BidMyListing, a real estate platform that connects home sellers to real estate agents who bid on the opportunity to sell their homes, closed a $15 million investment from alternative investment manager Deer Park Road Management Company. The funding round took place on Sept. 23.
The company has raised a total of $20 million, with funds largely allocated to scaling the company’s expansion.
The platform enables owners to hand over their listing to BidMyListing, which in turn, shares it with its agents. The agents then bid money to sell the home. Homeowners, upon their assessment of their bid and other factors, choose an agent.
The bids comprise cash upfront, commission and listing term, the company said. It also has a description of what makes the agent a suitable candidate to sell a particular home.
BidMyListing co-founder Matt Proman in a statement said the company has generated more than 2,000 home listings from owners seeking real estate agents who represented more than $500 million worth of properties.
Homeowners expect cash upfront from their chosen agent, “while agents are relieved to finally have the opportunity to buy predictable listing inventory instead of using an unpredictable spend to acquire leads,” Proman added.
Some brokers have already expressed skepticism about the company’s model.
“I don’t see any benefit for the agent,” Oleg Bortman, co-founder and broker at The Brokery, told South Florida Agent magazine. “The agent is just paying for a lead at a high price, not knowing how much the seller is willing to pay them for their service.”
The BidMyListing team includes celebrity agents Josh and Matt Altman, best known for their roles on Bravo TV’s “Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles.”
“As we continue to see BidMyListing’s early adoption in the marketplace, we are proving what we knew all along – that this marketplace model truly helps both the homeowner and agent,” Josh Altman, a co-founder said.
John Nicholas, former CTO of Carrington Retail Group and SVP of Product at Auction.com/Ten-X, is the company’s CEO.
