When I read this, I see opportunities arising.
“Over one trillion dollars of commercial real estate loans will come due in the next few years.”
Sounds like a lot of money. No?
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/can-commercial-real-estate-ride-out-the-impending-storm-96485984.html
Sebastien
Interested observers know that the members of the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) voted in favor of expanding the rules surrounding the posting of properties on the MLS (mls.ca). At the same time, the CREA does not specify what will be the modalities involved. The Competition Tribunal of Canada remains not satisfied, so far – and continues its investigations and prosecution to see more radical changes in the rules surrounding this subject.
I firmly believe the key role of the agent in a property transaction. At the same time, I welcome the establishment of rules governing the profession (training increased, etc.) with the intent to increase the caliber of professional and also better protect the public, even if it means more barriers to entry.
Our perspective at Gooplex, as we are here to serve the real estate agents, we innovate in the way of presenting information in order to identify additional potential buyers and bring more transparency and greater volume of business in the market. For us, posting a property on Gooplex.com means being open to thinking outside the box to gain access to new customers.
We will follow with interest the coming months and quarters, and we will be quite active to better serve agents and investors.
Thank you for your support,
Sebastien
Creating awareness is a huge challenge. My academic and professional background most definitely helped me with that – but it remains such a challenge to create something from the ground up. Today, I believe that some strong field work – hands-on – is a powerful weapon to make a difference.
I chose to do a “soft launch” of Gooplex in December 2009. The soft lauch is a launch without making a formal announcement – without a “bang” effect. It allowed me to validate all the features of the site and manage the initial feedback received. In the last two weeks, I increased my efforts and my investments in marketing.
Time and money being limited, I must make choices. I chose to contact my business network and friends (many wearing both hats), a group of over 700 people. I updated my profile on LinkedIn and I am working on a corporate LinkedIn page. I became active on Twitter and I discovered a vibrant community of people passionate about real estate. Some U.S. real estate brokers already contacted last week – they wanted to better understand my service and my intentions. I also spent some time reading what is said on real estate forums and commented where it was relevant.
I also launched a press release on CNW (Canadian News Wire), an English and a French version, and I sent it as well to specialized business real estate medias. You can see that Report on Business posted the news, like dozens of other medias. An investment of $468. The press release was drafted by my friend Claude – a communication specialist – and then translated by a professional translator (Marie-Claude) for English ($30). The site traffic is increasing every day, and got interviewed live on TV, by a French Channel – Canal Argent (The Money Channel). For those bilingual readers, you can see the video in my links.
I also have other marketing activities that are coming up, but I’m listening and I accept all the tips and tricks.
Thank you for your support.
Sebastien
I started working on the Gooplex.com project in June 2009. Initially, I didn’t talk to anyone about it. I wanted to figure out what competitors were offering first, and confirm my initial feeling that a site dedicated to real estate – and more specifically income properties - would be a good idea.
I began to document the site goals and functions that we might find on it if launched. When it was time to select a development team that would build the website, I had prepared a PowerPoint presentation showing the navigation and sections that I wanted to see on my future site. I hired Marie-Josee – a Web expert in Montreal – so she could validate my Powerpoint and help me during the meetings and the selection process of my development partner. That was in July 2009.
I had prepared an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) and I asked the five teams that I met with to sign it before submitting my concept. It was important for me that it remained confidential until the site is online. They all accepted.
After choosing K3 Media for the development of my website (their website is in my links), I made sure to inform the other teams they had not been selected, and that I trusted them to keep my concept confidential until the site was online.
I chose not to speak openly of my site before December 2009 – while we were almost ready to put it online. At this time, only a few people who represent expert opinion on the subject and my very close ones knew what about what I working on.
In my opinion, you can’t claim for a confidential subject when you talk openly about it with 3-4 people for dinner or supper. I do not know if it’s having signed an NDA, but I met this fall with executives of some of the Web firms that I had not selected, and they all made sure we were alone before asking me: “So, your project, any movement? . I wanna thank them for acting this way. Thank you Pierre, Yan, Stephane, Normand and Simon.
The site will be launched in just a few more days. I’m getting excited.
Sebastien
That’s it – I’m starting a venture. In fact, I am launching another venture. This is my 3rd company. After FokusGroup Inc.. launched in 1997 and Komunik Corp.. in 2002, here I am with Gooplex.com in 2009.
I do not want my blog to primarily talk about real estate. I’d prefer it to talk about entrepreneurship and Business. My main guideline is this: Share the doubts, decisions and actions of an entrepreneur who’s managing a growing technology start-up.
How often? I do not know yet. My priority is to promote Gooplex.com so it is known and well appreciated by its users. At the same time, some presentations made to university students (at HEC Montreal and Queen’s University) in the recent years have helped me realize how stimulating entrepreneurship can still be. And it all starts with me. I am driven and passionate. Thank you for coming along!
