One of a number of consumer-facing solutions that promises to minimize the role of the agent for the sake of efficiency, this platform still lacks some of the advanced technologies needed to advance the transaction beyond the reach of those licensed to sell homes.
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Efizbo is a consumer-facing home selling and buying solution.
Platforms: Browser
Ideal for: Buyers, sellers
Top selling points:
- Popular proptech integrations
- Educational resources for the consumer
- Contemporary marketing tools
- Transparent fees/costs
- Appeal to investors
Top concern(s):
Its name is hard to get over, as every agent in the industry has learned to negatively sell against the term “FSBO.” Its lack of agent integration will create headwinds without a large investment to reach consumers.
What you should know
You’re not going to like reading this, but with every new technology solution I see in this milieu, I become more convinced that consumers will have a reputable, dependable agentless option for buying and selling before 2025. While the name (it has to change) and even the website experience depict a second-rate technology product, Efizbo’s execution and user experience say, to some extent, the opposite.
Efizbo partners with super-smart solutions such as Inspectify (soon), Plunk and Black Knight to hasten listing data input and search and better manage post-contract processes.
Consumers are given video content to understand what each phase of a deal involves, what things will cost and how to best position a home for its market. It works with local contractors to capture fully immersive walk-throughs later accompanied by a virtual narrator to vocalize features and highlights.
Efizbo’s offer process uses a term-sheet process, meaning parties agree in principle to terms and later formalize the agreement with official documentation. If a seller has a buyer in place, they can choose to use the Contract to Close option to expedite the deal.
The standard Efizbo contract, once terms are agreed to, does not come with a financing contingency, meaning that it leans toward cash buyers and investors. That alone may limit the audience its sellers can reach, but does mean that the experience of selling with it will be that much better. And as the industry shifts from being experience-based to relationship-based, this matters.
The Listing Wizard walks a user through what’s needed to get their home on the site, and it’s relatively the same sort of thing you’ve seen before. Enter the basics, decide if you want in-person or virtual open houses, schedule them accordingly, then get an inspection on the books.
The company will send its video content team to the house to scan it using LIDAR tech from Leica that is ultimately intended to be viewed through a VR headset, something the company is psyched about but I still think is years from becoming a valuable marketing asset. I do think VR is very cool, but it’s just going to be a while before consumers demand it when house hunting. The company captures still photography during the same visit.
Nevertheless, Efizbo’s video content can be accompanied by a “virtual property specialist” delivering a scripted overview of the listing’s highlights, a trend I was unsure of last year but which, apparently, is catching on.
Step two of the Efizbo workflow also involves getting an inspection on the books. Now, for an industry that sells itself so heavily on trust and having a fiduciary relationship with its customers, I’ll never understand the inherent lack of confidence in the integrity of a seller-provided inspection.
It’s absurd to think the seller — or their agent — will ever risk falsifying or in any way disguising issues with a home. It’s faster for everyone if the buyer can see an inspection before making an offer, something I hope continues to catch on, along with a national standard for home inspections.
The company uses Plunk’s API for its valuation and Black Knight to create a comparable breakdown, demonstrating that it’s using a very similar tech stack as a lot of traditional brokerages. That said, know that Efizbo is a brokerage licensed in Florida and it collects a 1 percent fee at closing, in addition to its upfront inspection and creative asset fees.
Offers are facilitated in a “term sheet” format, meaning that the two parties go back and forth on principle and when ready, work with the company’s on-call support team to make it all legal. The closing dashboard is a detailed, timeline-driven workflow of the appropriate steps. It’s a little pedantic and like other parts of the experience, feels more like a mere digitization of the process as opposed to a “faster, easier way” to sell a home.
Other than the removal of agents and seller-provided inspection, I’m not seeing any super time-saving innovations within the technology itself. But, the software does allow each party to move at their own pace, a byproduct of not having agents and additional vendors in the middle of it all. It’s also faster to move cash than it is to apply for and process a mortgage, again, a benefit of removing the inspection contingency.
Efizbo is a very solid step in the right direction. I’d like to see more tangible, technology-driven benefits like AI-derived property condition reports and auto-generated marketing, insights on how to adjust marketing in the face of low activity, less of an emphasis on cost savings and more on a better buying and selling experience.
The user experience, as a whole, is nicely adjusted to how a standard transaction will take place, help resources are readily available and I see no reason why this would intimidate a confident buyer or seller wanting to step into the market without representation.
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe
Craig C. Rowe started in commercial real estate at the dawn of the dot-com boom, helping an array of commercial real estate companies fortify their online presence and analyze internal software decisions. He now helps agents with technology decisions and marketing through reviewing software and tech for Inman.
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