For this Homegrown business feature we spoke with Khushboo Jha, founder and CEO of Toronto based real estate investment company BuyProperly.
What is your business called and what does it do?
BuyProperly is a Toronto-based, AI-driven platform that enables Canadians to invest in real estate for as little as $2,500 and in less than 7 minutes using the concept of fractional ownership. BuyProperly allows individuals to grow their wealth without the upfront costs and traditional hassles of property ownership and management.
What made you want to do this work?
When I was working with Amazon, I was struggling to invest in real estate due to high upfront costs and inefficient processes. Plus, the experience of dealing with the real estate investing process was not friendly at all. This made me search for solutions, but I could not find options that allowed me to enter real estate the way you can invest in stocks, i.e. being able to enter small amounts of savings.
What problem did you want to solve with the business?
The average home price in Canada is $700K+, while nearly 70% of Canadian earn less than $100K. Average Canadians are completely priced out of real estate.
Not only is getting in the real estate market economically difficult, but the process is also complex and intimidating – and it shouldn’t be. With BuyProperly’s platform, real estate investing is as easy as buying books online on Amazon. By using Artificial Intelligence, the investing process is smooth, effective, and fast, enabling us to bring phenomenal deals with high potential returns.
Who are your clientele/demographics?
Our primary customer segments are average Canadians. We have a lot of Millenials and GenZ customers who are struggling to invest and are often intimidated by the whole process. We help them invest in real estate and grow their wealth rather than sitting on the sidelines.
How does your business make money? How does it work?
BuyProperly charges an annual fee for managing the process behind the scenes, from finding properties to managing operations, and for eventually facilitating exit through sale.
Users can simply create a profile on the BuyProperly website, an automatic approval process takes place, and the user can then browse the dashboard featuring individually vetted properties with clear details of fees, charges, risk and projected returns. Using AI, BuyProperly identifies properties that will provide investors the highest returns. All heavy lifting is done on BuyProperly’s side: our team manages the property and tenants, and keeps investors updated on the performance of the investment.
Where in Toronto can we find your profession?
We are a digital platform – everything can be done completely online. You can find us at www.buyproperly.ca. Our physical office is at 10 Dundas Square in Toronto.
What is the best question a prospective customer could ask a member of your profession when comparing services? Give the answer as well.
The best question a client could ask is, “how do you source your deals?” We leverage both technology and the human touch to source our deals. All our deals go through rigorous analysis and estimation with our AI model, followed by on ground physical checks and inspection to ensure we only bring the best deals to the customer. Less than 1% of the deals we analyze actually gets to the platform.
What is the best part about what you do? What is the most challenging part?
The best part is when we hear from our customers about how we have helped them make their first real estate investment, and how they will soon complete their second, third and fourth. This positive feedback makes it worth all the hard work. The most challenging part is making sure that we are raising the bar on deals, data security, and every aspect of the user experience with the small team we have.
What is your favourite joke about your own profession?
“We are the Tesla of real estate investing.” BuyProperly has a shiny customer experience coupled with tons of tech innovation under the hood. We are PropTech on the surface, but behind the scenes, we are also an AI engine, LegalTech and FinTech.
PAY IT FORWARD: What is another Toronto business that you love?
I love housesigma – I think they are doing a phenomenal job on the online brokerage side helping people make data driven decisions.
