BROKERAGE,REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT
Real | December 12, 2022
The Real Brokerage Inc. (“Real” or the “Company”) (TSX: REAX) (NASDAQ: REAX), the fastest growing publicly traded real estate brokerage, today announced it has successfully completed its acquisition of LemonBrew Lending Corp. (“LemonBrew Lending”), a tech-enabled home loan platform.
The acquisition broadens Real’s product portfolio to include mortgage brokerage services and is a critical step in the Company’s mission to offer a seamless end-to-end home buying experience that removes pain points for both agents and their customers. Licensed as a mortgage brokerage in 20 states throughout the U.S., LemonBrew Lending provides the foundation for Real to offer consumers the ability to finance their home purchase with Real, removing the need to work with multiple service providers.
“LemonBrew Lending’s current mortgage capabilities and future lending potential, brings us one step closer to our strategy of providing consumers a frictionless home buying experience,”
- Tamir Poleg, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Real Brokerage
The LemonBrew Lending team is excited to take the mortgage lending platform we have developed to the next level, and couldn't be happier that we get to do this in partnership with Real's best-in-class technology, said Samir Dedhia, Chief Executive Officer of LemonBrew Lending.
With Real’s earlier acquisition of Expetitle, a digital title and settlement company, now operating as Real Title, Real now has added mortgage and title capabilities to its growing brokerage platform in 2022.
Summary of the Acquisition
Pursuant to the terms of a share purchase agreement dated September 23, 2022 between the Company, LemonBrew Lending and LemonBrew Technologies Corp. (the “Seller”), the Company acquired 100% of the issued and outstanding equity interests of LemonBrew Lending from the Seller for an aggregate purchase price of $1,250,000 (the “Acquisition”). The purchase price was satisfied by (i) cash in the amount of $800,000 and (ii) the issuance of 351,837 common shares (the Consideration Shares) at a deemed issued price of $1.279 per share. The issued price of the Consideration Shares is equal to the product of $450,000 divided by the 5-day volume weighted average trading price of Real’s common shares on the NASDAQ immediately prior to the closing of the Acquisition.
The Consideration Shares are subject to a six-month hold in accordance with applicable securities laws and have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “U.S. Securities Act”) and are “restricted securities” within the meaning of Rule 144 of the U.S. Securities Act subject to restrictions to the effect that the Consideration Shares may not be reoffered or resold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements.
In connection with the closing of the Acquisition, the Company entered into certain agreements with management and key employees of Lemonbrew Lending (the “Key Employee Agreements”). The Key Employment Agreements provide for certain performance-based milestone payments of $2,500,000 payable over 36 months following closing of the Acquisition, of which $2,000,000 with be payable in cash and $500,000 will be payable in restricted share units of the Company.
About Real
The Real Brokerage Inc. (TSX: REAX) (NASDAQ: 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 home buyers 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,HOME AND DESIGN
Rently | January 12, 2023
Rently, the industry leader in self-touring and smart home technology solutions, recently introduced a new feature on its Smart Home App. This new feature will assist technicians in accelerating the installation process using automated tools. It will also enable property managers to receive real-time notifications about successful smart home activations.
Installers can now easily verify their identity and begin the installation process using Rently's Smart Home App. The app also provides stepwise instructions, guiding the installers through the entire process. This removes the need to call technical support to activate devices, which leads to significant time savings.
Merrick Lackner, the CEO of Rently, states, "Rently recognizes the critical role that installers play in the deployment of smart home technology." He further added, "By eliminating the requirement for installers to contact intermediary technical support teams—just to verify device testing and activation—we hope to save them time, facilitate their projects, and make it easy for them to report their success to managers who receive these real-time updates on their Rently desktop portal."
(Source: PR Newswire)
Communications between smart home technicians and managers can now be synchronized using Rently's app. This will help save time and eliminate the uncertainty faced by property managers, who would otherwise have to wait for tenants to confirm if their smart home devices are working correctly.
About Rently
Based in Camarillo (California), Rently is a premier provider of self-touring and enterprise smart-home platforms. The company, established in 2011, serves single-family and multi-family operators. The platform provides convenient and cost-effective solutions to optimize and automate leading, collaborating with over 3,500 operators and enabling more than 15 million self-tours. In addition, Rently's enterprise smart-home vertical allows keyless self-tours, optimization of resident access, monitoring of units, and reduced utility costs from anywhere in the world.
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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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