Press Release
Perch Launches in San Antonio to Transform Home Buying & Selling Experience
Raises $30M in financing led by FirstMark Capital to fuel growth and product development
Perch announced today the launch of its home selling and buying marketplace in the San Antonio market, making it easy for local homeowners to sell their home without the hassle and uncertainty of a traditional home sale.
“We are excited to introduce the Perch home selling and buying experience to the San Antonio market,” said Perch CEO Court Cunningham. “We’ve set out to transform the way Americans buy and sell their homes by making the process simple, certain and convenient. We spent months meeting with homeowners in San Antonio before launching and it became clear through countless conversations that there was a need for an easier customer experience when it comes to buying and selling a home in San Antonio.”
Currently, when a homeowner decides to sell their home, they can expect a 4+ month process from start to finish. San Antonio residents can expect to list their home an average of 80 days on market and another 45 days to close. The process requires a number of nuisances and costs for home sellers to manage; including making repairs and improvements before selling, giving an average of over 1% to buyers in concessions at closing, and managing overlapping mortgage and tax payments on two properties due to the inability to line up the home sale with the home being purchased.
In an industry that has been resistant to change, Perch is providing a modern alternative to the traditional home selling process. By harnessing the power of data science, technology and human-centered design, the company has developed an innovative digital seller experience that is simple and convenient. Perch provides sellers with a market-price offer in 24 hours, with the ability to close at a time of the seller’s choosing – any weekday over the next 14 – 60 days. The process removes the inconvenience of multiple home showings, repairs, and contingencies. It also gives control to the seller to line up the timing of their new home purchase with their current home’s sale, saving homeowners thousands of dollars in interim housing costs and reducing stress.
For home buyers, Perch is pioneering a new category of homes – Certified Pre-Owned homes. These homes are newly renovated, move-in ready and include a warranty. All Perch homes are vacant making them easy for home buyers to tour and schedule for closing.
Founded in 2017, Perch recently secured $30 million to power the company’s growth in San Antonio. The Series A funding round was led by FirstMark Capital, with Juxtapose and Accomplice also investing. Perch plans to use the money to accelerate product development and scale its home-buying and selling marketplace.
Perch has assembled a strong leadership team for its San Antonio venture. Before founding Perch, Cunningham was CEO of Yodle, an Internet marketing company, from 2007 to 2016, growing the business from 15 people to 1,500 employees. Joining Cunningham on the Perch executive team is Phil DeGisi, who serves as head of growth and was most recently CMO at the consumer lender CommonBond. Aaron Altom, Perch’s director of real estate, brings in-depth residential real estate experience, having served as regional director for Waypoint Homes and as AVP of acquisitions for American Homes 4 Rent, overseeing the purchase of 5,000 homes in Texas.
“Our team is bringing decades of real estate experience and consumer technology experience together to build a world-class home sale experience. Selling and purchasing a home is the biggest financial decision a person will make. What makes Perch unique is the way we combine technology to simplify the process with high touch customer service that gives customers confidence every step of the way. We look forward to serving the residents of San Antonio for many years to come,” added Cunningham.
About Perch
Perch is the marketplace for buying and selling homes. Perch helps customers sell their home on their schedule without the hassles, at market price. Perch enables home buyers to choose from an inventory of Certified Pre-Owned houses, making it easy to discover and close on a move-in ready, quality home. For the average American, the home purchase and sale process takes months, creates anxiety and is filled with uncertainty and hassle. Perch offers a modern alternative, making one of life’s biggest decisions - the sale and purchase of a home - less intimidating. Perch’s services are currently offered in San Antonio, TX. The company is headquartered in New York with offices in Texas.