PropTech for Realtors: Commission-Free Listings, MLS Integrations & Rental Search | Rooster Listing

Imara Dharmakirthi (00:00)

their properties. So anything goes to them, it goes to them. We don’t care. All we care is like they’re getting like the views that they deserve.

Dylan Silver (01:44)

Hey, folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest is a tech entrepreneur in the real estate space whose platform Rooster Listing is doing a lot of innovative things in the real estate space. Please welcome Imara Dharmakirthi. Imara welcome to the show.

Imara Dharmakirthi (02:00)

Thank you very much, for having me. I’m very excited to turn it up.

Dylan Silver (02:02)

Absolutely, it’s early

over there, Amarai. You’re in California, are you Pacific right now?

Imara Dharmakirthi (02:08)

Yeah, I’m in California, close to San Francisco Silicon Valley area. yeah, this is the Tech Hub area. ⁓

Dylan Silver (02:22)

I always like to start the show, Amara, by asking guests how they got into the real estate space.

Imara Dharmakirthi (02:28)

Yeah, I mean the real estate I kind of got into because I saw that some platforms like taking kind of advantage from real estate agents because every transaction they pay commissions and then it’s getting really complicated ⁓ and then also like it’s so hard to like

to keep up with the system and then because if you sell a house every time you had to pay commission for the real estate platform and then also the platforms don’t show like lots of properties out there and then you don’t get like so much views for the agents so I decided to ⁓ so I mean I came from a IT background I have a software engineering background so I decided to like okay you know what this is a time to like ⁓ invent like ⁓

platform and then platform that works for real estate agents. I wanted to empower real estate agents to do like take over their business, know, rather than just working for another platform or something.

So we are like a hundred percent commission free platform. So when agent put their properties or listings into our platform and then all the leads goes into these agents

we don’t really track them. It’s their leads and then it’s their properties. So anything goes to them, it goes to them. We don’t care. All we care is like they’re getting like the views that they deserve. That’s all we do.

Dylan Silver (04:12)

want to ask

you

the ⁓ idea of creating a commission free real estate platform. So I’m an agent in Texas, but really right now my focus is on media. I’m also focused on networking with investors prior to becoming an agent. I’m a baby agent. This is my first year. I worked a lot in the distress based foreclosures, pre foreclosures, know, divorce debts in the family, probate issues, this type of thing. I want to ask you about the idea of creating a commission

free platform and break this down for us because I think when most people think about real estate agents on the outside looking in, they’re unaware of how much the agents are paying to their brokers, to various platforms. Break this down for us.

Imara Dharmakirthi (05:44)

Yeah, I mean, so the idea behind it is like very simple to be honest, kind of like a Facebook, right? I got the actual idea from the Facebook. So I see that agents are posting their properties on Facebook. And then I thought like, okay, why don’t we have a platform just for the real estate?

and then they put their properties on there and then they gave the views. unlike other platforms, when you put it there, we work with the MLS too. We have a few MLSs are working with us. They’re feeding us data. But also we allow agents to put their own properties. So if you are in Texas, we don’t do Texas right now with the MLS, but if you’re in Texas, you can put your properties on our site.

you can go to our site right now and then you can put your properties no issues.

Dylan Silver (06:35)

interesting.

I want to ask you

about how the individual agents are utilizing rooster listing. also, too, when you mentioned empowering the individual agent, I think a lot of these tools, I would say in general in the real estate space, are geared towards identifying brokers and how can brokers benefit. And then it kind of trickles down to the individual agent. Is that?

Your strategy as well to hey, let’s get the brokerages on board or our individual agents as well signing up to use rooster listing

Imara Dharmakirthi (07:11)

I think that’s a great question. think the both, be honest, the brokers are playing a big role in real estate, So agents work for brokers and then brokers have the most of the listings. So brokers, we allow brokers to put their properties as well.

We allow brokers to put their properties. Some of the brokers, they work for themselves, right? They kind of act like an agent and then they’re all broker too. So they can put their properties as well. So we kind of allow everyone. If you have a real estate agent license, then you can put your properties on our site.

