From Real Estate Agent to Innovator: The Journey of FiSBO®

Hello there , It might sound like a cliché, but every company and service has its own story. Ours began back in 2015 when our founder, Ben Keehan, was working at Harcourts as a licensed real estate professional. Before venturing into real estate, Ben had a robust career in sales, gathering valuable experience across various industries. He worked in account management for Fletcher Building's roll forming division, Dimond, then moved on to franchise ownership with Carpet One , followed by a B2B communications role at Vodafone. This diverse background equipped Ben with the skills to sell effectively and provide meaningful solutions for his clients.

Ben's decision to join Harcourts was a daring one. Initially, he wasn't fond of how agents were perceived by the community. However, drawing on the insights from his previous roles, Ben believed he could confidently make and fulfill promises that genuinely benefited his clients, all while staying true to his values and build a reputation to attract customers to him.

Unlike the other roles Ben held, real estate was very different, selling a service to sell a product in a heavily regulated industry means that it is very hard to compete and win business based on methods other business used, such as at Vodafone we could look at a business customers telco spend and tailor a solution that was better and cheaper for them, this was normally enough motivation for a business to change companies and made me very succesfull in that role. Where as in real estate being a discounter is seen as "sinful" and cheaper agents must be bad and no good at their job, and this was what all agent say, just because the industry says so.

So, to try and be different and honest with his customers Ben had to show that technology was the answer to win listings over other companies. He was the first to implement mobile quoting, digital signatures and Virtual Tour technology at Harcourts Hawkes Bay and was often called upon by Harcourts Head Office to talk about their tech offerings. 

As Ben's business become more effecient he was driven to pass savings on to his customers but couldn't advertise lower cost service fees to attract sellers as this was controlled by the franchise owners. The Harcourts business model was their's and Ben understood he could not change that model.

Along with other constraints, Ben found it increasingly difficult to keep up momentum with his success at Harcourts and after some differences of opinion with the Franchise Owners, Ben left Harcourts Hawkes Bay.

After a three month breather, enforced by a contractual restraint of trade, Ben made the move to First National, where he had much more freedom that suited his selling style and meant he could take on clients accross the wider Hawkes Bay  and in all disciplines of real estate that he could not do within the  Harcourts model. 

It was at First National that been formed a strategic partnerships with both TradeMe and REINZ to promote iStagings VR Maker to real estate agents in both New Zealand and Australia. This came about with some chance meetings and interest from those groups, who wanted to improve tech offerings to the agents. After a trip to Taiwan with iStaging, in 2018, Ben returned to New Zealand guns blazing ready to  help agents and earn a side income to feather out the low cash flow periods agents face in real estate between sales.

Yes there was push back, one of the managers at Barfoots rang me after the REINZ deal was announced and ask me not to talk or approach his sales team, he didn't say why, but it was beacuse they had done a deal with Diakrit and our offering would have blown them out of the water. They were charging agents $600 for three 360d images,  where as iStaging could be sold into the agent for $30 per month for 30 images! Pretty clear Barfoots where gouging the agents and the sellers! We were asked to meet with Harcourts and did a great pitch to them in Auckland. We thought it went well but after not hearing back from them for 3 weeks they decided to stick with their incumbent.

The guys at Ray White on the other hand were really helpful, they were happy for us to go and help their franchise's and we got the most uptake from them, but we couldn't get them to commit to a formal agreement which made it hard to get serious uptake. We had more success in Australia with more uptake there, than in New Zealand, which suprised me.

It was almost like the industry didn't want change, the bulk of people didn't want to be different, they were just happy going along the same old way in the same old manner. That was also evident when working as an agent to offer lower cost sellimg, the agents wanted to keep the high commission model. Don't get me wrong some people embraced the technology and could see it helping them and those people are still using it today.

The team at Trade Me where pretty awesome helping us with iStaging and huge thank you to them for that work. At one of the meetings itwas  said to me " The problem with TradeMe is we loose track of the customer once we hand them over to the agent and we would like to see that whole journey" , I replied " I reckon I can build that as an add-on for your customers" . I headed home to Hawkes Bay and started giving that some serious brain power, I didn't realise that was the first ideation of and end to end real estate platform for consumers!

At this time I had been doing real estate for about 4 years doing the side gig with REINZ, TradeMe and iStaging and then saw this gap in the market that was not really being served. There were some providors doing it but not the same, they didn't look crisp and clean, dowdy red and white signs, they didn't push the envelope , it was just an advertising packages with no hands on help. I was still with First National, I thought ok, lets make a product, give it a name, create a brand and then see if someone would buy it. Well, bugger me, someone did buy it. they paid eighten hundred dollars for me to guide them as a private seller, using this word called FiSBO, to be honest it was pretty average. there was no app, a budget logo and we ended up providing the services myself all the openhomes etc. It failed really, in hindsight I should not have done it, but I did.

At this stage I had spent a few hundred bucks and registered the trademark for FiSBO®, I thought that was pretty cool!

I was determined in my mind to create something no one was providing consumers, a platform that could empower people to sell their own home with help but without the high cost. And it would be and end to end service. And as the agents weren't really interested in change I decided it was time to develope my own software & marketing service.

Early 2019 ,the market had stalled, things weren't good at home, money was tight and needed a regular job. So I got out of real estate officially and got a repping job with Carpet Mill. 

