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This week, Opteon celebrates a significant milestone: five years together as one team. Opteon’s customers, people, and passion for innovative, customer-centric solutions have driven the business to success as an international provider of independent valuation, advisory and specialist property services, recognised as being the largest independent valuation professional services firm in Australia and New Zealand.
Opteon has been on a sustained growth journey for more than 16 years. The business started in 2005 as a membership model for six individually owned businesses and, in 2017, evolved into an integrated national valuation company. In 2017, Opteon also expanded into New Zealand with the acquisition of Sheldon’s. The company then moved into the US market with the acquisitions of Apex Appraisal Service (2019), Valucentric (2021) and the William Fall Group, including its related brands, Valuation Partners and Summit Valuation Solutions (2021).
Following the 2019 acquisition of Apex Appraisal Service and the 2021 acquisitions of Valucentric and the William Fall Group, Opteon has added approximately 50% scale to its business and is now a key player in the United States (US) appraisal market.
For Opteon’s customers, this growth – which is underpinned by Opteon’s significant investment in prop tech and great talent – has translated into better service and meaningful solutions across the residential, commercial, agricultural and alternative asset classes.
Driving growth to improve customer outcomes
Opteon’s significant growth trajectory has been quite deliberate and responds to a surge in valuation demand fuelled by strong property markets, low interest rates and refinancing demands. The company’s growth journey is championed by Global CEO Chris Knight who is passionate about improving customer experiences and being at the forefront of finding positive sector enhancements or disruption through great people, process, data, software and technology.
Chris Knight, Opteon's Global CEO
Chris, who moved to Florida to support Opteon’s US strategy implementation, said: “Each market we serve teaches us new things about existing markets we serve. We’ve learnt some key lessons in the US about prop tech, unilateral stakeholder management and serving consumers directly that will inform our future activities in Australia and New Zealand.”
Similarly, Opteon is leveraging its Australian and New Zealand experience in the US market. For example, in Australia Opteon can turn around a valuation in one to three days and in New Zealand three to five days because of its 500+ strong team of valuers, who are experts in their local markets, and its integrated proprietary Valuation Management System (VMS). In the US, it can take up to 15 days to turnaround a residential appraisal.
Investing in market-leading prop tech
Underpinning Opteon’s growth is the company’s ongoing investment in prop tech.
Opteon’s VMS platform simplifies the valuation process and enables the rapid delivery of accurate valuation reports and advice. The company’s recent investment in Seamless Valuations, which integrates a licensed Skedulo system and Opteon’s self-service scheduling portal, will further enhance productivity efficiencies and customer experiences in Australia.
VMS is now being re-engineered for the US market and will be implemented by the local Opteon team. “We are genuinely investing in Opteon’s prop tech business. As a customised solution for the US market, the new VMS will give Opteon’s appraisers access to an end-to-end platform – something that doesn’t currently exist in the US. Because we know we can’t positively transform the market on our own, we plan to share our new VMS platform with the entire appraisal industry in the US after we trial the customised platform with our own team,” said Chris.
Looking at the road ahead
The US-customised VMS platform will support Opteon’s continued growth and penetration of the US market.
“With the right people and tech, we are on a journey to achieving same day valuations for our customers. We’re getting closer to achieving that goal in Australia and New Zealand and our ambitions are taking shape in America,” Chris added. “The industry stakeholders we are talking to are interested in changing the way things are done in the US. By adapting our prop tech for the US market, we plan to make a positive impact on the sector across America.”
More broadly, Opteon will continue to look for acquisitive and organic growth opportunities to better service customers in all its markets. This is likely to include opportunities in lateral markets, such as providing valuation services directly to customers.
In reflecting on the future, Chris observed: “The pandemic has shown us how well flexible working environments operate in our sector. It’s also shown us how remote valuations can work, so I can see a future where valuers do more desk-based analysis and less field work. By rethinking how we leverage our expertise and resource our activities we could create an even more efficient service model.”
Opteon will also continue to anticipate and meet changing customer valuation requirements. For example, sustainability and long-term valuations are likely to become common requirements as consumers, banks and investors increasingly weigh social and environmental factors in their decision-making. Investor interest in alternative asset classes is also expected to grow.
In response to these changes, Opteon will keep innovating collaboratively with its customers and investing in prop tech and talented staff, including valuers, category specialists, data analysts and other innovation specialists.
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[av_timeline_item date='2005 ' title='Launch' icon_image='icon' number_arrow='' icon='ue808' font='entypo-fontello' image='https://www.opteonsolutions.com/au/wp-content/themes/enfold/config-templatebuilder/avia-template-builder/images/placeholder.jpg' attachment='' attachment_size='' milestone_valign='baseline' milestone_color='' custom_milestone_color='' link='' linktarget='' linkelement='all' custom_id='' custom_class='']
Membership model for six individually-owned businesses
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Launch of proprietary valuation management software HALO
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Integration to a national valuation company in Australia
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Expansion into New Zealand with acquisition of Sheldon and Partners
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Acquisition of Apex Appraisal Service in the United States
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[av_timeline_item date='2020' title='ISO cetification' icon_image='icon' number_arrow='' icon='ue812' font='entypo-fontello' image='https://www.opteonsolutions.com/au/wp-content/themes/enfold/config-templatebuilder/avia-template-builder/images/placeholder.jpg' attachment='' attachment_size='' milestone_valign='baseline' milestone_color='' custom_milestone_color='' link='' linktarget='' linkelement='all' custom_id='' custom_class='' av_uid='av-1xdi8s7']
ISO 27001 certification
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Acquisition of Valucentric in the United States
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Acquisition of the William Fall Group in the United States
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1,215 team members across three countries providing around 2,400 valuations / appraisals per day
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