Interviews at the heart of real estate
Monga’s mission?
Monga is a young company specializing in assisting real estate professionals and occupants with all types of technical requests. This can involve: repairs, maintenance, structural work, for all building trades and all over France.
Our mission is to optimize the value of our customers’ assets by improving technical management and related processes.
In concrete terms, we are providing three digital tools to harmonize the transmission of information on these subjects between the three poles of the real estate ecosystem:
- An application designed for occupants, who in our view have THE central role in real estate. They’re the ones who live in the property, so they’re the lifeblood of the asset. The application first lets them interface their profile with the lot they occupy, including in the tertiary sector: hotels, offices, logistics, retail… Then, it lets them easily send their requests to property managers or lessors, and above all, to be sure that the message has got through. From the application, they can more easily track the request that has been generated.
- A dashboard accessible to real estate professionals, which will first enable them to centralize requests in a single entry point. The dashboard will then enable them to arbitrate occupants’ requests very simply, and outsource the processing of the request if they agree. Our added value is to take charge of virtually the entire technical management workflow: finding the right craftsman, receiving quotations, making appointments, following up, accompanying the occupant… Finally, the dashboard will give them better traceability of the improvements that have been made to the assets, and their cost. This can be very useful when applying for refinancing, for example. The aim is really to enable professionals to refocus on value creation, on customer relations, on increasing their customer portfolio…
- An application made available to our network of craftsmen and building professionals. Normally, this part of the business is extremely fragmented. In France, there are around 400,000 construction companies. That’s around 1 million professionals… Without support, you’re quickly confronted with the difficulty of finding the right person who’s available, well-positioned in terms of price, reliable and consistent in terms of quality of service… With our network, you can find the right person much more quickly, fluidly and transparently.
What made you decide to launch Monga?
I worked for 10 years in real estate investment.
I had noticed a certain lack of consistency in the technical management of the assets, but the real trigger came from a personal experience. I was a tenant in an asset owned outright by one of France’s biggest property developers. I was very confident about the support I would receive in the event of problems, but I was quickly disillusioned!
In the middle of January, my family and I found ourselves without heating and hot water because the gas boiler had broken down. I called the Property Manager 10 times, to no avail. I sent an e-mail and received an automatic reply informing me that she had left for 15 days, without mentioning any contact to replace her. By relationship, I obtained the number of the technical department… I was told that I absolutely needed a service order from the manager before sending anyone! In the end, we had to live with my parents for 3 weeks while the situation was sorted out.
It was after this episode that I asked myself what had led to this situation with such a major player. I conducted around a hundred interviews, with property developers, real estate management agencies, etc. I interviewed property managers, lessors, family offices…
That’s when I realized that technical management was the bête noire of all these players! In fact, it can account for 70% of an asset manager’s time under normal circumstances. It’s very disappointing, especially when you consider that these missions create very little value and are very repetitive!
At first, we launched a service for small, day-to-day issues (repairs/maintenance, refurbishment for asset relocation). Then, as time went by, we received proposals to challenge certain estimates received by our customers for finishing work. Little by little, we broadened the scope of our services and partners.
Your acquisition strategy?
The highlight of our project is the sourcing of artisans.
To attract the best from all over France, we start by requalifying the databases accessible to all. We carry out a very thorough administrative audit to check that the company is solvent, that there is no concealed work… This has already enabled us to eliminate 40% of the companies. Then we have brokers analyze their ten-year insurance certificates. This enables us to check that the company is properly covered for the trades concerned. If everything is in order, we offer to renegotiate their insurance (which normally costs between 2 and 5% of their sales before tax) via these brokers.
Finally, we offer them the following deal: we don’t take any percentage of the business brought in, but in return, they guarantee us the best quality/price ratio on the market. Generally speaking, this is between 10% and 15% below market pricing. This process creates a real bond of partnership and trust. In the end, an average of 1 artisan out of 11 is Monga certified.
