industry.  The full story can be found on: http://www.asianewsnet.net/bnews.php?aid=12595.

Some of my mates were discussing this interesting phenomenon and how it almost resembles the likes of a typical industry bubble that gets everyone excited (and maybe rich) for a brief period of time, but also one that after growing too rapidly, busts unexpectedly, sending hopes and dreams crashing.

What goes up must come down. Everyone knows that. While skeptics may infer the article as a tool used by the governement to send kiasu Singaporeans into a euphoric-panic-selling frenzy to further boost the local property market, what matters is, how are Singaporeans going to react to this “blessing” that has just been bestowed upon them?

Perhaps it might suffice to say, “Don’t be blinded”. Selling your current HDB flat and upgrading instantly might not be the best option once you realize you have higher loans and higher tax rates to deal with, coupled with the lack of foresight as to when and whether the property market will crash. The last thing you want is to end up living in a bigger and better home but with bigger and badder problems to deal with. I don’t even want to begin talking about how f***** up your situation would be if you attempted to cash in during the wrong time (i.e. the property crash - the other phenomenon that some might say, is lurkin around the corner).

I say, get your priorities in life right. Cash in on this bonus and downgrade if you have to, while diverting your bonus to what matters more such as your childrens’ educational investments and repaying your current outstanding debts. The problem with people these days is that they let their greed build upon existing greed. Control yourselves Singaporeans! This is your rare chance to start on a clean (or cleaner) sheet.

(For those who are already on a super clean sheet, with no exisiting debts to settle with the banks, a job that you know will stick with you for the next 10 years providing that steady inflow of cash, and with kids that have all graduated from college, are earning their own income and are living on their own…well…er…sell your flat now cause you really need some crap in your life to deal with brudder…)

Meanwhile in the land of HomeSpace (and soon to come, RentSpace), this phenomenon might just be what we need…heh heh heh…

Here’s an awesome video on what’s happening to the Real Estate industry in the US. Traditionally, Singapore is always a few years behind because technology has not caught up. We’re bridging that gap because we’ve been to the valley, we know what the people want

Why pay thousands of dollars to an agent when you can do it yourself. Previously, people had to rely on agents because they had access to a database that was unavailable to the public. Nobody really knew all the homes on the market except the agents. We’re gonna change all that by opening up all the information to the public. Agents will now have to differentiate themselves by providing top notch service or have no choice but to face extinction. HomeSpace has a revamped beta launching soon…. look out for it!

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=2796105n

There have been speculations about how high HDB prices will continue to rise. The current property boom thats here is set to stay for awhile. Lots of en-blocs happening and people still need to relocate. Eric Cheng from PropNex shares his views…

I spent the entire day yesterday just thinking and thinking… What will it take to change consumer behaviour in Singapore… Today, 80% of Americans do their home research online… Needless to say, Americans generally adopt internet services a whole lot faster than the rest of the world. Singaporeans however are different. There’s always resistance to the unknown and changing consumer behaviour from offline to online classifieds is going to be like forcing a kid to eat their veggies… They know it’s good for them, but they just dont wanna eat it..

It will be going against the norm… but I guess thats what entrepreneurs do… Half of us who have lived in Silicon Valley for at least a year know how online services have made everything a whole lot easier and more convenient… and we just want to spread the love Any suggestions? I’d love to hear what you think.

About a month ago Mediacorp launched mocca.com. Probably the most advertised online advertising platform in Singapore’s history…

Here’s whats been happening with mocca… Firstly, not many people are putting up video ads, which is what alot of their advertising hinges on.. Secondly, video ads are not even being embedded on the site, it’s simply a link they post which redirects them to youtube. Layout and usability is very poor. They’re not getting enough ad traction given that they’re offering ads for free during this initial launch period.

Lets talk about their property listings, coz thats what we’re concerned with… Real estate agents are unwilling to put up alot of property information on the site because it allows people to not cut the agent out of the deal and go to the buyer directly. Buyers on the other hand, are turned off because they dont see the information they want. We’re hoping to solve the concern and appease both parties… We’re going to provide options to mask information while still displaying the geographical information of the home for sale without revealing the address.

Ironically, mocca is good for something… giving us our first alpha user! LOL. Thanks!