Real estate startup Casa Blanca is offering to update the way home buyers house hunt.
Direct-consumer brands have been revolutionizing industries for years, with Casper in the sleep industry, Warby Parker in the eyewear market, and Rent the Runway in fashion. But what about real estate?
Casa Blanca aims to modernize the traditional brokerage by offering prospective buyers a direct and consistent branded experience and up to one percent of the purchase price back at closing.
Using AI and machine learning to match users with homes that fit their needs, the startup’s app allows them to swipe right or left on relevant listings, right for the ones they like and left for the ones they don’t.
Call it the Bumble of real estate.
Users are able to browse through the homes they’ve liked and even have access to an archive of the homes they’ve rejected. If they like a home, they can ask for more information and/or set up a showing time as the swipe.
Courtesy of Casa Blanca.
Co-founded by Hannah Bomze and Erez Zarur, Casa Blanca launched in October 2020 and is currently available in New York and Denver. Earlier this year, they raised $2.6 million in seed funding and are gearing up for Series A.
The startup has over 38 in-house agents who are only responsible for client services.
“Something that is really different about Casa Blanca and our app is that we have management, oversight, and consistency in every market,” Bomze told Inman.
Unlike most traditional brokerages, at Casa Blanca, there’s a scheduling department, a board package department, an invoice and billing department, a negotiation department, people who make the marketing material, and a template for writing offers.
This leaves less room for error, Bomze explained. And, it makes the agents less frazzled and stressed.
“With a traditional brokerage, because the agents bring in the business, the agents are responsible for servicing the business however they would like,” she continued. “At Casa Blanca, because we are in charge of the business, we are in charge of how it’s handled, run, and overseen. A consistent branded experience every time is the most important piece.”
The agents at Casa Blanca also work collaboratively as a team. The startup is able to offer a 100 percent showing guarantee not only because scheduling is overseen by management, but because agents share calendars and are able to step in when requests come in or someone can’t make it.
Bomze told Inman that Casa Blanca has already done over $100 million in sales and agents make an average of $75,000 in their first year.
According to an April report by TechCrunch, the startup is projected to hit $285 million in sales by year’s end.
“We would like to be the first brand in real estate to mean something,” Bomze said. “We can see ourselves as a national company. If you own a house in Miami, if you own a house in New York, and you decide to move to Nashville, you can just contact Casa Blanca and you know what you’re going to get.”
