After receiving $5.5M in seed funding from several venture capital firms and angel investors, Propertymate announced it has rebranded as NewHomesMate and expanding to nine new markets, in addition to the preexistent Austin: Dallas, Houston, Orlando, Jacksonville, Tampa, San Antonio, Miami - Ft. Lauderdale, Raleigh-Durham, and Ocala-Gainesville.

Propertymate announced it had received $5.5M in seed funding from Gaingels, Geek Ventures, Asymmetry Ventures, Unpopular Ventures, Flyer One Ventures, U.Ventures, Verras Capital, SID Venture Partners, and Pragmatech Ventures. Among its angel investors, the company mentioned David Morrison, Adrian Slywotzky, Jonathan Wasserstrum (founder of SquareFoot), John Gu (Norwest Venture Partners), and Benny Czarny (founder of Opswat). 

"These investments give our team a great opportunity to expand to new markets and deliver more value to homebuyers and builders," said Dan Hnatkovskyy, Propertymate CEO and Co-founder, in a press statement. "Within the next year, we plan to launch another eight markets, including Atlanta, Phoenix, Charlotte, Charleston, and Denver," he added. 

NewHomesMate enables homebuyers to search, find, compare, and buy new construction homes. The company's declared mission is "to make the process of purchasing a new construction home effortless and enjoyable for our builders and buyers."

However, the process could be more straightforward: it requires too many steps, and most annoyingly, it asks for a name and email address to deliver results. Each "step" opens on a new browser page and has a continue button. Not filling a field in leads nowhere, despite the presence of a green "Explore Now" button, which takes the site visitor to the same data-gathering :

• Step one: choose your area.
• Step two: What type of property do you intend to buy? Here, they have four choices: single-family, condominium, townhouse, and custom house. Fortunately, you can select as many as you want.
• Step three: What areas are you considering?
• Step four: What price range are you looking in? They have six pricing categories plus a "not sure yet."
• Step five: When do you plan to move in? Select from four: as soon as possible, 1-3 months, 3-6 months, 6-12 months.
• Step six: Have you been pre-approved by a lender? Your choices are: yes, not yet, but I plan to be, and no, I plan to buy with cash.
• Step seven: Are you already committed to a real estate agent? A simple yes or no choice here. 
• Step eight: By the way, what is your name? - here's where the buyer must understand that the site will collect private data.
• Step nine: What is your email? - there is no disclaimer on this page as to how they plan to use said email. 
• Step ten: Please tell us your phone number. Here, they have the following disclaimer: By sharing your phone number, you agree that communications with our team via text or call may be recorded. View our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. 
• Step 11: Upon giving them a phone number, you will receive a verification code to access new homes.

There could be other steps, but I stopped at number ten. Many people are likely to stop there or as soon as they see that the site collects email addresses. Jumping through many hoops to search for homes is neither effortless nor enjoyable. 

Zillow, for example, doesn't collect private data to show which newly-built homes are available in any area in the USA, and there are many other sites where the process is, indeed, effortless. 

On the other hand, filling in all the steps required by NewHomesMate will help the company deliver customized results specific to the searchers' needs, allowing their customers to stay informed about their dream homes from browsing to move-in. Other advantages include:

• The ability to book in-person proprety tours whenever convenient. NewHomesMate staff will make this process hassle-free.
• Access a knowledge database including the neighborhoods and the new construction home buying process.
• Complimentary buyer assistance for tours and the organization of a contract explanation as needed.

Behind its closed doors, the AI-powered NewHomesMate platform offers access to personalized filters, virtual walk-throughs, and in-depth resources for each listed property.

NewHomesMate was launched in 2020 as Propertymate.ai by Ukrainian-born Dan Hnatkovskyy and Sofia Vyshnevska. The founders grew the business despite the war and operating from Ukraine. The main headquarter of the startup is based in Austin, with a team of 91 people that they plan to extend. 

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Mihaela Lica Butler

Mihaela Lica Butler is senior partner at Pamil Visions PR. She is a widely cited authority on public relations issues, with an experience of over 25 years in online PR, marketing, and SEO.She covers startups, online marketing, social media, SEO, and other topics of interest for Realty Biz News.

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