Calgary homebuilder Logel Homes is partnering with e-commerce real estate platform Ownly in a venture they say could radically change the way people buy homes.

Logel Homes says it is now the first Alberta multifamily homebuilder to enable customers to reserve a new home online in just a few clicks, with zero paperwork and no hard credit check or mortgage pre-approval required.

“Logel Homes is committed to innovation, transparency and removing friction from the home-buying process while instilling confidence in our customers,” Brayden Logel, executive vice-president of Logel Homes, said. 

“We understand that doubt and lack of clarity often plague homebuyers. This is an industry that covets information, and it is not always readily available online.

"By integrating Ownly into our online purchasing platform, we are offering transparency including fully disclosing prices and inventory online. By eliminating these obstacles, our aim is to create an environment of trust and certainty.

“We’re collaborating with Ownly to address homebuyers’ pain points . . . We’re giving people the opportunity to more-or-less purchase a home online. We pretty much take them right up until the point where they have to do the contract and they’re able to move forward. We know they’ve been approved and it’s really streamlining that process for homebuyers," Logel said.

The Logel-Ownly partnership

Logel Homes was launched in 2017 by president and CEO Tim Logel. Today the homebuilder is focused on multifamily condo and townhouse construction. The company builds between 400 to 450 homes in Calgary annually.

Generally, the condos are four- and five-storey wood-frame construction. Townhomes come in a variety of different forms.

Brayden Logel said the partnership with Ownly includes homes that have already been built as well as those under construction. 

“It’s really helpful, especially for our younger demographic who really value that online interaction and I would also say our out-of-town buyers. There’s a huge trend, especially in Calgary right now, with people moving from Ontario and B.C. to purchase here in Calgary. So they don’t have to actually come to Calgary to buy, they can work with us and the Ownly system to be able to purchase their home without visiting the sales centre,” he said.

Ownly Verified is a zero-paperwork buyer verification process which the firm's CEO says allows prospective homebuyers to determine their buying power, validate their identity through a patented two-factor identification process, with bank-level encryption, and obtain a real-time valuation of their current residence.

“We’re a Calgary proptech company and essentially what we built is, it gives consumers the ability to reserve a home online and it also gives them the ability to discover their buying power in under three minutes without getting a mortgage pre-approval – which is a very difficult, stressful process – and also without having to do a credit check,” Jason Hardy, co-founder and CEO of Ownly, said. 

Ownly also verifies income and liabilities, providing buyers with all their necessary financial information. 

Ownly's platform also allows Logel Homes buyers to make a reservation for their desired home and put down the reservation deposit entirely online, simplifying what can be an arduous and stressful experience.

Immediate response to Ownly launch

“The minute that we launched this with Logel we had 14 people within the first 12 hours go online and get verified and reserve a home with Logel. We were shocked," Hardy said.

"There was a customer who is a nurse and works night shifts at the hospital and she wanted to buy a Logel home. She went online, she got fully verified with Ownly which unlocked her ability to be able to place the deposit and reserve the home completely online."

"Her quote was: ‘It was an incredibly empowering experience’, that she never experienced before.' "

Hardy said Logel is the first multifamily condo developer in Alberta to allow this capability.

“They’re definitely the first in the market, but they’re not going to be the last,” he said. “We did launch the same technology with Calbridge Homes in Calgary about two months ago and they’re having great success, but obviously that’s all on single-family homes and where the condos come into play is that it really is truly first-time homebuyers.

“A lot of the great success stories that we’re starting to see from the Logel Homes launch is from these first-time homebuyers. People that have never bought a home before that are a bit nervous and scared and skeptical at the very daunting, stressful process filled with a ton of uncertainty and I think Ownly is helping these Logel customers feel confident," Hardy said.