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For most of us, a house is one of the biggest purchases we鈥檒l make in our lives. It鈥檚 an expensive, cumbersome process, not least because of brokerage fees.

For those millennials who, , can鈥檛 afford to buy a house, here鈥檚 how real estate brokers typically get paid: the broker on each side of the deal each take, on average, three percent of the selling price of the home. So, if a house sells for $500,000, the seller and buyer鈥檚 broker(s) collectively take $30,000 off the table for themselves.

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, a Dallas-based company building a tech-enabled real estate brokerage firm, aims to change that by charging a flat $5,000 fee to either the buyer or seller for the transaction. So, if it represented both the buyer and seller in that deal for a $500,000 house, its commission would be $10,000, saving each party a collective $20,000 on the deal.

The company closed of an approximately $12 million Series A round, which was raised in multiple tranches. Door鈥檚 CEO, , confirmed this in a phone interview with 附近上门 News.

Interestingly, the company has only raised a small chunk of its capital from traditional VCs, including from , a German venture fund started by co-founder .

The rest has come from the private investment offices of several wealthy families in Texas. The lead investor in Door鈥檚 round, , is a Dallas-based investor and the son of Carl Westcott, a prominent entrepreneur in the area who founded , among other ventures. Other investors include Jack Pratt, retired CEO of Hollywood Casinos, Door鈥檚 chairperson Roger Ochs, Thomas Hartland-Mackie, and 鈥渟everal members of the Murchison[s],鈥� an oil family that also set up the Dallas Cowboys football franchise.

Why go to family investment offices? Doubet characterized Texas as a VC desert, remarking that, despite having four of the most-populous cities in the U.S., there鈥檚 a 鈥渟urprising lack of institutional funding available.鈥� It鈥檚 a trend that 附近上门 News has observed in its quarterly reporting on the Texan venture capital market.

Doubet remarked that although the large majority of his company鈥檚 capital did not come from traditional VCs, he鈥檚 confident in the guidance his investors, who he called 鈥渆xperienced operators,鈥� can provide. He also told 附近上门 News that there鈥檚 a perception that 鈥済enerational wealth鈥� can be more patient with its capital appreciation, but he says Door is expected to grow at the same pace of any VC-backed startup. Door was involved in 75 real estate transactions in 2016, just over 300 in 2017, and is projected to do over 1,000 in 2018.

He says that the younger generation of high net worth families often lead the way in encouraging Texas鈥檚 family financial managers to extend beyond 鈥渙il wells, fracking, and shopping centers鈥� to invest in technology startups.

Door is not the first or only company to tackle the home brokerage business with a flat-fee business model, which has seen some traction with investors. Los Angeles-based has . London-based raised and another on the London Stock Exchange to enter the US market. And Doubet cited a number of other regional players in the US.

But, the home brokerage sector is huge and still fairly regional, even for these tech-enabled flat-fee brokerages. For now, there鈥檚 plenty of market real estate to go around.