REAL ESTATE TECHNOLOGY, REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT
Businesswire | June 06, 2023
Rent., a leading provider of integrated marketing solutions to the multi- and single-family rental industries, today announced another transformative addition to its RentMarketplace. listings product. The Tour Calendar feature debuts today across four major listings sites within the Rent. network: Rent.com, ApartmentGuide.com, Rentals.com and Redfin.com. This new feature allows prospective renters to schedule and automatically confirm tours at their convenience, based on predetermined tour availability as set by the property team. This means they no longer have to worry about coordinating with busy leasing teams.
Finding the perfect place can be a challenge, but RentMarketplace. is here to make the process easy and convenient for both renters and its property management clients. According to extensive data collected by Rent., almost 90% of renters prefer to tour a community before signing a lease. With the Tour Calendar feature, prospective renters can easily schedule tours at a time that suits their busy lifestyle.
This represents the third major upgrade to the RentMarketplace. network in two months, following the recent launch of Google Aerial View on listings and the announcement of a strategic agreement with Realtor.com® in April, vastly increasing the reach and potential exposure of Rent. listings to 350M+ monthly website visits.
“Tours are a critical driver of securing leases and some Rent. clients with tour capabilities see up to 5x more high-quality leads than clients without tour capabilities,” said Rent. CEO Jon Ziglar. “Our new Tour Calendar solution provides properties, regardless of size, the ability to seamlessly capture qualified leads and improve conversion.”
The Tour Calendar feature greatly benefits property management teams, who are frequently overburdened with the critical tasks of day-to-day operations. The Tour Calendar seamlessly connects a live calendar of tour availability to a property’s listing and the leasing teams’ email, facilitating better communication and vastly improving the renter experience, all from a single dashboard. This means that leasing teams can spend more time on strategic priorities and avoid unnecessary administrative back-and-forth on rental inquiries.
“At Rent. our focus is not only on generating quality leads for our clients. The end goal has to be leases. And, as such, every new enhancement to our listing products is optimized for lead-to-lease conversion,” said Nishant Phadnis, Chief Product Officer at Rent. “Making the tour booking process straightforward is crucial to getting leases signed, and it could also bring a boost to your reputation. New residents love to share in reviews how effortless renting was for them.”
The Tour Calendar feature is now available exclusively for all current and new RentMarketplace. packages at no additional cost. RentMarketplace. is also compatible with leading tour calendar platforms, including AnyoneHome, Entrata, Funnel, MaxLeases, Knock, and Rently.
The RentMarketplace. Tour Calendar will be showcased at the Rent. booth during the NAA Apartmentalize conference, taking place in Atlanta, June 7-9, 2023, where clients and prospects can activate the Tour Calendar real-time and explore its features.
RentMarketplace Tour Calendar is the latest feature to enhance the listing experience and offer renters easy ways to discover and experience a listed property. It joins features such as Google Aerial View, Places Nearby, Walk Score®, Transit Score® and Profile Sync with Google Business Profile. 2023 has been a year of frequent innovation on the Rent. platform. The company also recently launched the multifamily industry’s only automated solution for TikTok advertising and is the first and only rental marketplace network to provide access to two of the country's largest real estate sites, Redfin.com and Realtor.com.
About Rent.
Rent. is a two-sided marketing platform that simplifies the entire renter experience by matching the right property with the right renter, at the right time. Through the Rent. network of websites, mobile apps and partnerships, Rent. clients can reach over 350 million site visits per month. In addition, Rent. services the property side of the market with scaled marketing solutions such as search engine marketing, lead nurturing through chatbots and client automation tools, and reputation management through ratings and reviews, as well as social media monitoring and marketing. This, paired with advanced search filtering and an optimized consumer app and site experience, enables Rent. to offer renters an ideal home-finding experience. Rent. exists to help people find the perfect place. Rent. is operated by Rent Group Inc., a subsidiary of Redfin Corporation.
