He Got Hit With a $70,000 Commission. So He Built a Company to Fix It
Slice of Real Estate Team
07/29/2025
Rishard Rameez didn’t set out to take on real estate. He just wanted to sell his house. But after a painful, outdated process and a $70,000 commission bill, he did what most of us only dream of: he fought back, and turned his frustration into a fast-growing company.
What Zown Does
Zown is a tech-backed real estate brokerage making home buying and selling dramatically simpler and cheaper, especially for first-time buyers. It eliminates bloated commissions and streamlines everything from mortgage to escrow, acting as a one-stop shop for anyone who wants to buy a home without getting burned by the traditional system.
How It All Started
Rameez’s journey to founding Zown didn’t begin in a boardroom. It began with a PhD in nanotech and a bad experience trying to sell his home. After immigrating to the U.S. in 2012 for college and later moving to Canada for grad school, he launched a student carpooling startup that got acquired quickly. But nothing prepared him for the nightmare of selling a home.
“The worst experience of my life,” he said bluntly. The outdated system, the overwhelming process, and the $70,000 in commission fees left him stunned. So he vented anonymously on Reddit. That post went viral overnight. One comment he left, half-jokingly offering to start a company if he got enough upvotes, blew up with 6,000 likes in just hours.
“That was the calling,” Rameez said. “I realized it wasn’t just my frustration, millions of others felt the same.”
Why It Stands Out
Zown doesn’t just digitize paperwork or toss a chatbot on top of the same old system. It rethinks incentives from the ground up. Traditional agents earn more when you overpay for a house. Zown’s model flips that, aligning with what buyers actually want: a good deal and a stress-free experience.
Three years after that Reddit post, Zown has handled nearly $300 million in transactions and become Canada’s fastest-growing brokerage. They recently expanded into California, where early adopters are already closing deals.
Who It Helps
Zown is built for first-time buyers, people often left to fend for themselves in a high-stakes, emotionally charged process. It’s especially powerful for renters trying to make the leap to ownership. Rameez says they even convert their own commissions into down payments to help more people buy sooner.
Where It’s Going
Rameez isn’t shy about his ambition: “Five years from now, we want to own 60% of the homebuyer segment in North America.” That doesn’t just mean more users, it means building a movement to make homeownership accessible and affordable at scale.
Conclusion
Zown didn’t start in a garage. It started with a Reddit post and a founder who was just tired of getting screwed. That raw, relatable origin story continues to shape the company’s customer-obsessed ethos, and if early traction is any indication, Zown might just rewrite the rules of real estate.
