FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – OPENLOT
MEDIA RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION
Monday 21 September, 2020
In a world where social distancing is the new norm and weekend property visits are out of the question OpenLot has arrived just in time. As the name suggests OpenLot specialises in open, vacant blocks of land with the portal offering consumers the opportunity to search for house & land options. Developers are provided the perfect platform for marketing with both free and paid options available. The platform has quickly become the fastest growing consumer portal for house & land with Developers reaping the benefits of a one stop shop. Founded by entrepreneur Qi Chen (pictured below) the business is in the enviable position of thriving as a result of the pandemic.
“Whilst many businesses have suffered devastating losses as a result of the pandemic OpenLot has gone from strength to strength because of it.” Said Qi Chen, Founder & CEO. “This has been supported by the HomeBuilder Grant which created 3 times the search volume around house & land on Google in the last 4 months. Adding to this growth Developers and agents are recognising buyers are staying at home searching online, as opposed to visiting display offices, which has encouraged them to adopt new platforms such as OpenLot.”
An industry professional Qi started his career at Realestate.com.au and worked at REA before launching the platform early in 2020. With first-hand experience also as a buyer Qi understood the needs of the consumer and supplier. The end result is a one stop shop that solves the often overwhelming process that includes; finding the right builder and home design, dealing with land settlement delays, separate mortgages for land and building, knowing the conveyancer, fencing and landscaping and of course – finding the perfect housing estate. Many consumers already know what they want, while the portal provides additional valuable information such as settlement tracking, social updates, related news, nearby schools, historic land prices and nearby housing estates.
“In the last 3-4 months, OpenLot has been by far the most successful in bringing leads. For the two land subdivision estates we have listed in Pakenham and Cranbourne East, REA may only generate 2-3 leads a week, while OpenLot is bringing in leads daily.” Said Cameron Pino, Sales & Acquisitions, The Avenue Property Co. “Our conversion rate speaks for the lead quality as well, 4 fully closed sales already out of 88 leads for the Pakenham estate and 7-8 buyers are still in discussion.”
OpenLot provides a range of services businesses can access including real-time enquiries that are SMS verified and a purpose-built agent tool to help manage and track the leads. The platform also offers detailed buyer profiling on what they’re searching for as well as CRM integration to unify communication. The website has over 23,000/month active new home visitors on the platform and currently partners with several leading businesses in the industry.
“We utilised OpenLot as a channel to connect with active house & land buyers searching online, especially during the recent lock-down period.” Said Nicki Hay, Retail Director, Core Projects. “The lead volume has been consistent and impressive.”
With Victorian’s grappling with the new COVID-19 normal and plans to expand to New South Wales and Queensland in the next 6-12 months OpenLot will surely only grow in popularity.
For more information, interview, pic-op or comment please contact Bronny Lane, Publicist bronwen@littletrain.com.au / 0413 221 252.