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REAL ESTATE TECHNOLOGY, MORTGAGE AND LENDING
Businesswire | May 12, 2023
VTS, the commercial real estate industry’s only technology platform that unifies owners, operators, brokers, and tenants to capitalize on opportunities revealed in every square foot of their properties, today announced that it has launched a revolutionary new tenant experience technology offering, VTS Activate, which builds upon the proptech leader’s existing history in the TenEx space. VTS Activate goes beyond the strengths of both VTS Rise and Lane to deliver owners and operators with the unparalleled technology and insights – not just within a building, but across an entire portfolio, creating the ultimate experience for tenants and delivering value like never before.
VTS entered the tenant experience space in March of 2021 with the acquisition of Rise Buildings, and continued its significant investment in the space with the acquisition of Lane in October of 2021. By bringing the best of both softwares together and executing on VTS’ ultimate vision, the team has engineered a transformative technology for its customers to solve today’s unique challenges, including low tenant demand, evolving tenant expectations, and the persistence of hybrid work policies.
VTS Activate is a new solution that enables CRE owners and operators to create a fully integrated office experience. Built with critical technology to retain tenants while differentiating their assets and portfolio, with data and connectivity powered by the VTS Platform. VTS Activate provides tenants with a seamless on-site experience, and the capability to manage their day-to-day needs and activity within a building on one centralized app. VTS Activate is also the only TenEx solution to provide ‘one-app, access anywhere’ functionality – opening a landlord’s entire portfolio to tenants by providing them the capability to choose where they want to work, giving the workers of today the flexibility they demand and delivering a higher level of value. VTS Activate allows owners to turn their portfolio into an interconnected branded ecosystem – they can now deliver their tenants with offerings and experiences across the many places they choose to work.
“Given the challenges of today’s commercial real estate market, retention is of the utmost importance for landlords, and they need to be armed with a solution that activates every tenant, space, and team within a building – deepening relationships with occupants and their talent, while gaining insights that help teams understand their tenants, how they’re using space, and the value they get from it,” said Nick Romito, CEO of VTS. “The launch of VTS Activate brings this all together in one app for owners and operators, and is the result of our considerable investment and commitment to providing the industry with the ultimate tenant experience solution – one that puts the tenant at the forefront.”
With native operations features and sophisticated tools to deliver the right communications, content, and experiences to the right audience, VTS Activate delivers a seamless and personal end-to-end experience at scale, driving engagement and increasing sentiment. Through insights that measure sentiment health and activity, landlords can best anticipate tenant needs, navigate renewals, and expand relationships.
“Emerging on the other side of the pandemic, the notion of where we work has significantly expanded, and a ‘workplace’ is no longer solely a tenant suite – it's a home office, flex space, breakout rooms, and more. VTS Activate provides landlords with the digital infrastructure to accommodate the mobility of today’s tenants, as they look to their landlords and building operators to connect spaces in a way like never before,” said Gijo Mathew, Chief Product Officer of VTS. “Additionally, owners continue to struggle with uncertainty about tenants, their likelihood to renew, and how they’re using space. The data and insights that VTS Activate yields allow for a greater level of clarity on tenant behavior to dictate improved operations, the health of tenant relationships, and ultimately, the best portfolio strategy.”
Beyond insights, access control, and operations management, VTS Activate is a direct, branded channel between the landlord, building manager, tenant companies, and their talent, so the right message can be delivered to the right audience. VTS Activate delivers sophisticated marketing capabilities that allow community managers to create highly configurable, branded programming across their spaces and tenant network. With the tools to create and deliver compelling experiences and offerings – from events and perks, to flex and retail offerings, and more to keep tenants engaged and coming into the office.
“At Tishman Speyer, we are constantly considering what’s next for the industry and appreciate that VTS seeks to do the same,” said Joe Doran, Chief Financial Officer at Tishman Speyer. "We are committed to building community and connection, and products like VTS Activate are all about bringing people together – bridging the physical experience to a digital platform.”
