Real estate such as condominium is definitely one of the most expensive shopping in my life. However, from the point of view of consumers, the transaction seems to be uncertain in many cases. It is the application "Cowl" developed by House Mart that wants to overcome this current situation. It estimates the price of second-hand condominium from 5000 variables and brings transparency to the purchase of real estate. The origin of the service is a child's experience of relocating. The ultimate goal is the real estate version of the stock exchanges. I interviewed Mr. Hayama, representative of House Mart.

From the perspective of purchasers, real estate transactions are uncertain

In recent years, demand for condominiums has increased in Japan, especially in the metropolitan area, and its price has been rising. This seems to be caused by the reduction of land that can set up an apartment, the increase in construction expenses due to the Olympic and Paralympic Games holding, and the entry of the hotel industry due to the rising inbound demand. Because there are few new land, newly built condominiums are far from the station, and there are many things that can be done in some inconvenient places.

On the other hand, recently it seems that the demand for second - hand condominiums is higher than new ones, as the popularity of adjoining workers has increased and the resistance to reusable property has gone away. If it is second-hand condom, even if renovation is done, it may be cheaper by about 20 million yen than new construction, and that is one of the charms.

However, with the composition of the real estate industry in the past, the current situation is that the information volume of buyers is overwhelmingly small. This time we will introduce "Housmart (House Mart) provided by"Second-hand apartment purchase service · Cowl"Is a startup that brings transparency into the world of second-hand condominium purchasing, and is fighting hard to make a world that everyone is satisfied with buying apartments.

The reason for the overwhelming amount of information is because other companies' properties are also posted

Cowl is a service that you can easily purchase used condominiums on the applicationis. When you open an application, second-hand condominiums are lined up like real estate portal, but its characteristics are to suggest properties that match customer's wishes one by one without distinction between own property and other company's property.

When looking for real estate, it is common to see the real estate portal site. These real estate portal sites received requests from various real estate companies and posted properties of the company. When the customer inquires about the property, the personal information of the customer jumped to the real estate company that posted the property, and the real estate company contacted the customer.

Since any company wants to sell their properties, it is not the best property for the customer but we recommend the property of the company.

Meanwhile, in Cowl, we have created a mechanism to propose on the application an optimal property for customers without distinguishing between their own properties and other companies' properties. If you are in the position of purchasing an apartment, the probability that you can find the one that suits yourself increases if you have more choices. So we are proposing not only our own properties but also properties of other companies in Cowl.

The mechanism of cowl is that it recommends the recommended property as you enter the desired conditions such as budget, room plan etc. on the application and tells the estimated amount.

Estimated amount will tell us not only the funds needed to buy an apartment, but also the running cost after purchase. Besides mortgage, we also calculate all kinds of costs, such as taxes and reserve funds, so I bought it with momentum but life is difficult than I thought! It seems to prevent the situation. By the way, it is not uncommon for second-hand condomes to change the price by several million yen in the number of floors and direction.

Speaking of a real estate company, there are images that seem to be a bit somewhat persistent when inquiring once, and there is also a problem that the property to be introduced depends on the company or salesperson. Since IT is not advanced more than anything, we can not handle things that should be done with smartphones without going to the store.

In Cowl basically it does not act like a teleappo, and it is a mechanism to search for property as much as possible by cowl's application as much as possible. It is an overwhelmingly convenient mechanism for those who are busy or who prefer shopping using smartphones or applications.

Estimated apartment price from 5000 variables

Hayamayama, representative of House Mart, says that artificial intelligence is active on the back side of the cowl.

Artificial intelligence itself is no longer commoditized. What is important is the quality and quantity of the input data and feedback to the output. Haus Mart enjoys a lot of real estate people, using the knowledge of the industry to fully train artificial intelligence seriously so that UX of service rises seriously.

Housmart Representative Director Masayuki Hayama (Masayuki Hariyama)

I study economics at Hitotsubashi University. After graduating from university, he is a major real estate company and is responsible for real estate brokerage, land purchase and housing planning. I am willing to change the custom and mechanism of the real estate industry where the interests of customers were ignored.
In 2011 joined Rakuten Co., Ltd. Consulting based on know-how of the latest marketing · big data · internet business to major companies.
September 2014 Established Housmart Co., Ltd., assumed office as Representative Director and President and will operate the smartphone application "Cowl".
Book "Used condominium really tricky way to buy · How to choose" ranked first in Amazon ranking · best seller (apartment category). In addition to executing Housmart's management, he also conducts activities as a condominium specialist, including appearances on television and magazines.

