With U.S. home sales climbing to their highest level in 8 years this June – it’s said to be a seller’s market. While this is good news if you plan to sell, the joy you’re currently experiencing will disappear faster than an Atlanta team in the playoffs once you begin dealing with an agent. A New York-based startup is looking to eliminate the cost and need for an agent and their first market is Atlanta.
Virgent Realty, makes home selling simple by walking consumers through the process of understanding the value of their home, listing their property, negotiating offers, and finalizing the closing; no agent necessary. We recently chatted with the company’s founder to learn more about the company and his decision to choose Atlanta as its first market.
Founded in January 2015, Ben Kubic (CEO) started Virgent Realty while attending Harvard Business School and launched and refined its platform with 25 year Atlanta real estate veteran, Jude Rasmus (Head of Real Estate). “Our technology platform helps us bridge the consumer to a simpler and more transparent way of selling a home,” explains Kubic. “We charge a simple flat fee of $5,000 and homeowners only pay us if we help them sell their home. Our whole process is designed around the preferences of the homeowner – they can communicate with our agents and use our automated tools entirely online, if they choose, or they can call us if it’s easier. Since the process is online, we can move as fast as the homeowner wants; if they want to schedule our professional photographer or manage their offers at 3am, they can do so with ease.” Their laundry list of exclusive features just got a bit larger. Virgent recently launched the ability for homeowners in the Atlanta area to get a home valuation via text message, just by texting their full address to (404) 800-6438.
“Our main competition is the traditional agent. Many agents still rely on physical paperwork, in person meetings, and phone calls to serve their clients, all of which require a lot of involvement of the homeowner. Likewise, traditional agents charge a high percentage commission for their services (typically 3% for a listing agent),” he continues. “I got the idea for Virgent Realty when some of my friends were lamenting at how expensive and inefficient they felt their brokers were. They felt the process of selling their home should have been simple, but instead it was very opaque. I realized that if I could create a simple user experience and automate the standardized parts of the process, I could serve a very large volume of homeowners but still give them a great experience.”
Ben Kubic, CEO & Founder of Virgent Realty
Kubic founded his first company as a sophomore at the University of Maryland to serve the educational needs of lower-income students in the surrounding area and sold it 5 years later. As a strategy consultant for Deloitte, he advised Fortune 500 companies in industries varying from frozen foods to healthcare and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. Head of Real Estate, Jude Rasmus, has been responsible for acquisition and disposition of over 20,000 residential assets and $2 billion in sales in the Atlanta MSA and the Southeast. She has been consistently recognized as a top three volume broker in Wall Street Journal’s, The Thousand. Jude is also a member of the Young Presidents Organization and World Presidents’ Organization.
Funded by Rough Draft Ventures, a fund focused on students from Boston-area universities, the Virgent Realty team aims to disrupt the real estate status quo nationwide, starting from Georgia’s capital. “Atlanta is our first market, and so far we’ve had great success,” says Kubic. “Jude and our team of agents are based in Atlanta and collectively have over 50 years experience serving clients in the Atlanta area.”
Follow Virgent Realty on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/virgentrealty
Twitter: https://twitter.com/VirgentRealty
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/virgent-realty