Dylan Silver (07:51)

I want to ask you about some of the features that I’m seeing and I’m exploring the website as we’re talking right now. ⁓ It’s interesting that the ability to rent versus list the home for sale. think it’s very intentional that you’re doing this because when I look at some other platforms rent can kind of be hidden in there. Did you intentionally identify that hey we need to have the ability for folks to quickly find rentals on here as well.

Imara Dharmakirthi (08:10)

Yeah.

Yeah, definitely. I mean, the idea behind that was like, okay, you know what?

how can we ⁓ give a full access to like ⁓ the people who’s looking for houses, not just for people who buying houses, right? We need to feed the people who looking for rentals too. ⁓ this is like, ⁓ I wanted to build this one as a one platform that for any housing needs kind of thing. So future I’m going to like add more like

how to get loan like a house loan or something and then how to get the insurance so I’m working with the insurance company so we can set up like some format that like ⁓ when people when a homebuyer or potential renter like come to our site find a property they can purchase the insurance right away from us so that is the idea behind

Dylan Silver (08:51)

Yeah.

I

I want to ask you about areas. So you’re based in San Francisco area, you’re in California. I imagine a lot of realtors brokers that you’ve interacted with are out there. I’m also seeing some agents in Texas on here as well. As a tech entrepreneur in the real estate space, building your business and expanding.

Are you looking at, well, let me get my backyard first. Let me make sure that every agent in San Francisco, the greater, brokers in San Francisco know about rooster listing and then let’s expand. Or are you looking at, you know what, we’re in California, but let’s also take a look at Texas as well. What’s your strategy for growth?

Imara Dharmakirthi (10:23)

Yeah, mean, ⁓ yeah, like you said, ⁓ getting the back-cat already is more ⁓ easier compared to like going into other areas. ⁓ So eventually we wanted to like how a whole United States. But right now what we are focusing is like the California base, like Los Angeles to ⁓ all the way to Sacramento. ⁓

areas if you can get that area then I’m gonna go into like the Texas Oregon Washington state that is a plan like expanding more and more kind of thing as we go so definitely getting a back like asset at entrepreneur I think it’s most more important that you are establishing in a one area and then after that once you establish you expand

Dylan Silver (11:15)

I want to ask you a granular question and forgive me for some level of ignorance here. ⁓ When you talk about commission free listings, can you help our audience and me understand what are some of the fees that people may be paying when they’re listing on another platform?

Imara Dharmakirthi (11:32)

So yeah, so for example, I don’t want to say their names, ⁓ so some platforms, what they do, they…

If you like for example if your real estate agent use you put your properties out there and then you sell it right and then what’s going to happen it’s free to put your properties on their platform but once you sell it they know exactly where the lead came from so if that lead came from their platform then they’re going to say like okay we need a percentage from your commission like you know like from your commission so that is how they get you so we don’t do that

Dylan Silver (12:07)

Wow. Yeah.

Imara Dharmakirthi (12:12)

We only take a subscription fee and then whether you like we don’t care how much money that you listed for, ⁓ how much it sell it for and we don’t care about those things we just we just allow you to like

openly work as your own platform to be honest it’s just a fee that we just charge to maintain the site and then ⁓ it’s after that it’s your listing and then ⁓ you get your own leads that’s it

Dylan Silver (12:46)

Interesting. I want to pivot a bit here, Emara, and ask you a question, a tech question about integrating with the various MLSs across a state. I’m a Texas licensed agent, so I know that to get on every MLS is a process and it’s tedious. And so I’m scrolling through here and you’ve got properties all across California. When you were integrating with each individual MLS, I’m imagining this was tricky, but also getting it to display in a way where

It’s good UI and also fitting with your ultimate goal, which is to empower the individual agent. ⁓ Without giving away the secret sauce here, when you were integrating with each MLS, was it a one at a time thing or did you say, we’re gonna integrate with every MLS in California simultaneously?

Imara Dharmakirthi (13:33)

No, yeah, mean that is like the one of the challenging thing ⁓ in this process to get involved with the MLS listing. ⁓ They are very… ⁓

When you are like a new site or new company, they tend to like have some rules and like, you know, they always have rules, but it just like, it’s a little bit tough like to get involved with them. They don’t even, to be honest, I was emailing everyone like, hey, can you, can we work together? Like I’m willing to like, you know, like to obey and then pay your fees and then get your email.

