Properji.com is a combined initiative of Ivy League and IIM professionals, with the motive to infuse transparency and professionalism in Property transactions. After re-locating from Bay Area, California, it was a bit cumbersome for Priya Maheshwari to buy a house in Bangalore. She browsed many online property websites but in vain. The discomfort she felt, encouraged her to launch an online platform that can ease property transactions. She collaborated with IIM alumni’s – Guruprasad Bangle and Naveen Galithoti in beginning of 2013 and launched Properji.com in August 2013.
Properji.com gives its user, a fact-based independent research on properties and brokers . It also provides complete fraud coverage and a buy-back guarantee. It provides proper reviews of Builders and localities. Also, a complete review of the construction quality is available on the website. The user can easily compare prices of various localities. The option of forecasting returns from property is also available.
Properji.com has garnered 700 users so far. It has helped in execution of deals worth Rs. 20 crore.
Priya, Guru and Naveen( L to R)
Priya Maheshwari is an alumnus of University of Pennsylvania where she completed her Masters in Environmental studies. Priya led client relationships and business development at Tata Group and controlled the environment-related research at Black & Veatch in US. Guru is an alumnus of the IIM Bangalore and his family is in real estate sector from 15 years. He brings domain knowledge for Properji. Naveen Galithoti is an MBA from IIM Lucknow and holds B. Tech. from JNTU. He co-founded the education startup eDreams Edusoft.
Properji.com compiles market information from various sources and does on-ground research to ensure a great deal at any given point in time. It negotiates volume discounts from the builders, which an individual buyer cannot do. Properji provides assistance based on the budget, risk profile and preference of the customer. It also provides guidance for agreement signing, home loan and associated formalities. Properji conducts a customized primary research in relation to a specific property that interests the customer. It addresses frequent questions such as – Am I paying the right price? Is the builder good? Is this a good locality to invest? What return on investment can I expect? What is the legal status of this project?
Marketing plans for the team rely on research reports of properties; they went viral among various users. Sign-up’s have been surging since then. Paid search, organic search, social media channels and offline activities are also used by Properji.com for marketing.
“We rate builders based on qualitative and quantitative data we have collected. We rate them based on their experience, ongoing projects, completed projects, quality, financial strengths and brand value”, says Priya Maheshwari.
Properji takes a pro-buyer approach, and we wonder if this has made builders resist against the research reports the startup has been providing. “Pro-buyer approach has made builders more open to us. They are willing to share their data more openly with us. It is good that builders are doing it because it helps them as well. Also, when we have more data from them we are able to rate them more accurately”, says Priya.
The research, technology and advisory team of Properji is enhanced everyday to scale its reach to other cities. ” We want to add value to our research and advisory so that we can give our customers value for their money. We want to build strong research team by hiring legal, architects, civil engineer”, says Priya Maheshwari.
TTP’s Take on Properji
It’s often frustrating when the property we seek eludes us. Proper builder and locality ratings available on the website show that Properji is on the right track. It remains to be seen, how the start-up will manage to convince the brokers. We wish Properji Team all the very best!
