AGENT, REAL ESTATE ADVICE
Anywhere Real Estate Inc. | September 13, 2022
Anywhere Real Estate Inc., a global leader in residential real estate services (formerly known as Realogy Holdings Corp.), recently announced its inclusion on the 2022 Best Workplaces in Real Estate™ list presented by Great Place to Work®.
"We're honored to once again be recognized for our investment in workplace culture, making Anywhere an environment that is collaborative, inclusive, and ripe with opportunities for growth, We owe this recognition to our employees, who share the common goal of empowering everyone's next move and consistently strive for excellence on behalf of our affiliated agents, franchise owners, and each other."
-Tanya Reu-Narvaez, Chief People Officer, Anywhere
The Best Workplaces in Real Estate award is in its first year and is based on analysis of survey responses from over 23,000 employees from Great Place to Work-Certified™ companies in the real estate industry. Anywhere has been a certified Great Place to Work four years in a row based entirely on employee feedback.
Great Place to Work, the global authority on workplace culture, selected the list using rigorous analytics and confidential employee feedback. Companies were only considered if they had been a Great Place to Work-Certified™ organization. Great Place to Work is the only company culture award in America that selects winners based on how fairly employees are treated. Companies are assessed on how well they are creating a great employee experience that cuts across race, gender, age, disability status, or any aspect of who employees are or what their role is.
These companies have adapted to the challenges of an ever-changing workplace by their commitment to inclusive, high-trust cultures where employees are treated as human beings first and foremost, Congratulations to the Best Workplaces in Real Estate,says Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place to Work.
As one of the largest full service residential real estate services companies in the U.S., Anywhere is dedicated to creating a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and is a vocal advocate for equal opportunity and fair housing. In June, the company officially completed its corporate rebrand from Realogy to Anywhere, signifying a strategic emphasis on building a more frictionless and digitized home buying and selling experience for any consumer, anywhere. The transformation also represents the company's mission to further move its culture and talent strategy into the future – empowering employees' growth anywhere in their career journey.
About Anywhere Real Estate Inc.
Anywhere Real Estate Inc. is moving the real estate industry to what's next. As the leading and most integrated provider of U.S. residential real estate services encompassing franchise, brokerage, relocation, and title and settlement businesses as well as a mortgage joint venture, the Company supported approximately 1.5 million home transactions in 2021. The Company's diverse brand portfolio includes some of the most recognized names in real estate: Better Homes and Gardens® Real Estate, CENTURY 21®, Coldwell Banker®, Coldwell Banker Commercial®, Corcoran®, ERA®, and Sotheby's International Realty®. Using innovative technology, data and marketing products, high-quality lead generation programs, and best-in-class learning and support services, the Company fuels the productivity of its approximately 197,600 independent sales agents in the U.S. and approximately 140,600 independent sales agents in 119 other countries and territories, helping them build stronger businesses and best serve today's consumers. Recognized for eleven consecutive years as one of the World's Most Ethical Companies, the Company has also been designated a Great Place to Work four years in a row, named one of LinkedIn's 2021 Top Companies in the U.S., and honored on the Forbes list of World's Best Employers 2021.
About the Best Workplaces in Real Estate™
Great Place to Work selected the Best Workplaces in Real Estate by gathering and analyzing confidential survey responses from over 23,000 employees from Great Place to Work-Certified™ companies in the real estate industry. Company rankings are derived from 60 employee experience questions within the Great Place to Work® Trust Index™ survey. Great Place to Work determines its lists using its proprietary For All™ methodology to evaluate and certify thousands of organizations in America's largest ongoing annual workforce study, based on over 1 million survey responses and data from companies representing more than 6.1 million employees, this year alone.
About Great Place to Work®
Great Place to Work® is the global authority on workplace culture. Since 1992, they have surveyed more than 100 million employees worldwide and used those deep insights to define what makes a great workplace: trust. Their employee survey platform empowers leaders with the feedback, real-time reporting and insights they need to make data-driven people decisions. Everything they do is driven by the mission to build a better world by helping every organization become a great place to work For All™.
