REAL ESTATE TECHNOLOGY, MORTGAGE AND LENDING
Lower and Opendoor | January 19, 2023
The financial services company Lower recently announced the launch of its brand new mortgage-as-a-service (MaaS) platform, which makes it simple for consumer brands to provide mortgage solutions to clients.
After conducting a successful test of the service, Opendoor, the industry-leading e-commerce platform for residential real estate transactions, has decided to outsource all its mortgage fulfillment to Lower.
Setting up an in-house mortgage lending operation has been a time-consuming task for many companies in the past. Lower's MaaS platform allows the consumer finance, banking, and real estate industries to offer a digital-first home financing experience quickly and easily, with white-labeling possibilities. It is possible to integrate it into the customer journey of the partner by using APIs and other no-code methods.
Opendoor's early adoption of Lower demonstrates that the service's distinctive combination of human skill and technology has proven successful for the Lower team.
Chelsea Wagner, newly appointed as SVP of Partnerships to oversee the new platform, remarks, "Nearly every proptech and fintech company we talk to has some version of home lending on their roadmap. It's a natural value add, but until now there wasn't a solution. Our infrastructure and expertise make us uniquely positioned to accelerate a new mortgage offering.” She further added, "We believe the demand will be high for this product as a new, easily implemented product offering for companies."
(Source – Cision PR Newswire)
In context to the new platform, Co-Founder and CEO Dan Snyder continued, "We've taken our years of mortgage experience and processes, and allowed any business to offer mortgage to its customers. This is a big step for brands that have captive audiences but not the means or experience to offer such products. It allows companies like Opendoor to stay focused on what they do best, while adding a new product that lives up to their brand promise and expand their reach."
(Source – Cision PR Newswire)
The MaaS solution enables businesses to immediately offer home finance choices to their customers while increasing their lending presence to more than 93% of the US population. Customers will get access to Lower's full array of products, which will allow them to personalize lending solutions to their unique needs.
About Lower
Lower's multi-channel financial platform assists clients in building wealth through homeownership, regardless of where they are in life's path. The company's mortgage, banking, insurance, and real estate solutions offer customers a straightforward environment to simplify their homeownership aspirations, whether it's their first or last house.
About Opendoor
Opendoor, founded in 2014, empowers everyone with the freedom to move. The company wants to create a digital, end-to-end customer experience that makes purchasing and selling a home simple, certain, and fast. The company has developed a varied staff to serve more than 100,000 houses it has bought and dealt with, as well as the consumers who have trusted it to handle one of their most significant financial transactions.
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REAL ESTATE TECHNOLOGY,REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT
Lessen | January 17, 2023
Lessen, the leading tech-enabled outsourced property services platform, recently announced the strategic acquisition of facilities maintenance technology leader SMS Assist.
By combining the complementary strengths of both organizations, Lessen will continue to address real estate's pain points, offering its clients a scalable, tech-enabled enterprise solution for residential and commercial services. As a result, the companies will serve around 250,000 residential and commercial properties nationwide, enabling approximately 2.5 million repair and maintenance orders annually, in addition to expanding their property services.
The transaction is completed with stock and cash, with Lessen raising roughly $500 million in combined new debt and equity. SMS Assist stockholders exchanged a portion of SMS stock for Lessen stock, resulting in a combined company valuation of over $2 billion. Debt and equity investors, including Värde Partners, Monroe Capital, and Koch Real Estate Investments, assisted with this transaction. Invitation Homes and American Homes 4 Rent are among the clients who invested in the deal with Lessen.
Following the conclusion of the transaction, Lessen's Jay McKee will continue to serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of the newly-merged company. He states, "Lessen recognized early on the opportunity to provide an enterprise-level solution that solved the real estate industry's long-tenured property services pain points." He added, "This deal demonstrates the increasing demand within the underpenetrated, $330 billion addressable North American property services market for a unified, extensible delivery platform that provides transparency, efficiency and data-driven insights for the entire real estate ecosystem including investors, owners, managers and service providers.
(Source – Business Wire)
The new, unified technology platform will allow various service providers—from painters, contractors, and plumbers to electricians and more—to work as one on a national scale, which was previously impossible. The quality of this work will be supervised and inspected by Lessen's in-house project managers. This integrated solution will assist owners in overcoming skilled labor shortages while lessening administrative burden, enhancing project efficiency, and providing real-time project updates.
About Lessen
Lessen is the only end-to-end tech-enabled solution for outsourced real estate property services that delivers consistency, quality, and speed at scale, focusing on single-family and multifamily rental renovations, turns, and maintenance. Through automation and real-time analytics, the firm's technology suite is disrupting and modernizing a project management space that is still reliant on traditional organizational and communication models. The company's professional field project managers provide on-the-ground service, utilizing a network of verified service professionals in over 40 markets across the country, all powered by its proprietary technology platform.
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REAL ESTATE TECHNOLOGY, INVESTMENTS
Inside Real Estate and BoomTown | January 24, 2023
BoomTown and Inside Real Estate recently announced their merger to establish the industry's premier residential real estate technology firm.
This merger will create a residential real estate software and services market leader in product and customer categories. After the acquisition, Inside Real Estate may help top franchises, brokerages, teams, and agents better manage their operations. Its research and development (R&D) and customer service will also help the new company come up with new ideas and help real estate agents get ahead quickly. Both missions help real estate professionals succeed.
Grier Allen, CEO of BoomTown, expressed, "This is the first day of an exciting new chapter for BoomTown and our clients." He further added, "Joining Joe and the talented Inside Real Estate team enables us to continue on our combined mission to serve the real estate industry with world-class technology and services. With a clear vision for the future, we look forward to accelerating the pace of innovation to fuel our clients' growth and success."
(Source – Newswire)
Inside Real Estate and BoomTown have a history of providing high-value, innovative solutions that help real estate professionals improve business outcomes, gain a competitive edge, and increase transactions and revenue. The merger will create the largest and most active community of high-performing real estate professionals and combine award-winning technological solutions, top-tier client support, and services offered by both companies.
When pooled, these assets and supports will allow us to accomplish - the best user experience in the front office, the most advanced back office software, a dynamic marketplace, and a global network of technology partners, and the most- innovative homeownership solutions in the business.
Nick Macey, President of Inside Real Estate, said, "This combination brings together significant capability to innovate as a true technology partner and support the needs of our customers." "Our passionate, capable team is committed to leading with the features, products and solutions that drive agent, team, brokerage and enterprise brand success," he concluded.
(Source – Newswire)
About Inside Real Estate
Over 4 lakh leading brokerages, agents, and teams trust Inside Real Estate, a fast-growing, independently-owned real estate software company. kvCORE platform, its flagship product, is the industry's most modern and comprehensive solution for broker growth at every level. Inside Real Estate's 250 outstanding workers and accomplished leadership team enable them to innovate and succeed for their growing customer base.
About BoomTown
BoomTown gives its users a mobile app for agents on the go, transaction management, commissions, and accounting, a mobile website that can be customized and linked to local MLS data, personalized advertising, lead creation services, and more.
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