In the cowl, we plan to estimate the apartment price by inputting to the artificial intelligence the layout, the sun, the distance from the station etc, but how many variables are there 5000 kinds. Even from the same station it seems that the type is different in 10 minutes in Yokosuka and 10 minutes in Aoyama from the author (local author). In addition, it seems that the price of condominiums will be different depending on developers and enforcement agencies, so it seems that it will become as many as 5000 kinds of variables by accumulating these.

Cowl's main user is in their thirties, and there are many people who purchase apartments for the first time at the timing when marriage and children were born. There are also people who have IT literacy, such as those who work for IT companies and consultants, because they are deployed with applications. Because it is a high-priced purchase of buying an apartment, I think that I will choose carefully at home, recently there are many users watching the property with applications during commuting or lunch break.

In the cowl you do not get a commission from the seller

A general real estate brokerage company often receives commission income from both the seller and the buyer (about 3% each of which is an intermediary between two hands). However, in Cowl, there are many cases in which only the fee income from the buyer is received.

Although details will be omitted, there is a possibility that the two-handed mediation does not necessarily take the profit of the client (either the seller or the buyer). The other cowl is a service made so that consumers will not fail to select second-hand condominiums. So, we only receive a commission from the buyer, instead of thinking of the buyer as the top priority.

But then, does not profit simply halve?

In Cowl, we replace mostly with technology except for directing customers to the apartment directly, and thoroughly cut labor costs.

In general real estate brokerage firms, personnel expenses account for most of the cost. However, of this personnel expenses, it is about 10% of the total that actually informs the customer of the property. So what we are doing at other times is said to be poster handouts and business phones.

In Cowl, all these behaviors are replaced by applications and Own Media. Then the sales person's labor cost burden will be lighter, so even if you only receive a commission from the buyer, it will become a constitution that gives profits as a whole.

I was interested in real estate because I thought "You can not get angry even if you jump up"

Mr. Kishiyama founded House Mart and operated the cowl when he was in his young age.

My parents' house was really boring. When you fly or bounce, you get angry not only from the bottom but also from the upper floor (laugh). However, when I was a primary school student, I bought a used condom and moved. Then you can jump or bounce it (oh haha). From there I began to be interested in real estate.

Mr. Hayama (Representative Director of House Mart) (left) and the author (right)

Himiyama who was interested in real estate, got a job at an old-fashioned real estate company. However, I do business that I do not want to receive, and there is information that I do not disclose in order not to distract customers. Mr. Kishiyama thought that this industry, which has priority on spirit and guts, will change if there is IT, after establishing IT skills at Rakuten, founded House Mart in 2014.

Purchasing real estate not limited to pre-owned condominiums is the tallest shopping in my life. Nonetheless, there are no reviews or reviews on other shopping, and the quality of the service of real estate companies is not expensive. From the price, it should not be strange that you received treatment like luxury hotels. From the desire to make the real estate industry better, we founded a house mart.

Some of the members who join House Mart say some people have had a bad feeling when buying a second - hand condominium. It seems that members are consolidating the idea that they have a problem consciousness in the industry and want to eliminate negative aspects.

Asking members for "hot spring power"

A member of Cowl who has a problem consciousness in the second-hand condominium industry. The adoption criterion is "hot spring power".

When you enter the hot springs you will be fine and shine. Human mart thinks that people are the same, and it is good people to be able to give others energy. Especially in a venture, it is important to think that it is fun to talk with this person.

Not limited to venture companies, what is emphasized in recent recruitment markets is so-called communication skills. Perhaps it is similar to hot spring power, but it was impressive that he said "I can speak well, there are people who make others warm even if I do not understand what you are saying" .

House Mart's development team where conversation is uninterrupted

Cowl aims for "real estate version stock exchange"

Finally, I caught the future of Cowl. The answer is "stock exchange of real estate transaction".

For example, anyone can quickly find out if Rakuten's stock price is examined on the net, and you should not gain profits with insider information. It is natural on the stock market, but it is not so in real estate transactions. We do not know the proper amount of real estate, and the buyer is not fully disclosing real estate information. It is real estate which is the tallest shopping in my life, but this situation is obviously detracting from the convenience of consumers. Cowl is the first step of service to overcome this situation, and House Mart will continue to address this fair and challenging issue.

Cowl trying to improve the user experience by introducing transparency and IT into second-hand condominium market with various problems. It may be a difficult task for the startup to challenge, but just as a huge market, the influence when you can achieve it is immeasurable. I would like you to invest a single stone in the future real estate market!

The contents of the interview are also distributed by podcast

Interview contents are distributed with podcast. Since information is more packed than the text, those who are interested please try listening here as well.