Digital real estate platform HonestDoor is attracting no shortage of attention -- and dollars.
The Edmonton-based startup just announced that it has raised CAD$2.2M in seed funding. The funding was led by Luge Capital with participation from Bluesky Equities, Conconi Growth Partners, Panache Ventures, REACH Canada, SAF Group, Startup TNT, and Wheaton Group.
These companies were joined by entrepreneurs Sanders Lee, Ashif Mawlii, and Blaine LaBonte. The round of funding brings the company's total funding to date to $2.7M.
Launched in 2018, HonestDoor offers a free and simple way to search real estate valuations. It leverages real estate data, machine learning, science data, and a team of data analysts to provide estimated property valuations on homes. It also aggregates property taxes, transaction data, permit data, and neighbourhood growth rates, to provide an all-in-one resource for real estate information in Canada.
In a red-hot real estate market, the platform enables realtors and existing/potential homeowners to make more informed decisions based on trends, predictive metrics related to the rental market or resale shifts in neighbourhood valuations, permits requested for a property they are considering buying, home assessments, and more. It has a median error rate of 2.48% for listed properties and 7.55% for off-market real estate.
HonestDoor will soon provide this information for almost every property in Canada, and not just those listed for sale.
“In today’s hot real estate market, Canadians want a fast and easy way to find out the value of their homes. This is one of the many reasons why HonestDoor has become the most trusted resource for property valuations,” says Daniel Belostotsky, founder and CEO of HonestDoor. “With this injection of capital, we can build on our success to date. That means scaling our platform and fine tuning our data models to ensure that Canadians across the country have real estate valuations at their fingertips, backed by an unmatched degree of accuracy.”
Daniel Belostotsky (HonestDoor CEO) and Nicole Dong (HonestDoor COO). Image: HonestDoor
Currently, the platform HonestDoor available to those living in British Columbia, Alberta (where it also provides insights on commercial properties), and Manitoba.
According to a company-issued press release, HonestDoor will use the funds to scale its real estate platform to facilitate the on-demand delivery of automated valuation models (AVMs) on any property in Canada at a consistently high level of accuracy. The startup also plans to test its model in select markets south of the border.
“HonestDoor is the first of its kind real estate search engine to provide key data, facts, and price predictions on properties,” said David Nault, General Partner at Luge Capital. “The real estate market in Canada lacks a central resource for complete property data and price insights. HonestDoor’s comprehensive property and valuation reports are helping consumers, real estate agents, and lenders make better decisions.”
The proptech platform now receives more than 1M views each day and has received more than 30K user submissions to date on properties by homeowners, according to the company.
“In the same way as Canadians sign up to receive updates on their credit score through companies like Borrowell and Credit Karma, since January 2022 roughly 10,000 users have signed up to monitor their HonestDoor price,” explains Belostotsky. “We anticipate this number to increase substantially over time.”
In the fast-moving proptech world, HonestDoor is not the only Canadian company to offer online home valuations. Toronto-based tech-enabled real estate brokerage Properly has become a major player in the game as well; it raised $44M in July 2021, and has star power backing after partnering with celebrity real estate personalities the Property Brothers.
