Traditional firms are not thrilled by Nicolas Bouchard’s success
Sarah Dougherty
Province
Nicolas Bouchard figured out 10 years ago that the Net was a good place to put a lot of information of interest to people buying and selling homes. Francis Vachon – CanWest News Service/Montreal Gazette
Growing up in a Quebec City suburb, Nicolas Bouchard could have easily followed the family tradition and become a real estate agent.
But Bouchard has vivid memories of his father’s pager ringing seven days a week. “How many Sunday dinners were interrupted by clients? — I wanted to have quality of life.”
Then Bouchard stumbled on a real-estate business model with a difference: Internet companies in the U.S. were helping consumers buy and sell homes without agents.
Bouchard figured he could make the same concept fly. In 1997, at age 21, he launched DuProprio.com, a website where owners can list and sell properties for a flat fee instead of the traditional commission.
The business Bouchard started in his parents’ basement has come a long way. Revenues topped $2 million last year and are higher in 2007. DuProprio claims to have saved consumers close to $237 million in commissions.
Bouchard is now rolling out his business model in other provinces, with an English site called ByTheOwner.com. Along the way, he has ticked off traditional real-estate firms, which see an upstart eating into their market share.
Bouchard runs his company from Charny, near Quebec City. He oversees a team of 70, including 35 employees and 35 subcontracted field representatives.
He has representatives in B.C., the Maritimes and Manitoba, but is waiting before jumping into Alberta, where two competitors, WeList.com and comfree.com, are already active.
DuProprio landed its first clients by soliciting homeowners with for-sale signs on their lawns.
Seed money from his parents helped Bouchard hire employees and build the company. DuProprio says 16,700 properties have been sold to date through its website and claims an average success rate of 64 per cent.
Sellers pay a flat fee up front that varies according to location and type of property. The average fee is $400 but will rise to $500 next year.
The fee buys sellers a website listing of six months to one year, depending on the type of property, and professional photos.
Sellers get a customized poster for their lawn and online tools to help them write a description, prepare their home for sale and negotiate. A DuProprio sales representative visits about 90 per cent of clients to help set up a listing. Bouchard and his team talk to clients and the public through their blog.
Vendors can download standard offer-to-purchase forms and use a software program to compare prices. Buyers browse for free.
DuProprio is not a licensed real-estate brokerage, nor are its field reps certified agents. The company doesn’t offer legal advice, but clients will soon be able to buy this advice under an agreement with Centract, a real-estate services company.
Traditional brokers and agents are licensed and regulated under provincial law. DuProprio has done an end-run around provincial regulations by not purporting to be a brokerage or using agents.
But Robert Nadeau, head of the group that applies those regulations, says he is keeping an eye on Bouchard’s business practices. The more DuProprio offers sellers advice — on how to set a price, for example — the closer the company comes to infringing on the exclusive jurisdiction of brokers and agents, said Nadeau, president of the Association des courtiers et agents immobiliers du Québec.
“A real estate transaction is complicated and people don’t want to have problems. Without them, the consumer has no protection,” Nadeau said, referring to the quality standards, insurance and professional liability fund that come with using licensed brokers and agents.
“Maybe they think they are saving on commissions,” Nadeau said of DuProprio’s clients. “But did they get the same price [for their property] as if they’d used an agent?”
© The Vancouver Province 2007
