Buymyplace.com.au

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Mortgage broking firm Yellow Brick Road chief Mark Bouris has bought a 5 percent stake in DIY property sale firm PropertyNow for an undisclosed sum.
The startup, which aims to raise further funds from private equity this year ahead of a possible IPO.
Bouris joined Financial Review Young Rich Lister Jeremy Same as shareholders in the privately held company.
PropertyNow founder Andrew Blachut believes his firm is bigger than rivals such as the listed BuyMyPlace.com.au, which has a market capitalisation of about $15 million, he told The Australian Financial Review.
It has a flat fee structure that starts at $694 for sales or $195 for rentals.
Its website says it "invented agent assisted sales in Australia and have saved Australian sellers over 70 million dollars in commission".
Blachut said he would raise more funds to fund PropertyNow’s marketing campaign.
"We are virtually debt-free and put all our cash flow back in the business and we have built our own proprietary technology platform, which our competitors have not," Blachut was cited as saying by the AFR.
”So we will use the funds raised on marketing our business. A lot of Australians still don't know they can use our [sale by owner] services."
Same, who co-founded Lux Group with prominent fellow Young Rich List member Adam Schwab, invested in PropertyNow in 2015 after approaching Blachut, while three years of effort to woo Bouris paid off when he bought into PropertyNow earlier in August.
"Jeremy brought a lot of expertise in terms of advising us on improving our technology and website and making it more modern and easier for consumers to use," Blachut said. "Mark is advising us and there is a lot of synergies between us and his business.
He added that Yellow Brick Road’s mortgage expertise would be useful when PropertyNow decides to launch ancillary services such as insurance.
PropertyNow is among the new breed of DIY property selling portals that depart from the traditional real estate agent model and as such are cost effective for sellers.
Its rivals include BuyMyPlace and the UK-based PurpleBricks.
PropertyNow claims it has close to 2,000 listings on both realestate.com and Domain as at August 17, which is 27 per cent more than BuyMyPlace and up 17.3 per cent from a year ago. PropertyNow expects to generate an annual revenue of $1.5-2 million.
He said clients typically save $10-15,000 compared with enlisting full service real estate agents, with clients running their own open-house inspections, take inquiries from prospective buyers and control the text and pictures used on the real estate listings. The business has also branched into offering a service for rental homes.
"We think we are here to stay, the industry has already been disrupted. It is like having Uber now, but also normal taxis."
Blachut is a real estate agent who has worked for L J Hooker, Raine &amp; Horne, Elders and Ray White. He first launched his then Coffs Harbour-based business in 2004 and became one of the first virtual real estate agents.
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j.ballantyne1990-6AQqhLzZaK

DIY selling platform PropertyNow eyes more funds after Mark Bouris takes stake 

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The buyMyplace chief executive Colin Keating has tendered his resignation, a year into the listed prop tech company's desired transformation.
He will remain in the role until a replacement is appointed, officially leaving BMP on 3 March 2019.
Colin’s resignation comes at a time of restructure for the company with BMP executing a binding term sheet with KordaMentha Custodians, which will acquire BMP in consideration for the payment of $100,000 and forgiveness of a $5 million debt owing to KMC under the loan agreement between the parties.
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Subject to the backing of BMP shareholders at a December 21 meeting, KordaMentha will acquire the majority of the cash-strapped ASX-listed digital agency.
KM Custodians had provided lifeline funding to BMP since April, but following an unsuccessful $10 million capital raising, BMP faced defaulting on its debt obligations.
BMP, a pioneer in the DIY space, helps homeowners sell their homes for as little as $695 without an agent. Since 2009, it has helped more than 4500 homeowners sell their homes.
On its early 2016 float, it advised over 2,900 Australian homes had been sold since its launch.
It then attracted an average 30,000 unique website visits per month, which rose to recent levels at just 40,000 unique visitors per month..
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It has been hit by the high cost of Google advertising, with its losses at $5.4 million in the 2018 financial year.
Established in 2007 and listed in March 2016, it promoted itself as Australia’s leading DIY property sales platform.
It told shareholders the growth in listings and revenue of 19% p.a. and 46% p.a., respectively, had occurred since its listing.
Hoping the market was ripe for disruption, the original BMP thesis was to seek out DIY sales which they anticipated could see 100,000 potential listings.
It hoped to emulate Canada's 23 percent DIY occurrence, but the company noted earlier this year only three percent of listings are DIY in the Australian market, "an exceptionally low number compared to international markets."
Its auditor issued a warning about its ability continue as a going concern in May.
<source media="(min-width: 1180px)" srcset="https://static.ffx.io/images/$width_620/t_resize_width/t_sharpen%2Cq_auto%2Cf_auto/9ad65ab4f3a4c57e99b3ab7eb51b40835f4812b4"></source>KordaMentha partner Mark Korda will take control of buymyplace.com.au.
The company has been in a ASX trading halt since September.
The transaction includes $500,000 from KMC to enable the company to fund its operations until 21 December 2018.
KMC have advised the business will continue to "operate as normal.'
KMC has stated its intention to appropriately capitalise the company and grow the business in a private environment.
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BMP had announced its intention to acquire Pleased.Property for $2 million in August 2018, but the acquisition of Pleased.Property will not progress.
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jchancellor-FAypfDUnLy

KordaMentha to take reins at DIY property website buyMyplace

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The newly appointed directors of buyMyplace.com.au, the online property services company for DIY sales, have reported a $5.5 million loss.
The loss was up on the prior $3.8 million loss with the increase attributed to additional legal and consulting fees to develop growth strategies, costs and interest associated with the debt financing facilities, impairment of goodwill in relation to the acquisition of My Place Conveyancing, and increased employment and share based payments costs.
Its total operating revenue was up 36% to $2.86 million, compared to $2.10 million in the prior corresponding period, primarily driven by DIY listings and revenue from My Place Conveyancing.
Its total costs increased 41%. 
At the end of 2018, the company held cash reserves of $268,000.
The Group’s current liabilities exceed its total assets by $672,357.
The ability of the company to continue as a going concern, according to the audit report, is principally dependent upon the ability of the company to secure funds by raising capital from equity markets and managing cash flow in line with available funds.
"These conditions indicate a material uncertainty that may cast significant doubt about the ability of the company to continue as a going concern," it noted.
Subsequent to year end, the operations of BuyMyHome Pty Ltd and its associated subsidiaries were disposed of and in addition, the company has procured a $200,000 loan with Misquitta Capital.
The company is also communicating with interested parties for external investment into the remaining operating subsidiary, which will further reduce the need for funding.
In November 2017, buyMyplace completed a $1 million working capital facility with KM Custodians Pty Ltd which provided it the capital to progress its growth strategy developed through strategic partnerships, the rollout of additional offerings, and technology and platform improvements to enhance user experience.
The facility was replaced by a $3 million debt financing facility from KM Custodians Pty Ltd which was used to repay the original $1 million facility, and fund working capital requirements.
The new facility had $1.5 million still available.
It issued 583,755 fully paid ordinary shares to the vendors of My Place Conveyancing Pty Ltd, pursuant to the share sale deed entered into to acquire all of the issued share capital in My Place Conveyancing Pty Ltd from the vendors.
The shares held by its 756 shareholders have been suspended for trading on the ASX since September last year.
The shareholders include Butterss Resources Pty Ltd, held by former director Pete Butterss; Karlusic Investments Pty Ltd; Paul Becca; Laurence Holyoake and Peter Ronec.
buyMyplace.com.au has recently lost its chief executive officer Colin Keating, who was appointed in November 2017.
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