Discount online brokerage and for-sale-by-owner facilitator Savvy Lane has received $2 million in funding to fortify operations earlier this month.
The Seattle-based company said in a press release that the funds will be used to “further scale operations, build out its buyer and seller support team and extend its multistate sales effort.”
Launched in 2015, Savvy Lane uses a proprietary platform to communicate between agents and consumers and expedite transaction information and administrative tasks. This is what allows Savvy Lane to keep costs low, and thus, leverage lower deal fees.
The company charges sellers a 1 percent listing fee at closing.
Rather than being a “no-agent brokerage,” it uses a small team of local agents via phone and web communications to help customers.
Communicating with Inman via text, Savvy Lane Co-Founder and CEO Andrew Miklos said agents are full-time contractors, like any other brokerage.
“We keep our agent count small so we can keep them busy throughout the year. We leverage our technology to make them work faster, smarter and more efficiently. This makes [our] model less labor intensive [than] our competitors,” he said.
Miklos said he has a dozen agents on staff, covering Western Washington. The company’s DIY platform has grown into Northern Oregon and Northern California, and recruiting is active for agents in both of those states, as well.
The company offers al-a-carte marketing services, such as photography, flyers, signage and virtual tours, and it provides an MLS listing service for sellers wanting to enter the market without an agent, aka for-sale-by-owners (FSBOs).
The press release states the company has tripled growth in the four years since inception.
“The market is armed with more data, more digital tools and more insight than ever before,” Miklos said. “And still, the transaction experience has effectively remained, ‘one-size-fits-all.’ We change that.”
The company has stated expectations to triple its staff within the next year, citing the market’s continued need for alternatives to traditional real estate models.
“We plan to expand the platform to Southern California this year and start recruiting there as well,” Miklos said.
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