Race and Rhonda Wong were once Hong Kong celebrities. Now, they are hoping Ohmyhome becomes the go-to platform to buy and sell HDBs in Singapore

There are few institutions as important to the city of Singapore as the government’s public housing system (most commonly referred to as HDBs). According to government statistics, over 80 per cent of Singaporeans live in HDBs with 90 per cent of those people owning their residences.

But, the process of actually locking down that ‘life moment’ is confusing, at best. It is a 10-step process that involves price negotiations, valuation requests, loan agreements and two in-person meetings.

Sounds like a process ripe for disruption doesn’t it? Well, this being Singapore, there is a startup for that.

Launched in September, Ohmyhome is a startup started by two sisters, Race and Rhonda Wong, with the mission to become to go-to brand when Singaporeans are trying to buy, sell, or rent HDBs.

The sisters have quite the unique personal history — having achieved legitimate fame in the Cantonese entertainment industry about a decade ago. The duo starred in the Cantopop band 2R and even achieved a nomination for “Best New Actor” at the Hong Kong Film Awards (the Oscars of Hong Kong’s dynamic film industry).

Both Founders, Rhonda is the CEO and Race is in an Executive Director role at ohmyhome.

“I think for every industry there is something that can improve efficiency and tech is the way that most businesses can innovate right now. [In real estate] there is this gap between how a buyer communicates with the seller and even developers to the end user,” Race told e27 in an interview.

“There is a gap where you can’t fit perfectly, so we hope that we can fit it in seamlessly,” she said.

Also Read: Ant Financial is raising US$3B in debt to fund M&A deals: Bloomberg

The real estate industry is one of the busiest sectors of the startup economy — with companies like PropertyGuru and 99.c0 being some of the most recognisable startups in Singapore. But, Wong said, because those are subscription services, they are a different model and not direct competitors. The real estate platform Averspace comes to mind as a potential competitor.

That being said, what makes ohmyhome interesting is its revenue model, which in itself solves one of the biggest headaches across the real estate industry.

Breaking down the commission model

Ohmyhome’s free service is a discover platform for people to sell and list properties. While the startup can cut out the middleman to an extent, it actually is not trying to undermine real estate agents. On the contrary, one of the most important parts of the service is the agents it has on staff.

“Right now, we have this agent service — it is a flat-fee service. We charge a flat fee because we want the poorest people and the more wealthy people to have the same standard of service,” said Wong.

For sellers and buyers, full agent services cost S$2,888 (US$2,042) and include perks like negotiating help, viewings and advertising. For S$1,688 (US$1,194), users get meet-ups and documentation, and the agent will attend HDB appointments (also offered in the full-service).

The same perks are offered for renters and landlords, but at the price of S$988 (US$698) for full service or S$288 (US$203) or US$98 (US$69) for the Lite service (the cheaper S$98 is if the person is just renting a room as compared with a full unit).

This is key, because anyone who has tried to move homes has run into agents that just did not seem to care.

Unless by dumb luck the buyer nabs an agent with a kind heart, there is traditionally quite a disparity in customer service between agents selling basic homes for a few hundred thousand dollars and those working on million-dollar mansions.

Ohmyhome is trying to solve his problem by offering a permanent, stable, salary that does not change based on sales. Like most startups, the company uses a more horizontal working environment with a focus on team cohesion.

“I realised a lot of people like to work as a team. They like to feel like they belong to something and are working towards something bigger, rather than just, ‘I want to close this to get a commission.’ If you give people a choice, they like to work for money and some meaning — and not just purely money,” said Wong.

Not everyone can be a fit, and one of the company’s challenges is hiring agents who enjoy this system.

Ohmyhome only hires agents with over five years of experience, and Wong says it takes about 20 interviews to find one person who is the right fit — especially considering the transition from traditional real estate to a startup environment is not easy.

A good start, and eyes abroad

Easily the best part of our conversation was watching Wong light-up when I asked her for the company’s statistics (not something that happens often).

ohmyhome’s stats are good for a company that launched in September, but that wasn’t really the point. (They have about 3,000 listings and close to 100,000 users.)

The excitement was about going through a year-long research process, launching the product, and seeing that it was actually working.

“We are very happy because in 2015, when we conceptualised the idea, it was still an idea. We can say it is first on the market and it is an idea that we think people will like, but it is never proven until you launch it,” Wong explained.

“So when you launch it, and adoption rate is growing, and people actually like the app, it is [very exciting] — it actually works!”

Wong says Ohmyhome is eyeing an expansion into Malaysia (Race and Rhonda’s birthplace). This will require branching into the larger property market as a whole, because the HDB system is a product of Singapore policies.

“Our business model is very simple — we connect buyers to sellers, landlords to tenants. It applies to other markets, as well. We just started with HDBs because we think it is very confusing and we think people need this service,” she told e27.

Ohmyhome raised a S$1 million seed round (US$700,000) and is currently fundraising its pre-Series A round.

From celebrity to entrepreneurship

As briefly mentioned above, Race and Rhonda lived the life of fame in Hong Kong as the duo-group 2R. After about eight years, the two stepped-down from public life to pursue their paths in business.

(Disclaimer: I only spoke with Race, so it is her voice that had been featured.)

Also Read: In Pics: Bike-sharing quietly starts rolling in Singapore

An avid reader, Race brought-up three or four book-related metaphors during our conversations, and when the topic of celebrity was discussed, it happened again.

Wong mentioned a book that defined two kinds of people, those who can make income when they are not working, and those who cannot.

“When I read that, I was a celebrity. I read that and thought, ‘yeah, when I don’t do a job I don’t have any income, and that’s kind of a stupid way to do things,’” she says.

“As a female actress, the odds of becoming successful as you get older is extremely low, and I thought I didn’t want the celebrity life as I aged. It is very stressful.”

After Race’s stint in the finance world, she once again teamed-up with Rhonda at Anthill Realtors, a property investment agency for high net worth individuals.

“We were [running Anthill] for a while and wanted to do something that was a platform, application, or web-based, so it reaches more people. The first idea was to do an investment platform,” she said.

“How do you reach the most people? How do you [find] people that need the most help? We decided to do a platform that caters to the HBD market.”

With a unique life experience that is almost impossible to replicate, I was curious, so I asked: What is the hardest part of being an entrepreneur?

“To find people who believe in you. To see your company the way you see it,” answered Wong.

“We have a goal, a dream, we have a vision. Then, when you are going on a fundraising round, it is not easy to get people to visualise. We can do our presentations, but people might not see what you see.”

Ohmyhome hopes people will see the its platform as the next big disruption in the real estate industry.

—-

 

The post From Cantopop to commissions: Ohmyhome wants to change Singapore’s public housing game appeared first on e27.