Buyers of newly constructed homes may have all sorts of preferences: a pool, a screened-in porch, granite countertops or eggshell-colored walls. However, a home that fits all of the requirements may not be easy to find.
Anewgo founder John Lee saw an opportunity to apply technology to the real estate industry by creating a platform where users can find, design and buy their new-build home online.
“The Anewgo Marketplace is like a Match.com for houses instead of spouses,” Lee said.
Using the Anewgo marketplace, home buyers can customize their dream house, up to paint colors and countertops. Anewgo, based in Holly Springs, sells its web app to builders who embed the technology as part of their own websites. Home buyers can look at houses across the country using a filtered search engine to narrow down neighborhoods and houses that fit their preferences.
Lee said that many people who want to buy a new-construction home either buy a pre-owned home or do not purchase a property at all due to the complex and arduous nature of buying a new home. Anewgo is designed to make this process less intimidating and more efficient, eliminating the time commitment of driving around with a real estate agent and picking up brochures.
Buyers can select a co-buyer, such as a spouse, to share their account with. Similar to many other online sales platforms, Anewgo tailors the houses they display to buyer’s search history and preferences.
The builders are Anewgo’s primary customers; the startup works with 500 builders per year. Sherwin Williams is also a key customer, licensing Anewgo’s technology for their own paint libraries.
Lee estimates there are 20,000 designable homes on their marketplace.
Buyers may start with a broad search on Anewgo Marketplace to find a builder they want to work with, and from there they use the Anewgo web app within the builder’s website.
To purchase the home, buyers put “their” house in a shopping cart and pay via credit card, bank transfer or other virtual payment method.
“It’s a lot of unique technologies all coming together to buy the most complex, expensive purchase of your life,” Lee said.
Lee entered the property technology industry in 2001, moving back to the Raleigh area after working for a startup in Silicon Valley. During a real estate boom, Lee recognized that people couldn’t see their new-construction homes before they bought them. His company, originally called Rendering House, started by producing general visualizations, but Lee said the buyers wanted more.
“Not only did they want to see it, they wanted to design it, and they wanted to design in real time,” Lee said.
So, in 2020, Lee launched Anewgo, giving buyers a new way to shop for and purchase homes.
To date Anwego has been bootstrapped, and the startup has seen its engagement double every year since its founding. This year, Anewgo is on track to engage with 16 million users.
Since Lee’s move back to the Triangle, technology has seen incredible growth. Now, Anewgo is transitioning to use more AI, starting with its use on the back end of its site where it categorizes floor plans to boost the capacity of the smart filters.
Eventually, Lee hopes to incorporate AI into a virtual assistant for buyers to use, which will guide users through the design and buying process.
