HappyHome
2-sided platform to buy and sell properties "as-is"
I hit the ground running and have been doing so to try to get people to sign up on the platform. I'm doing some paid search/social and some other more organic channels to start getting property investors signed up, and then once I have enough then I will begin marketing to sellers. Wish me luck!
The MVP was finished a bit sooner than this but this is when all the cash from the raise was in the account. The MVP took a lot longer than it should have because there was a learning curve since I had zero experience in this space. Even though it was built on a no-code platform, it took me a while to learn the logic, database, etc. I had a no-code developer I paid to help me and he was awesome. His site is nocodify.com
I decided to raise a small "friends and family" round because I knew that it would take some time and capital to get the flywheel spinning since it was a marketplace. Put $30k in personally (on top of the development costs) and raised $95k in addition. I was originally going to raise more but decided to dial it back.
I did some customer interviews with some people who sold or were looking to sell their home as-is and had also been in this space for a while so I saw firsthand what people were having issues with and where someone could solve them. From here I struggled for a bit trying to figure out how to create the MVP. I don't have a tech background so I didn't really even know where to begin. Someone I knew recommended I looking into Bubble.io so I did and ended up deciding to build it there.
I began researching to find out how big this market was and whether or not it made sense to go after. This is the space where people sell their home as-is when it is not in great shape. In the U.S. between 5 and 6 million homes sell annually in total. For the space I am operating in, it makes up about 5% of this conservatively (I have data behind this). So, with this I realized it was worth going after.
Was in the real estate space flipping houses and came up with this idea after seeing how fragmented the market is. Also saw how people known as real estate wholesalers dominate the industry and drive up costs and drive down trust for others. Knew that it was an interesting idea, but wanted to validate it and figure out the market size from here.
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