After brokerage firm owner Steve Johnston had to shift gears when the Great Recession hit, he did what he thought made complete sense: open a trampoline park.
"The market crashed, real estate in the whole country was going through a Great Recession," Johnston said. "And family entertainment was still up and coming. (Trampoline parks) were a new thing in 2010. There was only a few in the country — now there’s 800."
But the real estate bug never left Johnston and in 2017, he launched Ideal Agent, a platform that connects buyers with top-rated brokers across the nation. Now, the company is on track to raise up to $3 million in the next 60 days.
"I love real estate and I had to finish what we started so many years ago," he said.
Ideal Agent, which "really gained traction" over the last 18 months, has raised $760,000, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Sept. 10. Johnston could not disclose who the investors were, but according to the filing, six investors were involved.
Johnston said the minimum investment to enter the round, which is "between a seed round and Series A funding round," is $50,000 with the average being $300,000. He expects to have $1.2 million in the coming weeks, with the full $2 million to $3 million in the 45- to 60-day time period.
The company has been entirely self-funded before this point.
Ideal Agent is in all 50 states, with 450 agents and thousands of customers using the platform. The company connects sellers with top 1 percent real estate agents. Ideal Agent provides the agents with customers and the agents lower their prices for the customer, who may not typically be able to afford a top-tier agent.
While he is nearing the typical time frame to sell his startup (three to five years) he currently has plans to continue his business.
"It’s a big space; the total adjustable market is huge and since the internet, no one has been able to lower commission successfully," Johnston said. "There’s a huge mission here to provide great results and lower commission. It's a huge undertaking — will we be done in five years? I don't know."
The idea spun out of Johnston's experience as a discount brokerage firm owner, which he ran until the Great Recession.
"[Ideal Agent clients] get better results than a discount brokerage because no one knows they're getting a discount," he said. "I had a discount brokerage 18 years ago and we figured out what works and what doesn’t. This has evolved from that which is much better for our clients: sell your home faster, get better deals and be with a top broker."
Ideal Agent is Tampa-based and plans to stay in the area, according to Johnston. The company has 11 full-time employees and plans to hire 20 to 30 more in the next 12 months.
"We are planning to stay here," he said, adding his company is a founding member of innovation hub Embarc Collective. "We have been asked to move. But my family is here; I have been here since college. People are great and this town is about to see a reemergence. Everything is very exciting going on downtown — it's a great place to live and raise a family."