About VTS
VTS is the commercial real estate industry’s only technology company that unifies owners, operators, brokers, and tenants in a single platform to capitalize on opportunities revealed in every square foot of their properties. In 2013, VTS revolutionized the commercial real estate industry’s leasing operations with what is now VTS Lease. Today, the VTS Platform is the largest first-party data source in the industry, transforming how strategic decisions are made and executed by CRE professionals across the globe.
With the VTS Platform, consisting of VTS Lease, VTS Market, VTS Activate, and VTS Data, every business stakeholder in commercial real estate is given real-time market information and workflow tools to do their job with unparalleled speed and intelligence. VTS is the global leader, with more than 60% of Class A office space in the U.S., and 12 billion square feet of office, retail, and industrial space is managed through our platform worldwide. VTS’ user base includes over 45,000 CRE professionals and industry-leading customers such as Blackstone, Brookfield Properties, LaSalle Investment Management, Hines, BXP, Oxford Properties, JLL, and CBRE. To learn more about VTS, and to see our open roles, visit www.vts.com.
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REAL ESTATE TECHNOLOGY, MORTGAGE AND LENDING
Businesswire | May 08, 2023
Axar Capital Management LP (“Axar”) and Morning Calm Management, LLC (“Morning Calm”) today announced the launch of Morning Axe Management (“MAM” or the “Company”), a real estate lending platform formed to offer capital solutions by originating senior loans and mezzanine loans in commercial real estate nationwide. The Company will invest and manage discretionary capital on behalf of life companies and other institutional investors. Morning Axe will setup dedicated headquarter operations in Des Moines, IA with future origination teams spread across the country.
Morning Calm is a vertically integrated real estate investment and management platform with a focus on special situation investing. Axar is a value-oriented investment firm focused on highly flexible, opportunistic investing in the corporate middle market. Since their respective inceptions, Morning Calm and Axar have deployed over $5.0 billion of capital, including real estate investments in target property sectors.
The MAM platform launches with access to approximately $250 million of capital via a separately managed account. MAM has also engaged Raymond James to support additional institutional fund raising. MAM’s strategy is to bring new solutions to commercial property borrowers as traditional lenders work through legacy issues and otherwise seek to deleverage in a rapidly changing market environment. MAM’s new credit and structured finance platform aims to fill that gap. Target property sectors include industrial, multifamily, retail, self storage and office, among others.
“The convergence of rising rates and the decreased availability of real estate credit has created an opportunity for MAM to be a solution to borrowers looking to acquire properties or refinance existing loans. As liquidity remains scarce in the real estate capital markets, we will be well-positioned to be a preferred partner to leading sponsors,” said T.J. Heither, Head of National Originations. “The combination of Morning Calm and Axar Capital bring complementary skill sets, a long history of successful partnerships and significant infrastructure that will allow MAM to efficiently scale and diversify our portfolio of investments.” Prior to joining MAM, Mr. Heither was most recently the Senior Vice President, National Commercial Real Estate, at Susser Bank. Prior to that he held origination and investing roles at Mutual of Omaha Bank and Principal Global Investors.
“This new platform will help borrowers access capital in a challenged market that has seen some of the largest lenders reducing their appetite for risk,” said Mukang Cho, Founder and CEO of Morning Calm. “The real estate credit market has diversified and grown significantly in recent years, and its recent dislocation creates a large void for MAM to fill.”
About Axar Capital Management LP
Axar Capital Management LP is a value-oriented investment firm focused on highly flexible, opportunistic investing in the corporate middle market. Axar's investment team focuses on opportunities across the capital structure in complex situations as a provider of debt and equity solutions that allow its management teams and portfolio companies to realize their long-term value potential.
About Morning Calm Management
Morning Calm Management is a vertically integrated real estate management firm with a focus on special situation investing. Through its affiliates, the firm owns and manages approximately 10 million square feet of commercial real estate throughout the United States on behalf of private and institutional capital.
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