Hyyve Inc. is a Toronto-based proptech company planning to disrupt the property listings sector by having agents bid to represent homeowners.

The online Hyyve platform serves as a marketplace for homeowners to have real estate agents compete for the opportunity to sell a property by displaying their expertise, experience and the services they offer including perks such as home staging. The homeowner receives an upfront payment from the chosen agent as a bonus.

“I always thought that the real estate model hadn’t changed much,” Armstrong, Hyyve’s CEO, told RENX Homes in an interview. “So I was always looking for ways to ‘How can we disrupt this traditional residential real estate model and make a difference?’ ”

Armstrong and COO Kirstin Thomas, who have founded technology companies prior to Hyyve including smart locker company Snaile, are aspiring to shake-up the Canadian real estate industry with Hyyve in the same way Uber disrupted the taxi sector. The Silicon Valley-style transformation is a shift that homeowners and agents will favour, Armstrong believes.

Currently serving Toronto with hundreds of agents on its platform, his ambition is to see the company grow nationwide and address the entire real estate value chain. To achieve this, Hyyve is building up an advisory board of industry leaders.

Turning a home listing into a bidding war

To place bids on Hyyve, agents must subscribe to its service with a monthly fee that will fluctuate based on market activity. When a homeowner puts their property’s details on the platform, Hyyve will notify local agents a home is open for bids. Agents will have 48 hours to review information before the bidding takes place.

The bidding process and upfront fee to the homeowner ensures agents will vie for a listing, so agents must “show more value on the complete package” and demonstrate their credentials, Armstrong said.

Listings are currently not much of a marketplace, he contended, as in most cases a homeowner is connected to an agent through referrals or ads. Hyyve aims to introduce more free market dynamism to listings, so the most qualified agents can be found.

The successful agent will pay a fee to the homeowner up to 0.65 per cent of the home’s value, and both parties will sign a listing agreement. Hyyve will hold the bid funds in escrow until the agent completes an in-person walk-through to confirm the legitimacy of the transaction.

The more transactions happen in an area, the higher the subscription fees will be, and vice versa. Hyyve will take a commission from successful bids.

The average homeowners on Hyyve will be in their mid-30s, many of them selling their starter homes, Armstrong expects.

Though it may sound like agents are getting the short end of the stick by having to put in additional work and pony up a fee, Hyyve’s research and feedback has found a positive response, Armstrong said.

Agents liked the service because “it’s really the first place where they can actually get their hands on listings,” Armstrong said.

Referrals are how most agents find home sellers, but if one lacks the connections, business is likely going to be tight, he added. Newer agents have the chance to prove themselves on Hyyve and break into an industry that tends to favour incumbents.

There is also more confidence from the agents they will get a conversion, as people who list their home are almost certainly looking to sell.

Homeowners have told Hyyve they are amenable to its service because the agents have skin in the game through the fee.

Hyyve’s growth plan

Agents from major brokerages RE/MAX, Royal LePage, Century 21, eXp Realty, Sutton and Harvey Kalles have signed up for Hyyve since its November soft launch, Armstrong said.

The company is starting in Toronto because it is the biggest housing market in Canada and Hyyve is headquartered in the city, Armstrong explained. When enough agents are registered, Hyyve will accept homeowner listings in early 2025.

After concentrating its marketing on Toronto, the CEO expects to begin operations in Vancouver, Ottawa or Montreal. Expansion will happen city by city so Hyyve will have a comfortable supply (agents) and the demand (homeowners).

To accumulate the expertise to guide the plan, Hyyve is assembling an advisory board of two or three C-suite figures from national brands, real estate influencers in major markets and top-performing agents.

After home listings, Hyyve will look to broaden its scope to the services around a listing to create a more complete offering.

“When you’re selling a house you’re gonna need stagers, painters, movers, junk removers, lawyers, inspectors. We’re gonna build a marketplace for those people around a listing,” Armstrong said.

The home sellers will also need to a buy a home; Hyyve may also delve into the mortgage and insurance marketplaces.

“Everything around the sale of the house, we would make that into a marketplace so that a homeowner could then get a complete suite of services.”