AGENT, MORTGAGE AND LENDING
Knock | January 25, 2023
Knock, an innovative fintech company, announced on January 24, 2023, that agents and consumers would no longer have to choose between working with their local or national lenders.
The company informed that any lender or agent can now add a no-interest equity advance loan from Knock to almost any conventional or jumbo mortgage to increase the benefits of Knock Home SwapTM. In addition, homeowners can win their desired property and move on their timeline by matching Knock Home Swap Equity Advance with a purchase mortgage.
Knock Co-Founder and CEO Sean Black stated, "Since 2015, our mission has been to empower people to move freely, and we have continued to raise the bar when it comes to making the process of buying and selling homes simple, certain and cost-effective."
"Many companies offer home loans, but no one else offers the Home Swap. By partnering with lenders, we are making it easier for consumers to get the benefits of leveraging the equity in their current house to buy their dream home without any of the hassles that typically come with buying and selling, including the ability to avoid moving twice and living through repairs and showings," he added.
(Source – Cision PR Newswire)
Before putting their current house on the market, a homeowner can use Knock Home Swap Equity Advance to make a firm offer, negotiate, and close quickly on the home they want.
Knock Home Swap Equity Advance loan can also be used to make up to a 30% down payment, buy down the mortgage rate, cover closing expenses, cover up to $35,000 in home preparation costs to sell the old house for top cash, and pay up to six months of mortgage payments on the previous house. Besides, Knock's Home Prep & Marketability Allowance gives access to its approved contractor network and pays all bills out of homeowners' equity.
About Knock
Knock was started in 2015 by founding team members of Trulia.com. Since then, it has raised more than $600 million in debt and equity from top investors. National Association of Realtors® is a strategic investor in Knock through its investment arm, Second Century Ventures. This means that Knock's homeownership solutions can be sold to its clients by its 1.5 million members. The company currently operates 72 markets across the country but wishes to expand to 100 by 2023.
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BROKERAGE,REAL ESTATE TECHNOLOGY
Side | January 05, 2023
INFINITAS Realty recently announced a collaboration with Side, the only provider of real estate technology that works with top-performing brokers, teams, and agents to help them become market-leading boutique brands. Through this agreement, INFINITAS Realty will be able to offer its future-proof services on the market's most cutting-edge platform.
INFINITAS Realty is challenging the entire real estate sector to advance in order to reach its high standards. The team provides seamless client experiences that are complemented by its transaction coordination software, called Property Wand, and private services in staging, design, and landscaping. The company achieves this by striking a balance between a traditional work ethic and advanced technological innovations.
With the help of Side, INFINITAS Realty will be able to keep up with the ever-changing real estate industry and continue to provide excellent service to its customers. The San Francisco-based company Side provides INFINITAS Realty with a comprehensive brokerage platform that includes proprietary technology, transaction management, branding and marketing services, public relations, legal support, lead generation, vendor management, infrastructure solutions, and more. In addition, INFINITAS Realty will become part of a select group of Side partners, expanding their access to global business infrastructure.
INFINITAS Realty said that it is excited to raise the bar in the real estate industry and make changes that are much needed. It went on to say that with Side's cutting-edge marketing, technological, administrative, and legal services, the company can take its disruptive approach to new heights and assist more clients in actualizing their dreams.
About SIDE
Side is the first real estate brokerage platform on the market. It lets the best agents, teams, and independent brokers build and grow their businesses without managing a brokerage, which can be challenging, expensive, and risky. In contrast to consumer-facing brokerage companies, Side provides its partners with time-saving technology and superior support services so that they can focus on what is more critical, i.e., servicing their clients and communities.
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REAL ESTATE TECHNOLOGY, AGENT
Businesswire | March 27, 2023
Cloze, an AI-based intelligence provider focused on the real estate market, announced today that Brown Harris Stevens (BHS), the premier privately held real estate brokerage, has successfully rolled out Cloze CRM as part of its market-leading BHSOne initiative. Within just six weeks, adoption of Cloze CRM has overachieved its initial targets, driven initially by a highly successful internal marketing campaign that itself used Cloze, and fueled further by agent-to-agent recommendations from early adopters.
“We looked at many different CRMs, and Cloze gave us three clear reasons why it was the only partner for us,” said Matthew Leone, chief marketing officer at Brown Harris Stevens. “First, there was no barrier to entry. We were amazed at how easy it was to log in, create an account, and get onboarded. Second, you can access all of its functionality through its mobile application—our agents are in front of their phones 100% of the time. And finally, the integration of artificial intelligence was a game changer. We’ve seen how it can as a virtual assistant suggest the proper prospecting steps and touchpoints with everyone in their sphere of influence leading to a higher engagement rate.”
In contrast to typical CRMs that expect agents to constantly update and log their activities and contacts into the system, Cloze silently manages that busywork in the background without disrupting an agent’s daily workflows. Through the insights extracted from agent communications, Cloze CRM flags action items and due dates and recommends how, when, and why to reach out to new and previous clients, highlighting special events, birthdays, or anniversaries, for example, or bubbling up contacts that could benefit from outreach.
“Cloze is by far the best CRM I have ever used,” described Holly Smith, an agent affiliated with BHS’ Palm Beach office. “The AI features are amazing. It reminds you each morning who you need to follow up with, logs and attaches all calls and emails to a contact, and even writes emails for you with AI.”
As part of an internal use case, BHS’ marketing team used Cloze to increase email engagement rates from 10-20% to 80-100% by delivering customized, relevant content to each of the brokerage’s 2,500+ agents. Such customization was made possible because Cloze combines a robust template library with automated processes and AI-generated insights, making it simple to provide highly customized content relevant to each recipient and to do so at scale. The result has been the ability to reach more people in less time with more authenticity.
“Our goal was to provide a tool that would make our agents and managers more efficient in communicating while helping them keep on top of tasks, even as they’re managing multiple deals at different points in the home-buying process,” explained BHS CTO Chris Reyes. “Cloze not only met those expectations, but exceeded them.”
For more information on how BHS agents are deriving value from Cloze CRM, check out the case study and video interview at https://blog.cloze.com/cloze-crm/cloze-the-ai-driven-game-changer-for-brown-harris-stevens/.
About Cloze
Cloze’s artificial intelligence (AI)-powered real estate platform translates everyday communications into actionable insights that brokerages and their agents use to close more deals, drive higher revenue, and increase profitability. Cloze achieves this by strengthening relationships, reducing manual work, driving a more consistent lead-to-close experience, and improving both marketing ROI and overall closure rates.
Cloze’s full suite of real estate solutions includes Cloze CRM, Cloze Marketing, Cloze Leads, and Cloze AI Insights. To learn more, visit cloze.com.
About Brown Harris Stevens
Brown Harris Stevens (BHS) is one of the most prominent privately-held real estate firms in the world. Established in 1873, BHS has historically dominated the luxury, high-end market. With more than 2,500 agents across the East Coast, the company oversees the sale of marquee properties worldwide, including property management and new development marketing, from its headquarters in New York City and its offices throughout the Tristate area, Palm Beach, and Miami. Learn more at www.bhsusa.com.
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