In the summer of 2019-2020 I spent my holidays doing my research, finding the gap in the legislation, researching court cases and then developing software and creating the FiSBO® brand and this "hybrid" real estate service and platform with everything that I had learned as a real estate sales person.

At this stage no other company had found or bridged the gap, all I needed now was a customer, and I found one! A great customer, Noel and Fay, they had a new build in Silverton Road to sell and they were willing to give me a shot and was I very grateful! We took a little bit of money to cover the basics and I did the rest for free. That was mid February 2020, then boom, Covid hit! Although the house was not complete, we took a VR Tour and promoted that with some stills on TradeMe to keep some interest up then when we came out of lockdown we got the carpets installed and reshot the photos, did some drone work then started doing open homes! Then I could really test the web-app and it did everything it need to do! It is an openhome register, messaging system and offer system like a TradeMe auction but designed for property with conditional and unconditional buyers in the same mix. It automates everything I did as an agent when buyers start to talk turkey! 

The home sold using FiSBO ! It was amazing feeling and validation of all that effort and knowledge come together in this hybrid platform you could use on your mobile phone! And we gave people help! No one was doing it like us and Im super grateful to Noel and Faye for being our first customer and sale, thank you both again!

Things were looking pretty good, had started to get a few more listings, and they were selling, my customers were really happy, they were achieving their goals. smashing sales records. One property went live on Thursday and was getting multi offers by Saturday with the client selling it for a record price! The solicitors had the contract done monday, she was stoked, they saved 40K in fees compared to agents, I was making a bit of money, all that profit was going straight back into the  growth of the brand, boostrapping it with no outside funding.

Nec minute, in October 2020 the REA (Real Estate Agents Authority) rings me: " Mr Keehan we have recieved a complaint from a real estate agent in Waipukurau , concerned with some content on your website, we have looked at this and we know that you are a former real estate sales person who worked for that brand, and because you are no longer an agent we have no jurisdiction over the content and you, however we need to make sure you are not doing unlicensed trading. "

Firstly I was fearful, but after a good discussion with this person and clarification of the concerns and the legislation we agreed on the services we provide were not in breach of the act and as we sticked to some rules we would be ok. Problem resolved.

So I kept pressing on, we getting a few more and they were selling, things are looking good , consumers who find FiSBO® love what we do and how much they can save. Were about 20 sold property!

Then in February of 2022, the REA rings me again. " Mr Keehan, we have a third complaint from an agent in Napier" , I said " I didn't realise we had three complaints?" , " yes, the agent is concerned that you are helping people sell their home for $5000 and that you have more listings than he does. We need to make sure your not doing unlicensed trading, please tell us your process, again" .

I replied: " this is our process in detail " ,

REA reply " on this basis we are satisfied you are not in breach of the act"

Off the record: " We actually like what you are doing, your proccess is fair and transparent and competitively priced. The agent is worried that you winning market share. Just be mindfull it is likely there will be more complaints in the future and please stick to the process as agreed" case closed. (confirmed by email)

As the business continues to evolve and grow and we win market share we aware and mindful of the REA's position to protect consumers from unlicensed trading this is important to us as well, we genuinely want to help consumers by providing a robust system with their solicitor, conveyancor or licensed agent in the workflow to create the transaction. Our focus will continue on marketing as a service  and sales automation as a service.

Now with 78 paid customers, 45 property sold with FiSBO worth $31m we are still considered a startup and we will continue to go beyond the status quo by adding more Ai to our services as we grow and scale

In 2024 we are not anti real estate agents we welcome real estate agents to use our services if they wish to or solicitors and licensed conveyancors to do the same under a wholesale relationship . We encourage agents with buyers agency agreeements to introduce buyers to our clients properties, no issue, our goal as a marketing company is for our customers to achive their goal, first and foremost.

FiSBO® is evolving into a full service end to end platform, from the idea that  TradeMe inspired some five years ago. Maybe one day FiSBO® can be add-on for Trade Me Property.

Since 2020, we've concentrated on prepaid campaigns, but as our system evolves, we've introduced a fresh pricing structure to assist sellers in paying from their sale's proceeds. If your property sells within 30 days, you pay the least—$5000. If it sells in 60 days, it's $7000 ; 90 days, $9000; and 120 days or more is capped at $10000 (all prices plus GST). Taking the risk with you based on time to sell is fair and transparent, a deposit is paid or you can still pre-pay if you wish.

We've realized that by not offering risk-based payment upon sale, we've missed out on some listings. To address this, we've introduced this option, which remains at least 50% cheaper than our full-service competitors. While there's plenty of competition with rivals offering online-only services and imitators trying to follow in our footsteps, it's essential to do your homework. Choose a partner you can trust—one that pioneered the business—rather than those unproven copies.

For those savvy individuals interested in a marketing side hustle or owning a business, we have some exciting options to discuss. 

Ben Keehan is the founder of FiSBO®, his promise to you is that we continue to provide and excell in giving you our customer the very best service at all times , with the best tools, to get you the best possible result.

Feel free to call him anytime on his personal mobile 021 738769

With your consultant helping you with the day today parts of your campaign Ben and his future managers are here and will be reaching out to you during your campaign. 

Signing out

Ben Keehan

aka Mr. FiSBO