Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa June 2016 | Page 38

WOMEN IN PROPERTY

The Visionary

Driving Paperless Property Purchases
BY DREW HOOK

K

aren Miller is Director and Principal of Quoin
Online, an online commercial, retail and
industrial property sales and rental portal,
currently taking the local property industry into the
digital age to meet the needs of millennials, who
are increasingly conducting their business and daily
admin online.
With information to expand your knowledge on
just about any product or service readily available
online, Miller identified that property should be no
different. “Buyers and tenants are becoming savvier
in the way they search for properties,” she said. To
parallel these technological movements - the property
game is going digital. And not just to view available
properties or schedule an appointment with an estate
agent, but the entire purchase process.

People want their business transactions
and information to be instantaneous – in
the same way you can do my shopping
online, you should be able to search and
get relevant information on properties at
any time
It all began when Miller was acquiring properties
on behalf of a private investor and, along with her
then business partner, identified certain failings primarily lack of available information relating to
properties and the tenants occupying them, as well as
financial information underpinning the investments.
“Many transactions were not concluded as the
information received from the seller or the broker did
not verify and substantiate the pricing and it was often
a long and arduous process of negotiation and Due
Diligence to arrive at an eventual best price, for both
the buyer and seller.”
Through Quoin, potential buyers are able to submit
final or competitive offers online which are sent to
the seller for review. The competitive offer system has
been known to achieve high above asking price, up to
36

JUNE 2016 SA Real Estate Investor

150 percent higher in a few incidences. The firm also
meets all legal requirements as with traditional real
estate transactions.
Miller decided to take inspiration from her husband
and his partner’s business, which had already been
successfully trading off an online auction platform in
the automobile space for eight years.
“It just clicked – it was the most natural solution,
for us to take commercial property transactions
online,” she shared.
It took months of software development before they
were able to launch the online platform. During this
time, Miller and business partner Wayne van der Vent
tied up all the legal requirements for selling property
online – and the platform was launched in 2014 with
27 properties.
Before founding Quoin Online, Miller worked
in corporate travel sales for several years – setting
up travel agencies, and negotiating corporate deals
with airlines, hotel groups, and managing corporate
travel spend. So when she started Quoin Online,
she combined her passions – property, hospitality,
sales, and client solutions and, as they say, “the rest
is history”.
Her advice to anyone wanting to join the industry:
“Read, research, know what your competitors are
doing and, where you can, collaborate. In the end, you
cannot buy your reputation.”

RESOURCES
Quoin Online
www.reimag.co.za