AGENT, REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT
PRnewswire | April 05, 2023
RentSpree, the industry's premier end-to-end rental management software provider, today announced the release of its brand new subscription service, RentSpree PRO. PRO bundles transaction and marketing tools for agents that help streamline the entire rental process. With existing home sales continuing to fall in a rising interest rate environment, the focus has shifted to the rental market and these new tools support its steep increase in competition.
PRO combines existing transactional capabilities in RentSpree's offering, such as RentSpree's award-winning online rental application and tenant screening, with brand new tools to ensure RentSpree is a one stop shop for agents and their rental clients alike.
"We are constantly pushing ourselves to develop better solutions within the rental process to cut down on wasted time and other pain points," said Michael Lucarelli, CEO of RentSpree. "We've been diligently working on PRO to up our ability to specifically support agents as they advance their rental process." He added, "PRO will exponentially increase agent efficiency in dealing with rentals, with the ultimate goal of increasing each agent's return on investment."
New tools on PRO will give agents the opportunity to exponentially level-up their business. These tools include:
Document Upload: This feature seamlessly collects necessary documents from rental applicants within one singular platform, eliminating the need to move between multiple solutions to complete a rental transaction. It ensures that transactions are closed faster with less friction.
Reference Checks: Automated reference checks help streamline outreach to potential references. It speeds up the process and assists agents in finding the right applicant for a rental.
E-Sign Documents: The rental/lease agreement stage is one of the most important, tedious and drawn-out procedures of the rental transaction process. PRO alleviates the need for agents and landlords to perform manual tasks like sending lease agreements via print, scan, email, or other tools outside of their current solution. It helps execute and securely store lease agreements smoothly.
Agent Reviews: A high volume of positive reviews from past clients can be displayed and easily shared with an agent's network. Agents will be able to prompt their clients to leave a review, which can be seen by anybody that visits the profile page. The reviews an agent collects can be shared via social media to promote their service and profile on RentSpree.
Custom Link for your Agent Profile Page: Agent Profiles can help generate an online presence and create professional branding opportunities that can increase the likelihood of attracting more business. This feature offers another opportunity for agents to further build on their professional brand with the ability to modify the slug in their Agent Profile Page's URL, offering increased link trust and discoverability of their services. Since these pages are indexable, Google can surface if someone were to be researching a particular agent.
"RentSpree PRO helps me keep all my listings, applications, and supporting documents in one place," said Juan Caba with Velez Realty Corp. "It saves me time vetting the best tenants for my clients and helps me build relationships with future buyers. It's my virtual office."
About RentSpree
Los Angeles-based RentSpree is a provider of award-winning rental software that helps seamlessly connect real estate agents, owners, and renters to simplify and automate the entire rental process, from listing to lease. The all-in-one platform is known across all 50 states for its easy and secure interface and suite of rental tools, including tenant screening, rent payments, marketing and renter management. To date, RentSpree has partnered with more than 250 of the most influential MLSs, real estate associations and brokerages to serve over one million users in the U.S. RentSpree is ranked 625th on Inc. 5000's fastest-growing private companies in 2022. Visit http://www.rentspree.com for more information.
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REAL ESTATE TECHNOLOGY, REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT
PRnewswire | May 10, 2023
FirstClose, Inc., a leading fintech provider of data and workflow solutions for mortgage and home equity lenders nationwide, announced today that America First Credit Union selected its FirstClose Equity™ solution to provide members access to a digital end-to-end home equity product that delivers a best-in-class experience and dramatically cuts down loan application approval times.
Industry analysis shows U.S. homeowners with mortgages have seen their equity increase by a total of $1 trillion since the fourth quarter of 2021, a gain of 7.3% year over year. While home equity lending is experiencing rapid growth, it continues to be a friction-filled process driving demand for a solution.
America First is a Utah-based credit union with 120 branches across Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Idaho, and New Mexico, serving more than 1.3 million members, making it the 5th largest credit union in the country in terms of membership. Using FirstClose Equity, America First will be able to reduce the time to close from initial inquiry to as little as one week, versus the industry average of 45 to 60 days.
"Our focus is always on our members, and our partnership with FirstClose supports our goal of delivering the best member and processor experience possible," said Austin Coleman, Senior Vice President of Mortgage Lending at America First Credit Union.
FirstClose Equity makes home equity a low-friction lending experience that consumers have come to expect. Consumers have one experience via a private labeled POS and borrower portal. The application process itself is extremely streamlined. With the member's consent, FirstClose Equity collects and verifies asset and employment information. Even the few pieces of information that the member is required to provide can be uploaded through the platform. The decisioning engine delivers a firm decision on CLTV and pricing in approximately 5 to 7 minutes.