Dylan Silver (14:01)

Yeah.

Imara Dharmakirthi (14:16)

listings

kind of thing and then it took a while it took almost a year to like get to what we need to kind of thing ⁓ and then it was definitely not at all like everything didn’t come like at once ⁓ it was like one by one one MLS came and then after that another MLS came so when they see like okay you have properties you’re serious and then then they’re gonna get involved anymore kind of thing

So that is what we did it and then that is what we are planning to do in the future too. We are gonna get more and more MLS listings and then get more feedings as much as we can.

Dylan Silver (15:36)

I want to ask you, I’m on the website right now and I’m noticing, this is a differentiator for me, is all of the photos up here seem to be great photos? Do you use some type of quality control to ensure that listings that are dilapidated or listings that have poor photos are not being shown on the main page?

Imara Dharmakirthi (15:53)

⁓ To be honest, I’m sorry, ⁓ actually we don’t do any control on the images. Those images come from MLS listing and as it comes we just show it kind of thing. ⁓ Yeah, mean it’s absolutely really good like most of the pictures it comes. ⁓ Listing agents, they do a great job like taking pictures and then putting out there. Yeah.

Dylan Silver (16:07)

California real estate. Yeah.

Great job.

Imara Dharmakirthi (16:23)

meaning.

Dylan Silver (16:23)

I want

to follow up to that question. And this is actually a regional question based on California real estate versus what I’m familiar with, which is Texas. You will see in Texas distressed properties on the MLS and then therefore you might be looking there might be two photos. California in general, higher price point, different clientele. Some of these areas I’m very familiar with. So Cal had lots of guests on the show and so Cal right. Average price of a home is probably double, in some cases triple what it is.

in Texas, do you generally see agents having to put forth a greater degree of effort in these areas because the competition is higher, because the price point is higher, they’ve got to have higher quality photos, they’ve got to have a generally better presentation?

Imara Dharmakirthi (17:06)

Yeah, I think definitely. ⁓ I mean, compared to any state, I California is being like one of the toughest and then most expensive housing. like it’s very tough for like agents to compete even to like.

Dylan Silver (17:22)

Yeah.

Imara Dharmakirthi (17:22)

get

to like some properties so I have met like some agents they’re putting so much effort like staging and then putting so much money to like to get those pictures and then make make sure that it’s ready to like ⁓ to sell kind of state ⁓ and then it’s very tough like every agent is fighting right now the house price is very high ⁓

at the moment. The demand is high too actually. So yeah, it’s actually pretty interesting in California how the market is behaving right now.

Dylan Silver (17:54)

It is.

You know, I’m very impressed by the platform. I’ve been browsing and talking to you here. I’ve been going through the different parts of it. Home, property, rent, agent, very impressed by what you’ve built over here. Imara, where can folks go if they’d like to learn more about Roosterlisting? If they’re an agent themselves they’d like to get on. How can folks maybe reach out to your company or reach out to you directly?

Imara Dharmakirthi (18:26)

I think emailing is the best way to do it. email support at roosterlisting.com ⁓ and then we have 24×7 people answering emails. ⁓ Calls right now we don’t take calls that much but email is the best way to do it. Support at rooseterlisting.com and also like our website has lots of information. ⁓ We are maintaining a blog site so all the news are there. ⁓

And then also we do like every week. ⁓

email marketing campaigns. So if you list your properties there is a chance that all that emails goes to like people who’s looking for buying houses. We are not only promoting our site in California, actually we are promoting in internationally too like ⁓ we have a Dubai like big market so we are actually promoting there because in Dubai there are like lots of people looking for buying houses in USA.

Dylan Silver (19:22)

Wow.

Imara Dharmakirthi (19:28)

as an investment so we promoting there as well. So yeah, I mean I’m so excited to like move forward into like Texas and then we’ll see like whether we can get you inside our site as well.

Dylan Silver (19:44)

That’s right.

Imara thank you so much for coming on the show here today.

Imara Dharmakirthi (19:48)

Thank you very much. for having me.