WILMINGTON — So, you’re house-hunting and you see a property for sale with a message to text a number. If you do, Wilmington-based XiLi Mobile will alert a real estate agent who can show the house. You don’t even need to have XiLi to use the service.
XiLi is a web application that can be accessed on a smartphone’s web browser. Users don’t need to download an app to use XiLi. All they have to do is send a text message with their browser-enabled smartphone. The company presented at the CED Tech Venture event this week.
The service is free for homebuyers. They needn’t sign up. Only agents sign up to pay (a $24.99 fee a month) and get leads when buyers view their listings. Even if no agents are signed up in a given area, listings are still available to view for buyers for free.
Users can also get ten listings closest to their location texted.
CEO Geoffrey Gohs tells WRAL TechWire the six-person firm has 2,000 clients nationally and uses a national data feed of 2.5 million listings.
Gohs and a partner founded the company in late 2012. “It was two guys brain-storming,” Gohs says. His partner is no longer associated with the company.
“We were talking about a Silicon Valley-based SMS (text) service and its capabilities. We thought real estate seemed like a good one. The national data is available.”
Gohs, who presented at the CED’s 2015 Tech Venture event in Raleigh says he made contacts that could be useful in the future, but is not currently raising capital. He also met a potential business partner.
“We’re backed by a single super angel,” Gohs says, and not actively raising funds now.”
On the web: http://www.myxilimobile.com/