"Because we absorb many of the fees for our members, efficiency at every stage of the origination process takes on greater importance, and automation on both sides of the transaction is key," said Coleman. "Through our integration with FirstClose, loan officers, underwriters, and processors never have to leave their LOS, which greatly increases our efficiency with home equity lending."
Founded in 2000, FirstClose offers lenders a user-friendly home equity technology solution to lend more efficiently, faster, and at scale. "We are thrilled to be trusted with such an important role of helping fulfill America First Credit Union's mission to provide their members with a simple and streamlined home equity experience," said Tedd Smith, Chief Executive Officer of FirstClose. "We are the category leader and are committed to advancing our technology so our customers, like America First, can focus on what matters most - their member's experience and improving their bottom line."
About America First Credit Union
Founded in 1939, and with a long-standing history of exceptional member service, America First Credit Union has become one of the largest, most stable, and most progressive credit unions in the country, and has remained a member-owned, not-for-profit cooperative financial institution. Today, America First has 120 locations, and is the eighth largest credit union in assets in the United States with over $17 billion, and the fifth largest credit union in membership in America with more than 1.3 million members. For more information, visit americafirst.com.
About FirstClose
Headquartered in Austin, Texas, FirstClose, Inc. provides fintech solutions to HELOC and mortgage lenders nationwide. The company's mission is to increase profitability and reduce cost for mortgage lenders. FirstClose makes this possible through offering systems and relationships that enable lenders to assist the lender's borrowers more effectively, reduce closing costs, and ultimately shorten closing times. For more information, visit firstclose.com.
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MARKET OUTLOOK, REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT
Businesswire | May 18, 2023
Cherre, the leading real estate data integration and insights platform, today announced its new Data Submissions Portal, a product that automates and streamlines data collection and reporting. Building on Cherre’s ability to connect all client data from internal systems and third-party data vendors, the Cherre Data Submissions Portal allows customers to easily collect data from their service providers and partners (including property managers, fund administrators, and joint venture partners) and use it to power faster and smarter reporting – while retaining complete control of the process.
The Cherre Data Submissions Portal solves the common challenges that investment managers and fund administrators face when collecting data from their service providers and partners. These challenges include manual mapping, validation, review, and approval; inconsistent data formats; incomplete or inaccurate data; delayed or missing reports; and a lack of transparency into submission status across providers within a cycle. The Cherre Data Submissions Portal automates and simplifies the entire data collection and reporting process, enabling customers to:
Choose from Cherre’s prebuilt library of financial, operational, and ESG submission templates, or to customize their own.
Manage master data mappings, including easily adding or editing the chart of account mappings.
Invite service providers and partners to submit data through a secure and user-friendly interface.
Validate and standardize data using Cherre’s robust library of validation rules.
Manage and track submissions through a configurable review, commentary, and approval workflow.
Review and approve data with one click, then access it in real time using Cherre’s asset management dashboards or export it to a downstream data warehouse or financial application.
“The Cherre Data Submissions Portal gives our customers unprecedented flexibility, control, and transparency over their submission cycles,” said Yuri Andersen, Senior Product Manager at Cherre. “Investment and fund managers can now easily collect and validate data from their providers in a scalable and secure way. This solution allows them to save time and money on data management, ensure accuracy and timeliness, and focus less on data wrangling and more on reporting and decision making on their assets.”
The Cherre Data Submissions Portal helps investment managers and fund administrators improve their data quality, efficiency, and transparency. By using the Cherre Data Submissions Portal, customers can:
Reduce manual data collection and reporting costs.
Increase data accuracy and completeness.
Accelerate reporting cycles.
Quickly onboard new third-party service providers and partners.
Monitor and assess the performance of their service providers and partners.
Enhance data-driven decision making and performance optimization across their portfolio.
“With the Cherre Data Submissions Portal, we have solved a long-standing problem for investment managers and fund administrators,” said L.D. Salmanson, CEO and Co-Founder of Cherre. “Unlike manual, outsourced, or subpar solutions, our portal offers a comprehensive and seamless way to collect, validate, approve, and access data from any source, providing our clients with a full and holistic solution for all their data needs.”
Thanks to the unprecedented flexibility of the portal and Cherre’s data engine, customers can ingest and map any type of real estate data including financial, operational, tenant experience, ESG, and endless other topics.
About Cherre
Cherre is the leader in real estate data and insight. We connect decision makers to accurate property and market information, and help them make faster, smarter decisions. By providing a unique “single source of truth,” Cherre empowers customers to evaluate opportunities and trends faster and more accurately, while saving millions of dollars in manual data collection and analytics costs. Cherre launched in 2016 and is located in New York City.
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