Online real estate scams, the app to avoid them is born
Whuis is the first portal in Italy that allows, by crossing public data and respecting privacy, to evaluate the reliability of natural and legal persons through a simple search engine .
Launched as a startup in 2018 by experts in the real estate and digital sectors , Whuis .com is currently used in the real estate sector by about 2,500 agencies and by the main real estate networks, including Tecnocasa, Tempocasa, Tecnorete, Toscano and Gabetti Group.
However, the portal is not limited to real estate, as it allows the identification of potential scams from the automotive to the secondary market, from the world of insurance to that of work: the ultimate goal is to guarantee the transparency of the interlocutor and the quality of the relationship, both online and offline . To date, over 200,000 searches have already been carried out on the platform, 80% of which are for individuals
How did the idea for this application come about? “Comparing the Italian real estate market with the Australian or American one,” replied founder Daniele Mancini , “we have noticed that there is a lot of transparency in foreign markets. 50% of the agencies are franchisors, there are no private ads, and when selling and buying a home there is great transparency of info on who buys and sells. In Italy we don’t have this luck: fake ads, scams, fake accounts abound. Thus the idea was born, respecting the GDPR, to connect the public land registry, chamber of commerce, court, which are still publicly available, in order to cross-reference data on various people and learn about their history ”.
What features do the databases used by Whuis have? “The databases used by Whuis are databases that can already be consulted for reports, but obviously with different timing, different skills and costs. Whuis does not use, for example, sensitive data such as those on current accounts, cadastral maps, judicial situation or social profiles. But as regards what is in the public domain, the application allows you to quickly search for this data to be able to clearly understand who is approaching the real estate sale. All at the low cost of the subscription to the app, which gives access to a package of research and services composed according to the chosen profile “.
How does the Whuis search work? “By searching through Whuis various reports can emerge that trace the profile of the person on whom the information was sought. In this way one can know its patrimonial history, its solidity in terms of its ability to be solvent, any protests in progress, possible connections with other companies and give the clients of the real estate agency the certainty that the people who are offered them as buyers or sellers are not scammers, or in any case they have the patrimonial capacity to take out a loan or to support a rent. This analysis therefore reduces the risk of fraud, or in any case of running into situations of insolvency ”.
What fields of application does the service have, in particular for real estate agents?”The service provided by Whuis – which is a real investigative service – becomes necessary with the proliferation of the sharing economy, which multiplies the number of people who can access any service, and is intended only for companies and professionals in the real estate sector. consulting. At the moment Tecnocasa, Tecnorete, Tempocasa, the Gabetti group and its associates and Fiaip have joined the service. This is a great help for the proptech professional, the real estate agent but not only, who can thus select the best clientele to work with, developing a tailor-made strategy, avoiding unpleasant situations. Possible applications can also be found in the world of insurance, automotive, marketplaces, accountants, franchises, and even in the world of job recruiting:
What is the added value of this application? “Greater knowledge of the data increases the efficiency of the market for everyone, including private individuals who use the services themselves. Contact a real estate agency and know that the risk of fraud is very low, it is an added value. This is why those who adopt Whuis.com showcase our logo; just to give the customer this kind of security “.