Lake Ridge Woman's Virginia Real Estate Platform Aims To Empower Buyers, Sellers

LAKE RIDGE, VA — As the National Association of Realtors settlement brought debate on real estate agent commissions to the forefront, a new service being launched in Virginia is taking real estate agents out of the equation.

Lake Ridge resident Rebeka Skogsberg's platform Aloha My Home launched Friday, offering a tool for buyers and sellers to complete home sales. It covers everything from pre-buying education to scheduling showings, making offers and completing transactions. Aloha My Home charges a flat $995 for a home closing, which would save potentially tens of thousands by choosing not to use a real estate agent. The platform fee does not include other fees paid to lenders, attorneys and title companies.

"The objective is to make it buyer and seller, direct transaction, and so we call those for sale by owners," Skogsberg told Patch. "I think ultimately that's where the market is headed, doing away with real estate agents."

Skogsberg had been working at the Mars company and braved hour-long commutes when she got inspired to find other ways to make a living. The book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad," which focuses on how passive income such as investing in real estate and run a business helps people become better off financially, inspired her to quit her job and become an entrepreneur.

She and her mom started investing in real estate and got real estate licenses, acquiring 29 rental units and flipping nine houses over three and a half years. During the process, Skogsberg learned she wanted to work on providing an automated real estate process.

"We were conducting a bunch of transactions, and I felt scattered and I had so many emails with lenders and appraisers and inspectors and the buyers and the sellers. It was just a very scattered, disjointed process," said Skogsberg. "So I started thinking about ways to automate it and also make it cheaper because the reason I got my license in the first place was real estate commissions were so expensive, and they were making more than me were sometimes after like nine months of labor-intensive flips."

The name "Aloha My Home" has meaning for both sides of a home sale — hello for the buyer and goodbye for the seller. After working on Aloha My Home for six years, Skogsberg and her team of developers were ready to launch the platform ahead of Memorial Day weekend. The platform has a contract to perform real estate transactions in Virginia, but Skogsberg hopes to launch in other states in the future.

Skogsberg decided to open the platform to the public rather than just real estate investors to help people self-educate themselves on the real estate process. During her time as a real estate agent, she recalls helping a client who didn't know what kind of questions to ask when looking at prospective homes. Other times, she says buyers have found houses on their own and questioned if they needed help for the rest of the transaction.

"I want to empower people to make their own decisions when it comes to real estate transactions and tell them what their options are and let them be the judge as to what they should do when it comes to real estate transactions," said Skogsberg.

Aloha My Home can be considered "Zillow with the next steps," according to Skogsberg. The platform is starting with "for sale by owner" properties in Virginia, which buyers can schedule showings and make offers for. Sellers can review offers, and Skogsberg says she plans to launch a tool for sellers to compare offers.

"We're also working with a title company that does online closings in almost every state," said Skogsberg. "So we're going to integrate with them and then at some point, we plan to work with other affiliates, so lenders inspectors, appraisers, all of those people that would be part of the transaction."

Another crucial part of the process comes before buyers start looking at homes and sellers start listing their home. Skogsberg provided a library section with a checklist of tasks buyers and sellers should do before starting the process.

"I included different sections, and basically I sat down and I thought, what did I want to know when I first got into real estate, what do I wish I had known," said Skogsberg. "Then I just jotted down notes and things like how do interest rates affect affordability and how much of a difference does .25 percent interest make? So really breaking it down for like an 18-year-old to be able to understand the transaction and help them make their own decisions, because everybody needs somewhere to live."

For buyers, the pre-offer process includes determining what they can afford, estimating down payment and closing costs, improving credit score and finding a mortgage lender. The offer section outlines different areas they want to know, such as the earnest money deposit, contingencies, and negotiating an offer. The last section for buyers involves steps to completing the purchase, such as submitting the earnest money deposit, obtaining title insurance, getting homeowner's insurance and settlement.

Skogsberg's mom still works as a real estate agent and says it is an ideal time to launch new real estate technology. The National Association of Realtors settlement announced in March will set new standards for how real estate agent commission is offered. Skogsberg believes real estate commission will be lower since sellers may not be willing to pay both buyers and sellers agent commissions. If that buyers agent commission falls on the buyer, they may be looking to alternatives to paying these commissions.

"There's so much ambiguity and uncertainty in the real estate market, even just among real estate agents," said Skogsberg. "And so with that new settlement, what it does for Aloha My home is open the door for new technology, whereas before with [National Association of Realtors], it was this entrenched boys club, and competitors were not welcome. And so it has lowered the barrier to entry for new technology."

Aloha My Home is initially running in Virginia, but the title company it works with is nationwide, which opens up the possibility of expanding in the future. Skogsburg is in discussions with an attorney who has partners and affiliates in other states as well. While the bulk of a real estate transaction is the same in most states, she says areas like proration terms, contingencies, and disclosures can vary by state.

Skogsberg is most looking forward to helping people feel empowered to make real estate decisions on their own.

"That's what keeps me going and what has kept me going for like six years now," said Skogsberg. "It's a very expensive hobby project that I work on in the margins of my life. On nights and weekends other people go rock climbing and ride their bike and I work on Aloha My Home."

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