MARKET OUTLOOK, REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT
PRnewswire | May 18, 2023
Curbio, Inc., the leading pay-at-closing home improvement solution for the real estate industry, today announces the launch of its new home staging service. Real estate agents can leverage Curbio's latest offering to help stage their clients' homes seamlessly with no upfront costs, saving sellers time and helping them make more money.
Staging is shown to decrease days on market and increase the price a home sells for. According to the National Association of Realtors, 23% of buyers' agents said that staging a home boosts offers as much as 5% compared to similar homes that weren't staged.
Curbio's physical home staging services includes a team of design experts who strategically lay out furniture and decor to highlight and accentuate a home's most appealing assets.
Home staging is just one of Curbio's services for agents to leverage. The company offers updates and renovations that get sellers a high ROI for their home – everything from cleaning, painting and organizing to full kitchen remodels and whole-home makeovers. Curbio also recently launched its new inspection repair tool, streamlining the estimate and repair processes for agents following home inspection reports, getting homes to the closing stage faster. Sellers do not pay for Curbio's services until closing – with zero fees or interest.
"We are no longer in a hot seller's market, which means buyers are choosier and less willing to pay more for a home that is not move-in ready," said Olivia Mariani, CMO at Curbio. "At Curbio, we are leveraging technology to make it as convenient as possible for agents and their sellers to take the steps that will get them the maximum value for their house – whether that's through home staging, simple updates, major renovations or inspection report repairs."
As the licensed and insured general contractor, real estate agents can hand off any pre-listing home improvement projects to Curbio, so that they can sell their listings for top dollar without spending hours on the phone lining up contractors. Pitching Curbio's fix first, pay-when-you-sell service to win listings is also a popular use-case for agents in a tight inventory market.
Curbio's recently launched mobile app allows real estate agents to get instant estimates for staging services, pre-listing projects and necessary inspection repairs for current and prospective clients. At the touch of a button, real estate agents can generate an immediate price and ROI estimate for repairs, updates and renovations.
Curbio's full-service staging solution is currently available in Washington D.C., Baltimore, Richmond and Philadelphia/South New Jersey markets, with additional market expansions to come. Other markets can work with any stager they choose and use Curbio to pay at closing.
About Curbio
Curbio is on a mission to help real estate agents fix and update homes before they go on the market, so they sell quickly and for the best price, with zero payment due until closing. Founded in 2017, Curbio has quickly become the largest national home improvement company dedicated to pre-listing repairs, updates, and renovations. Curbio has modernized home improvement with an easy-to-use app that accelerates project timelines by 50%, while removing the delays, uncertainties and other frustrations that have plagued home improvement for decades. Their rapid time to listing, coupled with a turn-key approach and project ROI expertise, has made Curbio the most trusted fix first, pay-at-closing home improvement partner to thousands of realtors and brokerages nationwide, including eXp realty, RE/MAX, HomeServices of America, Long & Foster, @properties and many more.
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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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REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT, BUYING/SELLING
Businesswire | April 10, 2023
Rent., a leading provider of integrated marketing solutions to the multifamily and single-family rentals industry, and Realtor.com®, today announced a rental content listing distribution agreement. RentMarketplace. listings now will be distributed to the large Realtor.com® audience in addition to the current exposure on the Rent. family of sites: Rent.com, ApartmentGuide.com, Rentals.com and Redfin.com.
A first in the industry, RentMarketplace. is the only listing network providing multi-family properties access to two of the nation’s largest real estate listing sites: Redfin.com and Realtor.com®.
“At Rent., we are committed to simplifying the rental experience by connecting the right people with the right properties. In teaming up with Realtor.com®, we have significantly expanded the reach of our clients’ listings,” said Jon Ziglar, CEO of Rent. “RentMarketplace. is the only multi-family listing network to cover two of the largest real estate networks in the country, which brings incredible value to our partners and makes it easier for properties to connect with their next renter.”
The rental listing data provided by Rent. complements Realtor.com®’s current rental content derived from direct relationships with single-family and low-rise rental owners, residential property management companies, and multiple listing services nationwide. The addition of the listing data from Rent. provides a more comprehensive experience for people looking for a home or apartment to rent.
Laurence Jankelow, Realtor.com®’s Vice President of Rentals added: “As we continue to invest in and grow Realtor.com®’s open rentals marketplace, we are excited to work with new content partners of all shapes and sizes that allow us to create a better consumer experience for renters on our site. Millions of consumers search Realtor.com® each month for their next home or apartment, and as we continue to expand our audience and listings content to include the widest selection of quality rentals and more choices than ever before, we are helping drive greater results for our partners.”
With this agreement to expand content to the Realtor.com® audience, active subscription client property listings on Rent., which represent a subset of total inventory, will now receive access to over 350 million visits each month, vastly expanding their reach and exposure to potential renters, increasing leads and filling more vacancies.
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. Rent. services the property side of the market with scaled marketing solutions such as search engine marketing, lead nurturing through chat bots 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.
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 [Nasdaq: NWS, NWSA] [ASX: NWS, NWSLV] subsidiary Move, Inc. For more information, visit Realtor.com®.
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