Jet Agent the virtual licensed real estate agent has put its website up for sale on Trade Me.
Jet Agent was launched by its founders John and Andrea Bradley around Christmas last year and its goal has been to
virtualise the role of a real estate agent and provide an online platform for home sellers to sell their home at much
lower fees. It is claimed by Jet Agent that the business model is consistent with other developments overseas and the
overall trend toward the Internet in general.
However, the company is now struggling financially due to a lack of working capital and as a final resort to keep the
concept alive the website itself has been offered for sale.
During the past months the owners have not been idle in their attempts to attract additional equity and Mr Bradley said
that they had put their energies into preparing a public offer but now this appears to have been the wrong option. “Jet
Agent is a start up and was always going to take a year or two before it broke even and we always knew we would have to
attract additional capital from outside investors,” said Mr Bradley, “but I didn’t imagine for a minute that obtaining a
prospectus was going to be such a nightmare.” Mr Bradley said that the Company has been working on preparing a
prospectus and investment statement since February but is still not close to obtaining one.
In order to invite investment from the public, Companies have to comply with the Securities Act which is administered by
the Companies Office. “The rules are that we are not allowed to ask people to invest without a prospectus and after
five months work using two lawyers, two accountants and an auditor we have been unable to obtain one,” said Mr Bradley.
“It’s fairly apparent that the guidelines used by the Companies Office are such that it is virtually impossible for a
start up company like ours to use the public to attract equity. So we have to take drastic action.”
Information about Jet Agent is available on the Jet Agent website and information about the sale is available on Trade
Me.
Ends