Real estate revolution: Pave co-founders aim to redefine property buying and management

If you’ve ever looked into buying properties overseas, you know how complicated and convoluted the process can get. Enter Pave, a revolutionary new real estate brokerage that allows you to buy and manage properties online. Started by Alan Schmoll and Charlie Temple, two tech entrepreneurs on a mission to create a client-centric, end-to-end solution for property management worldwide, Pave is something that should definitely be on your radar.

We had a chat with Pave’s co-founders to find out more about their backgrounds, the company’s origins and ambitions.

What were you guys doing before Pave?

Alan: I was working in banking and software. After college, I worked in the regulated world of institutional capital markets at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Tokyo and Hong Kong. I later worked alongside leading developers on enterprise software-as-a-service (SaaS), cyber security and cloud infrastructure projects, having founded a tech-enabled corporate services firm (Lanturn) and a SaaS provider of Corporate Governance software (Zave). 

Charlie: As a serial entrepreneur, I started my career working in sales and business development with PURE Group, after which I left to start several fitness brands in Hong Kong, the Philippines and Singapore. Most recently, I’ve been working with listed developers in Thailand to help them expand their sales distribution channels in Hong Kong and China. 

What exactly is Pave and how does it fit into the Hong Kong market?

Charlie: Essentially, Pave is a tech-enabled real estate brokerage that allows people to buy and manage properties online. We also provide an end-to-end solution for our clients from development and launch all the way to property management after the transactions. With Hong Kong being an investment hub and coupled with the city’s unaffordable housing prices, people are looking overseas more than ever to invest in real estate.

“Our long term goal is to become the leader in global property buying and management for Asian property owners. We want to make the process as simple as possible for our clients and give them extreme transparency in the process and costs involved as well.”

Alan Schmoll

How did you first come up with the idea for Pave, and what are your aspirations?

Alan: Pave came to life after we realised that the current process for buying and managing properties overseas was very inefficient and manual. There was no clean solution for our clients. That’s why we wanted to make Pave very client-centric. Once we are comfortable with our service to the Hong Kong market, we are planning to look at Singapore, China, Taiwan and Japan. 

What are Pave’s strongest competitive advantages and how does it stand out in the market?  

Alan: Pave operates around three key pillars: relevance in the properties that we promote, transparency with our clients and simplicity with the transaction and processes. We provide immense value for companies of all stages with a focus on longevity and repeat business, and our understanding of the industry extends into the future beyond just current movements.

We pride ourselves on offering a diverse range of distribution and marketing channels, both online and offline, and we work with a number of partners who are leaders in their field to ensure that our clients have as much exposure as possible. 

You’ve signed partnerships with some Thai developers as the first partners for Pave. Why Thailand?

Charlie: Having spent the last 18 months in Thailand and understanding the economic landscape, it’s hard to ignore the massive growth in the kingdom. Thailand has long been a global leader for tourism and relocation for people from all over the globe and one of the most attractive investment options in Southeast Asia given the transparency and encouragement from the foreign direct investment (FDI) to grow Thailand’s economy.

What are some of the challenges you’ve faced so far?

Charlie: The current global climate makes it difficult to plan and connect with people overseas as travel is heavily restricted – Alan and I have not seen each other since July 2019 – however, we were still able to get Pave off the ground remotely. And since we focus on cross-border business, it also means that we are restricted from visiting our partners and doing site visits. We rely heavily on our local partners and although we’re all working in different time zones, we still managed to make it work.

Any upcoming projects you’re excited about in Pave?

Charlie: Initially, Pave will be focused on the cross-border property sales aspect of the platform. In the second quarter of the year, we plan to launch the property management aspect, which will allow people to upload their properties in the Pave portal for us to manage. The third pillar we will be launching is Pave Bespoke, a tailor made service for clients where we’ll help source, negotiate and do due diligence on properties that match their requirements. 

Learn more about Pave at yourpave.com