Ten Questions With Michael Wadsworth, Co-Founder & CEO at adoor

Real estate businesses are moving closer to the transaction. One such example is adoor, a British company that lets all the usual stakeholders manage and track house moves from mortgage to moving day. We sat down with co-founder and CEO Michael Wadsworth—and asked him 10 questions about the business.

Here's what he had to say...

Michael Wadsworth founded adoor in 2020

What problem does adoor solve?

For buyers and sellers specifically, the problem is being able to see and track all the stages of their house move. They rely on calling/emailing their conveyancer or estate agent to chase for updates. Why is it easier to track your Deliveroo than your house move?!

For conveyancers and estate agents, this takes time. Increased caseloads, keeping clients updated, reacting to enquiries, handling calls/emails—these are all eating away at the time they could spend completing the transaction!

There’s also a secondary, education problem. Many home movers don’t understand the home-moving process in as much detail as they’d like.

That’s where we come in.

What is adoor’s USP?

1. Tracking the chain (of property transactions)
2. Tracking the entire process from mortgage to moving day 
3. Connecting all stakeholders in one platform (Movers, estate agent, conveyancer, mortgage broker)
4. MovePlanner for all the stages movers need to prepare for (packing, utilities, change of address, schools etc.) 

What is adoor’s biggest challenge?

Our biggest challenge is awareness.

There are many different providers covering services from Payments, ID verification, prospecting, social media, CRM and more (estate agents on average engage with 17 different software every day).

With property professionals already stretched with their day jobs, getting the attention of these businesses is a challenge.

Who are adoor’s customers?

We connect parties across the entire moving process—home movers, estate agents, conveyancers (property lawyers) and mortgage brokers. We’re also looking to branch out to removals/moving teams in the future. 

How do you monetise the product?

We charge a per transaction fee per property, so you’re only paying for the service when you need it and are actually using it.

We see this really links the value of adoor to every transaction (rather than a licence fee or annual contract). So you’re only paying for the service when you need it and use it.

We’re also looking at monthly subscriptions that provide you with a number of ‘credits’ per month at a discounted rate. 

How did Covid-19 change the landscape for adoor?

The Covid pandemic accelerated the remote and digitised way of working into the property transaction process.

Yes, many businesses were already adopting video calls, digital identification and levels of automation—but Covid really strapped a rocket to it as everyone rapidly adjusted to working remotely.

Covid also showed the industry coming together, both agents and conveyancers working closer together, with many reports showing healthier and greater collaboration between the two parties that continued to prosper with restrictions easing. 

I see technology adoption has also rapidly increased, so this is a great time to be reaching out to firms who are actively investing in technology to reduce overheads, increase productivity and efficiency.

What is one thing our readers might not know about but would probably find interesting about the process of moving house in the UK?

The one that I was most surprised about is most often the deposit from the first transaction in the chain will be used as the deposit throughout the chain.

For example, a 10% deposit of the first property in the chain, say £15k (for a £150k property) will be the same deposit for a £750k property at the top of the chain.

We have seen how many property portals want to be involved in every stage of the housing transaction. Do you think there is scope for adoor to work with portals in the future?

Definitely.

I'd love to see a potential buyer be able to 'Open adoor' right from the property portal listing. It would really boost the user experience, jumping right into a seamless enquiry and then continuing the journey through adoor. 

What is adoor currently working on?

We are working on integrations with LEAP, Reapit have recently completed an integration with Redbrick (on top of great integrations with Search Acumen and Thirdfort) all to help property professionals do more of their workday in one place. 

We have recently announced our partnership with Rhino Home Protect who provide home buying and selling insurance should a house move fall through. 

Looking ahead, we’re working with the HBSG (home buying selling group) on property data trust frameworks, and also further integrating the mandatory upfront material information and automating collecting more of this information. 

Watch this space!

What is the most common request from clients?

Integrations and automation are the most common requests, and we’re working on it.

Clients want to spend less time on common tasks. By collecting property data from different sources (EPC, UPRN etc.) and displaying it all within adoor, clients have said it really saves them time, which is great to hear.

How do you see the market evolving and what will you be doing to be ahead of the curve?

At the time of speaking in November 2022, we’ve had quite the upheaval in the UK - The cost of living crisis, rapid mortgage rate rises, three prime ministers in six months and the gradual return to ‘normal’ transaction volumes has led to a challenging property market—but there is always an opportunity! 

Now more than ever efficiency and productivity are critical to success in the industry. 

Communication is the main point we’re hearing from buyers and sellers, especially with the pace of change in the market

Looking to 2023 we’ll continue to accelerate our integrations and partnerships - We’re close to completing integrations with Reapit and LEAP and would love to chat to other service providers in the transaction process.