Last year might best be described as a risk-prone atmosphere for the single-family rental sector and the related fix-and-flip market. The risky operating environment has been marked by volatile, high interest rates (with 30-year fixed rates now hovering around 7%), high financing costs and moderating rental rates as an influx of multifamily rental properties continues to come online across the country.  Still, despite the gloomy news of late for SFR and fix-and-flip investors, some industry experts see better fortunes ahead in 2024 for both sectors. “We didn’t call it a bear market, but w ..read more

Luxury Realty Group, a subsidiary of Luxury Realty Group Holdings, launched the beta testing for its conversational AI services website vuHome.ai, the company announced on Tuesday. The product will be available across its brokerage operations in Las Vegas.  Luxury Realty Group’s clients will be able to interact orally with an avatar, listing the criteria of their home of choice, with the platform subsequently generating tailored listings to match these preferences. Users will also be able to type compound-specific search criteria, similar to other AI-powered chatbot solutions. There will ..read more

Amid escalating climate concerns, Realtor.com has launched enhanced tools to help homebuyers and sellers evaluate the climate risk exposure of a property, according to a company announcement on Wednesday.  Realtor.com is leveraging data from First Street, a climate technology company, and will offer three new risk factor scores — heat, wind and air — to complement existing fire and flood assessments. Using a 1-10 scale, the portal displays current risk factors for a property as well as the expected change for each risk in 15 and 30 years, the length of a typical mortgage. The cost of hom ..read more

Proptech startup Divvy is starting 2024 with a new product launch. Known for its rent-to-buy product — which provides homebuyers with an all-cash offer and allows them to rent a property until they are ready to buy — the company is launching a homeownership readiness program, DivvyUp, according to an announcement on Wednesday. “We spent a lot of time talking to our current customer base and trying to figure out exactly what they needed, and what they wanted to feel more supported from Divvy,” CEO Adena Hefets, a 2020 HousingWire Rising Star, said. “We went through a whole bunch of user researc ..read more

EasyKnock completed a $28 million Series D funding round, the company announced on Wednesday. Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, the venture capital arm of financial services company Northwestern Mutual, joined as an investor in this round. With its newest  influx of capital, EasyKnock aims to advance the development of its platform by honing its suite of products. “Our driving mission — empowering families with financial flexibility and control — is bolstered with this capital investment,” Jarred Kessler, CEO and founder of EasyKnock (and a HousingWire Vanguard in both 2022 and 2023 ..read more

Nearly a dozen real estate industry firms have been named as defendants in the 118 data privacy lawsuits filed in the Superior Court of New Jersey over the past 10 days by Atlas Data Privacy Corp. The lawsuits allege that the defendants, which are referred to as “data brokers,” have violated a law that prohibits the disclosure of home addresses and unpublished home phone numbers for judges, law enforcement officers, prosecutors and their families. CoStar, Zillow, RE/MAX, First American Financial, CoreLogic, Attom Data, Black Knight, Remine, PropertyRadar, Yardi and NJ Property Records have all ..read more

Proptech company RealReports, formerly known as BHR, has successfully secured $2 million in seed funding. TTV Capital, Moderne Ventures, Erez Capital and other venture capital firms led the round of investment. With this capital infusion, the company aims to accelerate its product development, grow its team and pursue market penetration with real estate brokerages, MLS associations and other proptech companies nationwide. “We are thrilled to have such engaged and helpful investors join us in this round, and are more confident than ever before about our path forward,” James Rogers, co-founder a ..read more

Shortly after EasyKnock acquired home equity investment platform Balance Homes, the company appointed former Balance Homes co-founders Judd Schoenholtz and Aaron LaRue as chief revenue officer and chief technology officer, respectively.  “Judd and Aaron’s respective leadership is key as we continue on EasyKnock’s path to develop the first marketplace in the industry,” Jarred Kessler, CEO and founder of EasyKnock, said in a statement. “They each have already had great influence on the organization in the strategic planning for the year ahead, and I’m excited to see their impact as we conti ..read more

The value of all residential real estate worldwide is approximately $200 trillion. Of this, the U.S. accounts for approximately 23%. Every year, transaction volume in the U.S. exceeds $1.5 trillion. The numbers are staggering so it is no surprise that residential proptech is a heady market, capturing the imagination of entrepreneurs and institutions alike. I’ve been involved in this area for about eight years and have the pleasure of advising several leading companies. As a marketer by profession, I tend to put these companies into categories to create a narrative and to develop ..read more

CoreLogic has debuted a new security solution for multiple listing services designed to reduce the risk of cybersecurity threats. Called Clareity Assure, the new, upgraded security platform is available to any MLS concerned about vulnerabilities in its listing data. Clareity Assure is powered by artificial intelligence and its functionalities feature adaptive authentication processes. Additionally, the platform can detect suspicious activity and selectively deploy multi-factor authentication.  This platform effectively helps MLSs deter unauthorized users, bots, and deceptive login attempt ..read more