Offeroo co-founder Matt Johnson bought and sold two homes without either of them hitting the open market, transactions that became the inspiration for his latest venture.
Johnson and Brent Varnadoe co-founded MyOfferoo.com, a website designed to connect buyers and sellers over off-market properties.
The Greenville-based startup is looking to dip into a market of off-market properties with owners like Johnson, who decided to sell only after receiving viable offers.
“I bought and sold homes off-market twice, and at that point realized there must be some way to do this more efficiently or bring this to a broader audience,” Johnson said. “And maybe we can leverage technology to open up this market (of) off-market real estate opportunities to a wider audience.”
The website will allow potential sellers to quietly discover interest levels on their properties. It can also serve as a conduit for potential buyers to make contact with sellers without knocking on doors, as happened to Johnson before he sold two homes.
“Our focus is on empowering buyers — those that are in search of a property or have a specific property already in mind that they want to acquire,” Johnson said. “That could mean a primary residence. It could mean a vacation home. It could be a piece of land. It could be a commercial building. But they already have a good idea of the property they want to try to buy.”
Offeroo’s team, which includes connected real estate brokers and attorneys, will also work with potential buyers to secure a right of first refusal if owners aren’t ready to sell at the time of the initial offer.
In today’s thriving real estate market in the Upstate, Johnson said he believes Offeroo will be able to increase inventory for brokers and buyers. After that, expansion into other markets in the Southeast is on the horizon.
“Goal No. 1 for this year and for the relaunch is to drive overall traffic to the site, have a high volume of quality, viable offers and referrals submitted and then have a successful conversion rate of between 5% and 10% on those submissions,” Johnson said. “If we can achieve those numbers, we’ll have a nice business.”