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BUYING/SELLING
Own Up and Realtor.com | September 01, 2022
Own Up, a digital mortgage shopping service, today announced a commercial relationship with Realtor.com, a real estate marketplace operated by News Corp’s subsidiary, Move, Inc. Own Up and Realtor.com are mission-aligned companies, both aiming to improve the home buying process for Americans looking to close on their dream homes.
Alongside this new collaboration, Own Up closed a $25M round of funding, led by Brand Foundry Ventures. Realtor.com is among the investors participating in the funding round, which also saw return participation from past investors, Link Ventures and Listen Ventures. The injection of capital will allow Own Up to continue to build out its innovative technology platform, expand its novel shopping experience and product offerings, and invest in the Company’s people and culture.
Own Up and Realtor.com’s relationship will give users direct access to Own Up’s mortgage shopping service, including personalized loan offers from its exclusive lender marketplace and real-time advice from the industry’s only mortgage shopping concierge. The integration with Realtor.com will allow homebuyers to gather detailed information about their home financing options as they search listings and find real estate agents.
The housing market has been increasingly challenging for buyers over the past 12 months, with low inventory, rising prices, higher mortgage interest rates, and high-stakes bidding wars. That has caused heightened stress and anxiety for hopeful buyers, an issue Own Up and Realtor.com hope to work together to address.
“From day one, our singular goal was to be a champion for the consumer and bring greater transparency to the home buying process. As the mortgage industry continues to see changes at a rapid clip, it’s crucial that consumers are armed with the right information to make the best financial decisions, Realtor.com plays an essential role in the home search process for so many Americans and now we’ll be able to provide mortgage education and tools to comparison shop, boosting buyer confidence as they move through the process.”
-Patrick Boyaggi, CEO and co-founder of Own Up
Own Up’s team brings deep mortgage expertise to the Realtor.com online experience, This relationship is a natural fit; together we’re able to expand upon our shared goal of helping Americans find and close on their dream homes,said Realtor.com CFO Bryan Charap.
The housing market is at an inflection point, marked by a lack of inventory and a historic rise in interest rates, and Own Up is uniquely positioned to help consumers navigate one of the most tumultuous components, This next phase of growth will further cement Own Up’s position as the mortgage shopping experts, ensuring no borrower overpays on their mortgage. At this time of inflation and a pending recession, cost-savings has never been more important,said Brian Spaly, General Partner at Brand Foundry Ventures.
About Own Up
Founded in 2016, Own Up is changing the way Americans shop for and secure mortgages, injecting transparency into an opaque process and empowering consumers to make smart financial decisions with the help of intelligent technology and real human advisors.
About Realtor.com®
Realtor.com® is an open real estate marketplace built for everyone. Realtor.com® pioneered the world of digital real estate more than 25 years ago. Today, through its website and mobile apps, Realtor.com® is a trusted guide for consumers, empowering more people to find their way home by breaking down barriers, helping them make the right connections, and creating confidence through expert insights and guidance. For professionals, Realtor.com® is a trusted partner for business growth, offering consumer connections and branding solutions that help them succeed in today’s on-demand world. Realtor.com® is operated by News Corp subsidiary Move, Inc.
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REAL ESTATE TECHNOLOGY, REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT
Berkadia and Esusu | September 08, 2022
Berkadia announced today that it signed an agreement with Esusu, the leading financial technology company leveraging rental data for credit building. This partnership unlocks greater equity for renters, improves property performance for multifamily owners and operators and reduces lender risk.
With a mission to dismantle barriers to housing for working families, Esusu reports on-time rent payments to the three major credit bureaus, Equifax, Transunion, and Experian, to establish and boost credit scores for residents. The collaboration, which launched in the Spring of 2021, has expanded to over 34,000 units, establishing over 5,300 credit scores for residents to date.
“We could not be happier to have a multi-year agreement with Esusu, which allows Berkadia to extend a powerful property performance enhancing solution to our clients, This will help owners and operators reach their own ESG goals at an exceptional value and support Esusu’s critical and innovative objective–helping renters build and improve their credit.”
