REAL ESTATE TECHNOLOGY,REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT
Grace Hill and Ellis | January 02, 2023
Grace Hill, a pioneer in talent and customer management solutions for commercial and multi-family real estate, recently announced that it acquired Ellis Partners in Management Solutions (Ellis), a provider of mystery shopping and resident and employee survey solutions, and Edge2Learn, an e-learning company offering training and policy management solutions in the multifamily industry. However, the financial details of the transaction weren't revealed.
To aid property owners and operators in retaining top talent and enhancing the financial performance of their properties, Edge2Learn and Ellis offer online training in addition to policy, survey, mystery shopping, and data-driven insights. Over 600 online training courses catering to the needs of multi-family rental communities in the conventional, affordable, student, and senior markets have been developed by the companies. The merged business will offer a cutting-edge employee and property intelligence platform that improves productivity and profitability.
Grace Hill stated that both Edge2Learn and Ellis share the company's dedication to creating world-class training, mystery shopping, and management solutions to assist industry-leading real estate operators and owners in maximizing property performance, mitigating operational risk, and cultivating the talents of their workforce.
Among real estate training and feedback providers, Grace Hill, Edge2Learn, and Ellis have earned a well-earned reputation as industry leaders. Edge2Learn and Ellis are thrilled to join forces with Grace Hill and Aurora groups to form a truly innovative business that meets their combined clientele's current and future needs.
According to Aurora, Grace Hill is a market leader in its own right with enormous expansion potential, and this is the kind of game-changing deal it would like to close early in its hold period.
Since forming a strategic partnership with Aurora in May 2021, Grace Hill has added Kendall Pretzer as CEO, Charles Loop as CFO, Todd Harkness as CRO, Rob Beauchamp as CPO, and Traci Johnson as CMO to its executive ranks. Grace Hill was assisted by the law firms of Massumi + Consoli LLP and Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP.
About Grace Hill
Grace Hill offers cutting-edge SaaS technology solutions for the real estate market, intending to improve people's daily lives in their communities. By drawing on its extensive background in the real estate industry and its knowledge that 'people are better together', Grace Hill assists property owners and managers in boosting their properties' profitability, decreasing operational risk, and training future leaders. Grace Hill's talent performance solutions include policy, training, assessment, survey, and data-driven insights, and are relied on by over 500,000 professionals at over 1,700 businesses.
About Ellis
Ellis, Partners in Management Solutions (EPMS) has helped multi-family housing companies evaluate their sales and marketing effectiveness for over 35 years through its Apartment Mystery Shopping program. Using a multi-step process that captures the customer experience as a whole – from objective technique (shops) to subjective feedback (surveys) to emotional impact (social media) – Ellis offers customers easily attainable solutions that drive customer loyalty, resident retention, and profits.
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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, HOME AND DESIGN
Curbio | February 28, 2023
One of the leading pay-at-closing home improvement solutions provider for the real estate industry, Curbio, Inc., recently announced the release of its new mobile app. The new app enables real estate agents and sellers to get instant estimates for pre-listing home improvement costs and projected ROI allowing them to unlock the actual value of their home with smart, ROI-driven updates.
Curbio's new mobile app is among the pioneers in the home improvement industry, providing convenience, speed, and pricing transparency. At the click of a button, realtors and homeowners can obtain immediate cost and ROI estimates for repairs, updates and renovations. In addition, Curbio's users can either start immediate work with the platform or use this information to make an informed decision regarding pre-listing and pre-sale home improvements.
Curbio's newly launched mobile app offers a user-friendly solution for real estate agents and sellers seeking pre-listing home improvement cost estimates and projected ROI. After entering property details, users can select from a range of home improvement projects, with estimated costs and ROI projections provided for each. This information can be used to request a project proposal from Curbio, with zero fees or interest required for payment at closing. The app aims to help users maximize their property value with smart, ROI-driven updates. The app's cost and return on investment information are based on Curbio's extensive project portfolio. Information is tailored to the specific market, project scope, and project type.
The Curbio mobile app also offers estimates for inspection-related repairs. Agents and their clients can now upload inspection reports directly to the app, and Curbio will provide a same-day, no-obligation estimate of the necessary repairs.
About Curbio
Founded in 2017, Curbio is a company that offers real estate agents and homeowners deliver hassle-free home improvement experiences. The company has rapidly become the largest national provider of pre-listing repairs, updates, and renovations. It has also helped modernize home improvements within a user-friendly app, boost project timeliness by 50% and remove delays and uncertainties restricting home improvement in the past. Based in Potomac (Maryland), Curbio is trusted by over 800 brokerages nationwide.
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