As regards customer sourcing, we started by mobilizing our natural real estate network to create our first flow of business. Then it snowballed, mainly through word of mouth. This proves that whatever the size of the structure, there is a real need. Both for pricing that’s not unreasonable and for a real contribution to asset enhancement, even in the case of a merchant project.
Your business model?
We have no intention of monetizing our relationship with our craftsmen. On the contrary, we want to maintain the healthiest possible relationship and avoid conflicts of interest.
Our business model is based solely on monetizing our relationships with real estate professionals:
- on the residential part: SaaS costs 2 euros (excl. VAT) per lot per month
- in the commercial sector: SaaS costs 20 centimes (excl. VAT) per m2 per month
It provides access to free-access interfaces and to the Monga network of certified craftsmen, and covers all workflows relating to technical management.
4 figures on your business?
- 41 business customers
- 400,000 residential lots throughout France
- 1.5 million in sales in the first year of business
- Deployment on 600,000 lots by the end of the second year of operation.
What’s your biggest challenge right now?
Our challenge will be to structure our company, particularly through recruitment. As with our partner craftsmen, we’re going to have to identify the right talents, those who will help us carry our project forward and who will be able to integrate into the culture of our small group. It’s a big challenge, because it’s they who will occupy the key positions in the company, and who will seek out the verticals that are emerging around our business.
To give you an idea, we have a recruitment plan for 25 people this year… so let’s hear it! By the way, if anyone is interested, they can contact us via our website.
The latest success story?
We work with a family office that develops projects with very high added value. It buys buildings for restructuring. Last year, they put out a call for tenders for m2 of commercial real estate in the 16th arrondissement. With 3 weeks to go before the deadline, he asked us to respond with some of our partners! He felt that the “majors” (Vinci, Bouygues, Spie Batignolles) were going to present projects that were too costly.
In response, we commissioned a general contractor, well known in the Paris marketplace, and a general building contractor, itself a subcontractor to these majors. We presented a strategy at 6M euros, whereas the majors responded with a range of 7.2 to 7.5M euros.
A fun fact?
Yes! Monga was 2 and a half months old at the very beginning.
We had to leave our first offices and one evening at 9.30pm, while I was on the phone, the doorbell rang. I let the person in while continuing my telephone conversation, and I saw her taking photos, projecting herself etc… I hung up, engaged in conversation, and learned that it was the boss of a large insurance company! I get him talking about the work he’s planning and tell him that Monga can help him with this. In a poker game, I offer to provide him with some quick plans free of charge, just so he can see. He was interested, and I sent him quotes from our certified craftsmen. For the same services, we were 40% cheaper than the craftsmen he was used to working with! So he signed with us, but the company I hired didn’t send people out to the site every day. They do a remarkable job, very efficiently, but every time the customer comes by, there’s nobody there! He’s worried, but we’re there to reassure him!
In the end, we delivered 5 days ahead of schedule. It was literally unheard of! Since then, he has entrusted us with all his claims, which not only brings us additional business, but also a good network of potential customers.
What do you think is the biggest opportunity in the French real estate market?
Before launching Monga, I had no idea that the subject of “works” was such a cornerstone of real estate. I’d had very little exposure to it, even though I’d been working for 10 years!
With an approach based on optimizing value through technical management, we have generated a very interesting flow of business overall. On the transaction side, as we work with property administrators (managers, syndic), we know in advance when there is going to be work to refurbish for rental or sale. On the insurance side, we’ve also created a market for ourselves… These are verticals that naturally presented themselves to us and that we wouldn’t have been able to touch if we’d dealt with a subject other than works.
Other verticals are beginning to emerge, such as financing. We’ve been contacted by an investor who has a development project and wants to carry out the construction using the “works for equity” model, for example.
So I think that Monga’s approach to technical management represents a real opportunity for the real estate industry and real estate professionals.
The mantra that makes you feel great?
I don’t have a mantra as such, but every day I try to be THE best version of myself, it’s a constant, daily process.