-Bryce Nyberg, Director of Berkadia Digital
Partnering to Provide Value and Solutions
Seeing the value Esusu could bring to the entire residential ecosystem, a partnership was formed when Esusu joined Berkadia’s inaugural BeEngaged program in February 2020. The partnership has proven to be mutually beneficial and has helped Berkadia develop a competitive advantage as an attractive funding source to owners and operators who value Esusu as both an economic and social solution.
Through Berkadia’s introduction, Esusu services over 285 properties across more than 10 management companies including Burbank Housing, Comunidad, Eagle Property Capital, Morgan Properties, Odin Properties and more.
As a workforce housing provider operating primarily in the inner city, Odin Properties has long been focused on supporting quality of life for our residents, In Esusu, we found a solution and a team that helped further that goal by allowing residents unprecedented access to the financial system, while improving property performance. It has been encouraging to see Esusu grow as their message rightfully resonates with so many different housing stakeholders,said Phil Balderston, Founder & CEO of Odin Properties LLC.
Supporting an Equitable Housing Market
Throughout the partnership, there has been growing industry awareness around the criticality of equity in multifamily housing. This was further emphasized when Esusu announced a collaboration with Freddie Mac.
Through their joint initiative in support of increasing equitability in the housing market, Freddie Mac provides closing cost credits to multifamily borrowers who agree to use Esusu to report on-time rental payments. Esusu also provides discounted pricing for these and other Freddie Mac borrowers who agree to report on-time rental payments through the platform.
Our credit building initiative has helped build or establish credit scores for tens of thousands of multifamily renters nationwide, It is an essential component of our effort to build a more equitable multifamily housing system,said Corey Aber, Vice President of Mission, Policy and Strategy for Freddie Mac Multifamily.
Utilizing Real-Time Data for Returns
Esusu not only improves the quality of life for residents but also helps properties maximize net operating income (NOI). By adding Esusu to Berkadia’s expansive network, borrowers can see scalable social impact results–credit score increases, new established scores, eviction prevention–as well as economic returns through improved rent collections, reduced delinquencies and renter turnover, and thereby healthier cash flows.
We are grateful for our long-standing collaboration with Berkadia, The firm took an early bet on Esusu through their BeEngaged program which has paved the way for Esusu’s proliferation throughout the marketplace. Berkadia has shared our vision from day one and their foresight has led to adoption by other lenders and sponsors throughout the industry. Together, we will continue to create a world-class experience for their sponsors while taking tangible steps towards dismantling barriers to housing and bridging the racial wealth gap,said Samir Goel and Wemimo Abbey, Co-Founders and Co-CEOs of Esusu.
About BeEngaged
Launched in 2019, the BeEngaged program advises and accelerates startups that are redefining the commercial real estate industry by providing them with resources, strategic counsel, and a collaborative network to test and grow innovative concepts. Since then, the organization has accelerated more than a dozen CRE tech startups, including Esusu.
BeEngaged features three stages to foster innovation and collaboration across the commercial real estate industry: BeEngaged Network®, Verified Status, and the BeEngaged Lab®. The BeEngaged Network® develops an ecosystem of founders, industry professionals, and capital providers dedicated to redefining the commercial real estate space. Companies participating in the BeEngaged Network® that have proven potential for long-term growth and industry transformation can be invited to seek Verified Status (VP). This stage provides company founders with focused mentorship for validating strategic alignment to participants of the BeEngaged ecosystem through experiments and pilots. Successful VP companies are invited to join BeEngaged Lab®, which is a catalyst for founders and Berkadia to collaborate on long-term initiatives.
About Berkadia®
Berkadia, a joint venture of Berkshire Hathaway and Jefferies Financial Group, is a leader in the commercial real estate industry, offering a robust suite of services to our multifamily and commercial property clients. Through our integrated mortgage banking, investment sales and servicing platform, Berkadia delivers comprehensive real estate solutions for the entire life cycle of our clients’ assets.
About Esusu
Esusu is the leading financial technology platform that leverages data solutions to empower residents and improve property performance. Esusu's rent reporting platform captures rental payment data and reports it to credit bureaus to boost credit scores. This allows renters to build and establish their credit scores while helping property owners mitigate against initiating evictions, powered by differentiated data and insights. Founded in 2018, Esusu reaches over 2.5 million rental units across all 50 states in the U.S.
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