No more under-the-table deals, greasing palms, and paying more than you should, only to discover later that you got duped and were embarrassed to do anything about it. PropTech company Openn (ASX: OPN), through its private treaty platform Openn Offers, is attempting to enable fair market exchange between property buyers and sellers. In doing so, it is addressing some significant points for customers of other real estate portals. 

The Company has signed an agreement with online property research and listing portal OnTheHouse.com.au. OnTheHouse will integrate Openn Offers into its platform to allow agent-controlled transparency. Consumers browsing properties will be able to submit their offers online securely along with their preferred purchase terms via the availability of Openn Offers embedded within the portal.

Openn Negotiation CEO Sean Adomeit commented, “It’s extremely satisfying for Openn to advance our relationship with CoreLogic towards substantive commercial and revenue benefits. We anticipate that the partnership with OnTheHouse will provide a great benefit to our penetration within the ANZ property market and stands to vastly improve the transparency landscape for buyers, sellers and agents.”

Openn is an Australian property technology company offering a proprietary cloud-based software platform to support real estate agents selling property online with improved transparency. The deal with OnTheHouse comes as CoreLogic, the parent company of OTH, has received customer requests for greater convenience and transparency during property negotiations.

General Manager Real Estate Solutions for CoreLogic, Dirk Miller, said, “OnTheHouse visitors told us that missing price/value information, along with general bidding, negotiation and competition pressures, are the most frustrating parts of the buying process. Openn Offers with OnTheHouse is an innovative partnership that helps solve this pain point and enhances the home buying and selling process for our agents, vendors and consumers.”

The partnership with OnTheHouse and CoreLogic complements Openn’s recent commercial alignments with Southeast Asian online real estate platform Digital Classified Group and the Canadian Real Estate Association, providing Openn with low-cost, high-impact global market entry opportunities. 

Miller added, “We are focused on providing the real estate industry with innovative solutions that enhance the property ecosystem. This integration is another step towards this, providing an additional selling tool in the kit for savvy agents adopting and leveraging technology to enhance their sales results.”

Openn Offers lets buyers see valuable insights into the level of interest and competition on a property, such as the number of interested buyers and the highest offer to date. Buyers, agents and vendors get the added convenience available through Openn’s sale methods of automated digital contracts and electronic signing.

Like most Aussie real estate businesses recently, Openn suffered quite a blow in FY23 as listings fell and interest rates boomed. It suffered a loss of $13 million against a revenue of $623k; it was suspended from the ASX and had to undertake a leadership change. It had to look into cost-cutting measures and other tech advances entering FY24.

In Q1 FY24, Openn reported sales revenue of $142k against overall operating costs of over $1 million. Its rationalised staffing levels and operating expenses are estimated to reduce the Group’s average monthly net outflows to approximately $300k for Q2 FY24. 

With new partnerships and global expansions, will Openn be able to close the door to the ghosts of its past?