Rebls-Team-Home-Show-2014
The Rebels Team: Bryan Copley, Adriane Holter, Josh Boswell, and Jeff White

Seattle tech companies are constantly finding new ways to disrupt the real estate industry, from Zillow to Redfin to Estately. Now another Emerald City startup, Rebls, is using technology to help people buy and sell homes — albeit in a slightly different way than its competitors.

Rebls CEO Bryan Copley
Rebls CEO Bryan Copley

Founded by mortgage financing guru Bryan Copley and Amazon veteran Jeff White, Rebls matches buyers with homes that are off the market. The idea for the company came to Copley when he was working as an unpaid intern for a real estate investor who taught him a simple lesson: every home is for sale, whether or not it’s on the market.

“Rebls’ goal is to create the most empowering and delightful real estate experience in the world,” said Copley. “Every person on the Rebls team deeply believes that homeowners and buyers deserve a better, easier real estate process and works toward that goal every day.”

Earlier this year, Zillow introduced a similar feature called “Coming Soon,” allowing its premier agents to post homes 30 days before they go on the market. The service received some backlash from real estate agents and in fact, due to regulations penned by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS)— an association of more than 21,000 real estate agents in Western Washington — “Coming Soon” isn’t available in Seattle.

Rebls, however, is able to operate in the region because homes are posted by homeowners themselves. The absence of an agent prevents homes on Rebls from qualifying as “pocket listings.”

“Think of Rebls like a parallel service to the NWMLS,” said Adriane Holter, Rebls’ VP of Communications. “If a homeowner wants to gauge demand for their home before listing it for sale, Rebls is a great bet for that. If that homeowner sees interest in their home that motivates the homeowner to sell, they may decide to take their home off Rebls and put it onto the MLS with an agent.”

Copley founded Rebls in 2010, while White came on earlier this year after leaving Amazon, where he worked on the Kindle and Fire Phone teams. Rebls initially launched with a private beta in King County this summer and later expanded into Snohomish and Pierce counties.

We caught up with Copley for this installment of Startup Spotlight, a regular GeekWire feature.

Explain what you do so our parents can understand it: “Rebls matches off-market homes and buyers. Just type in your address on Rebls and see how many people are shopping for your home.”

Inspiration hit us when: “Inspiration hit with the realization that every major real estate company only shows buyers inventory of homes on the market, but no one shows homeowners how many buyers are searching for a home like theirs. The idea to create a service where homeowners can gauge demand for their home before listing it for sale and allowing buyers to search unlisted homes evolved from there.”

VC, Angel or Bootstrap: “We started out bootstrapping and now we’re raising our seed round.”

Our ‘secret sauce’ is: “Our relentless focus on what’s best for the consumer. Every decision we make as a team starts with asking how the result will improve real estate for homeowners and buyers. If we think something will disadvantage the consumer, we go the opposite direction and find a solution that will further empower them in real estate.”

It93PkQVA21bntBQ15k0tBr1EPEt0wVWuY4dcBZW0eMThe smartest move we’ve made so far: “Launching quietly, testing, iterating, and improving the site based on what we learned from early adopters. We’re very intentional about asking for feedback from Rebls users and using what they tell us as a guide for bettering the service.”

The biggest mistake we’ve made so far: “Working from home too long. Getting office space in March at the South Lake Union WeWork was great for company morale, and put us at the center of the Seattle startup ecosystem, where everyone is building something awesome. We’ve learned so much by virtue of being around and making friends with other entrepreneurs.”

Would you rather have Gates, Jobs, Zuckerberg or Bezos in your corner: “Bezos. He’s fearless and sees the long game.”

Our world domination strategy starts when: “We are able to instantly show every homeowner in the country how many people are shopping for their home just by entering their address. We’re well on our way with the ability to do just that already for homeowners in King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties.”

rebls_color_vertical_500Rivals should fear us because: “We’re not shy about saying it’s our goal to reinvent the entire real estate industry. It needs reinvention, and we’re going to be the company to reinvent it. That’s our BHAG.”

We are truly unique because: “We’re the only real estate marketplace that focuses exclusively on pre-market homes. Using Rebls, buyers can expand their home search with unlisted homes they can’t find anywhere else. Also, homeowners on Rebls can instantly see the demand for their home with no obligation or commitment to sell, right from our homepage. If a potential deal arises, our partner agents offer a reduced commission.”

The biggest hurdle we’ve overcome is: “Avoiding distractions and naysayers. Keeping our heads down and seeing the vision come to life has also been one of the most rewarding parts of building Rebls.”

What’s the one piece of advice you’d give to other entrepreneurs just starting out: “Find a team that believes in your mission as strongly as you do and everything else will fall into place.”

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