REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT, MORTGAGE AND LENDING
Gantry | January 23, 2023
Gantry, the largest independent commercial mortgage banking firm in the United States, recently informed that it produced $4.93 billion in commercial mortgages in 2022.
Meanwhile, even in 2021, Gantry had produced about $5.15 billion despite economic instability. It has broken records in the last three decades, completing the second-best production of commercial mortgage banking operations.
Jeff Wilcox, Principal of Gantry, said, "Last year was a tale of two halves, where after record setting Q1 and Q2 production totals, the market slowed for price discovery during the second half of the year. Despite the challenges, we have an experienced team that has successfully navigated cycle shifts in the past and operates proactively from that perspective."
(Source - Business Wire)
With $17.5 billion in national-level business in 2022, Gantry has no failed or missed transactions in asset types. This performance led to active interactions with clients as the originator and service provider, an actual rating at the time of placement, and a consultative role in choosing the best financial plan for the client's unique investment objectives. In addition, it examines every investment keenly for variations in performance, maturities, and tenant rollover at the annual assessments.
In 2022, Gantry provided 476 loans, including every type of commercial asset class. Around 85% of Gantry's 2022 production was financed by life insurers, regional banks, and credit unions, with each type of lender performing better for various borrowers. In terms of asset classes, Gantry continues to secure office, retail, and lender-preferred industrial and multifamily loan deals. In addition, Gantry successfully funded specialty assets, such as healthcare and self-storage, through various correspondent or associate lenders.
About Gantry
Gantry, a San Francisco-based private mortgage bank, has many correspondent lenders that use its production, closing, and servicing services. The company, founded in 1991, has approximately 100 employees in regional offices in the western US and New York and over 45 production teams that generated nearly $5 billion in the past year. The $17.5 billion nationwide servicing platform covers over 2,000 loans in 43 states. It is one of the few non-banking, non-insurance chartered companies with a Primary Servicer rating from Standard & Poor's.
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REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT
Real | November 04, 2022
The Real Brokerage Inc. (“Real” or the “Company”) (TSX: REAX) (NASDAQ: REAX), the fastest growing publicly traded real estate brokerage, today announced that it has acquired, through a wholly owned subsidiary, all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Redline Real Estate Group (BC) Inc. (“Redline BC”) pursuant to a share purchase agreement between the Company, Redline BC and Redline Realty Investments Inc. (“Redline Realty”). The acquisition, which includes Redline’s real estate license to operate in British Columbia, will fuel the Company’s expansion into Canada’s third largest province.
Founded in 2005, Redline Realty has approximately 90 agents serving clients throughout the provinces of Alberta, Ontario and British Columbia. The acquisition follows Redline’s move to The Real Brokerage network in October 2021, and underscores the success that Redline’s agents have had under the Real umbrella, which provides agents with the technology, culture and financial incentives to realize their full potential.
“Acquiring brokerage firms as a method to grow agent count is not part of our strategy. Our leading technology, competitive financial incentives and connected community are attracting agents to our platform in record numbers. However, Canada is important to our overall growth and this transaction allows us to leverage our relationship with one of Canada’s top brokerage teams to serve as the foundation for our expansion into British Columbia,”
- Real Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Tamir Poleg
When we joined Real, we were excited to align our team with a company that is bringing real estate into the digital age in a way that empowers agents to best serve clients while creating a culture of innovation, inclusion and trust, Now, one year later we are thrilled to be the catalyst for Real’s Canadian expansion into British Columbia,said Darren Langille, Co-Founder of Redline Realty.
Brett Turner, President and Co-Founder of Redline echoed this sentiment: Our agents continue to be impressed with Real Brokerage’s revolutionary approach to the brokerage industry, and we are pleased to incorporate our BC arm into their model.
Real’s anticipated expansion into British Columbia is the company’s latest milestone in 2022, which includes increasing its agent base by 82% year-to-date to more than 7,000 agents, an agreement to acquire LemonBrew Lending Corp., a tech-enabled home loan platform, and the acquisition of Expetitle, a digital title and settlement company now operating as Real Title. Each acquisition is consistent with Real’s strategy to build a seamless end-to-end home buying experience.
About Real
The Real Brokerage Inc. (NASDAQ: REAX) (TSX: REAX) is revolutionizing the residential real estate industry by pairing best-in-class technology with the trusted guidance of the agent-led experience. Real delivers a cloud-based platform to improve efficiencies and empower agents to provide a seamless end-to-end experience for homebuyers and sellers. The company was founded in 2014 and serves 44 states, D.C., and three Canadian provinces with over 7,000 agents.
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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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