Domain has announced the sale of its customer relationship management product, MyDesktop, for $14 million to Real Estate Investar.
Domain Group Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Jason Pellegrino, said the sale was a continuation of Domain’s objective to simplify and optimise the business, and deliver the best value to agents.
“We recognise the importance of CRM systems to every real estate agent across Australia and we believe agents deserve the very best product,” Mr Pellegrino said.
“MyDesktop has a very bright future in the hands of the very experienced team at Real Estate Investar – a Prop Tech business that specialises in CRM and SaaS solutions for the Australian and New Zealand real estate industry.
“Domain provides a range of services to agents, focused on helping them to find and win the next listing, market and sell the property quickly and for the best possible price, and help them to run profitable and resilient businesses,” he said.
“As part of a comprehensive strategic review, we concluded that while MyDesktop is an amazing product, owning a CRM is not the best way Domain can support agents and address their core needs.”
Mr Pellegrino stated that the sale signified the next step in Domain’s strategic pivot towards supporting agents with real- time insights, irrespective of the CRM or workflow tool they use.
“In our next phase of growth, rather than helping agents hold and manage data, we will help agents leverage the power of their own rich and timely insights,” he said.
“We will also deliver these insights in a way that makes it easy for agents, in whatever CRM, platform or workflow they like to use and through our trusted products like Homepass, Pricefinder, and now, Real Time Agent.”
A large part of Domain’s decision was based on their confidence in Real Estate Investar’s plans, which also includes acquiring the Vault Group, a company that was founded by Scott Wulff. Wulff is also a founder of MyDesktop.
“Given Domain’s ongoing partnership with agents, it was important that we found a new owner with the expertise and intent to invest in MyDesktop and ensure that agents have ongoing access to a world-class CRM product with a high quality development roadmap,” Mr Pellegrino said.
“We’re excited to see how MyDesktop evolves in this next stage and the benefits this will bring agents.”
Real Estate Investar’s Chairman, Simon Baker, said the company was thrilled to have acquired both MyDesktop and the Vault Group.
“Scott Wulff and his team will be responsible for integrating the Vault and MyDesktop systems to create a world-class CRM for all Australian and New Zealand real estate agencies,” Mr Baker said.
Real Estate Investar’s Executive Director, Joe Hanna noted Wulff’s intimate knowledge of both platforms would ensure easy integration of the businesses.
“We will be adding enhanced features for agents including property management and commercial property functionality,” Mr Hanna said.
