Two young Welsh property entrepreneurs have launched a new business, an online marketplace designed to disrupt the way in which property investors find and make decisions around investment opportunities.
Invesourced has been launched by Shane Williams, a property sourcing specialist, and Kelly Hopkins, a property investor, who met via a business transaction earlier this year. After comparing their experiences, they developed an idea Williams had been working on that they believe will revolutionize the sector. The business launches with four full-time staff from a headquarters in Caerphilly.
Invesourced is an online marketplace connecting property investors to property sourcers across the UK. It allows users to share their respective investment profiles and investment opportunities and ultimately connect to secure lucrative opportunities. It represents an efficient, streamlined solution for a market that is currently fragmented and sometimes unregulated.
Professional property sourcers specialize in finding properties (commercial or residential) that are either undervalued or where the valuation would be significantly uplifted by a renovation or a change of use. They will do the relevant calculations and package the opportunity to investors in return for a fee, usually a percentage of the purchase value.
For property investors, working with property sourcers can save a lot of time and facilitate access to deals and opportunities they would not otherwise see. However, the market is disjointed, the two sides often using WhatsApp Groups, social media groups or mailing lists to flag and discuss opportunities.
Invesourced aims to change that. The platform allows property sourcers to upload multiple deals, packaged ready for investors; these can then be viewed by multiple investors filtered by their investment appetite around price, risk, geographic region and type of property.
Invesourced will take a percentage of the property sourcer’s fee. Sourcers will need to be complaint, meaning they will have professional indemnity insurance, an ICO registration, Property Ombudsman or Property Redress Scheme membership and be compliant with anti-money laundering regulations. The company is developing a way to assist and work with non-compliant sourcers, which will partly involve mapping out a route to help them become compliant.
The company’s founders each represent one of the two sides of the business model. Williams is a self-taught property sourcer who has been operating independently until now. He met Hopkins when he sourced a deal for her. After discussing their respective frustrations with the market, they revisited an idea Williams had been working on and launched Invesourced.
Hopkins is an avid property investor who juggles this passion while currently being on maternity leave from her role as an accountant for the NHS.
Their aim now is to build the business into the go-to online marketplace for property investors and sourcers, making the market more efficient in the process.
Williams, founder and director of Invesourced, said:
“As a professional property sourcer, I have seen first-hand the frustrations and inefficiencies of this market. More than anything, I like helping people. That's why our goal is to make Invesourced, a one-stop property shop, not only advertising the best off-market deals, but also by incorporating a property professional directory and developing communities for both investors and sourcers to share tips and help each other.”
“I truly believe this idea has the potential to achieve that on a big scale. We have already seen strong interest from both investors and sourcers who understand the benefits and the time it will save them. I am excited to be launching this venture with Kelly and feel this will be the start of a much bigger journey for all of us.”
Hopkins, co-founder and director of Invesourced, added:
“We are very excited about this new venture, which we believe has the potential to disrupt but ultimately streamline the property investment market.
“As a property investor currently on maternity leave from my job as an accountant for the NHS, the opportunity arose to get involved in a company whose aim is to streamline the process of property investing. I have seen first-hand the way the market works currently, and I know this will improve the process significantly.
“I felt it was an opportunity too good to miss (albeit at a very busy time in my life). I am very excited to be partnering with Shane to create a possible market game change. We are very ambitious with three staff as well as Shane already working in our new premises. We are already seeing strong interest from both investors and sourcers but we believe this is just the start.”
