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☆ Proptech VCs and startup founders already struggling from the housing-market downturn are now reeling from the Silicon Valley Bank collapse
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The overnight collapse of Silicon Valley Bank after a social media and group chat-fueled bank run is creating yet another set of problems for an already ailing venture tech environment. The proptech industry has suffered over the past year as higher interest rates have throttled both the real estate and tech worlds. Silicon Valley Bank was the go-to lender of so-called venture debt, or debt that startups can raise along with their equity rounds of funding. The Silicon Valley Bank collapse "just punctuated it," he said, of the financial duress. Real estate lending warningsBanks make up almost a third of all commercial real estate lending according to CBRE.

☆ A housing downturn is causing a reckoning in the once-hot cluster of proptech startups that let homebuyers pay all cash and win bidding wars
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

In that market, all-cash offers were king to sellers because they ensured quicker, stress-free closings. According to Redfin, all-cash offers quadrupled the chances that a homebuyer would win a bidding war. Ribbon has since paused its all-cash offering, but some of the other firms that Insider featured last year are still making all-cash offers. FlyhomesFlyhomes is a real-estate brokerage that featured all-cash-offer services for years and distinguished itself in December 2021 with a free all-cash-offer product. "The value to the buyer is different than in a seller's market," Garg said in the email.

☆ Tiny homes, big problems
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Daniel Geiger | Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +21 min

Beyond their star appeal, low-cost tiny homes like Casitas have real-world utility. The homes have been seized upon as a solution for cities like Los Angeles to house the homeless. They showed off their homes' transportability by hitching several of them to a Tesla and filming drag races between Teslas and trucks that were hooked to trailers carrying the homes. So far, though, after a little more than a year of building, the company has fabricated only about 400 homes. Even if it were churning out thousands of units, Boxabl hasn't yet received the certifications required to sell them in most states across the country.

☆ A big landlord who controls 60,000 homes is funneling money into a political action group that could urge lawmakers to curb renter protections
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Corporate owners of US rental homes are being scrutinized for making homes unaffordable. The landlords that control thousands of homes are girding for a political fight over regulation. As tenant advocates met with the White House and pushed the Biden administration to take action on high housing costs in November, one of America's largest single-family landlords was preparing its own move. AMH, formerly known as American Homes 4 Rent, did not respond to an Insider request for comment. Companies like AMH, Pretium Partners, and Invitation Homes have been building large portfolios of homes across the country since the last financial crisis.

☆ Former Apple and Cisco engineers are 'sneaking' cheaper, energy-saving tech into buildings. See the pitch deck they used to raise $4 million.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Domatic's founders walked Insider through the pitch deck they used to raise seed capital. When smart home products began to take off in the early 2010's, Baldwin became obsessed with Nest cameras and security systems. "There's a parallel universe where I had gone to Nest," to help develop its products, Baldwin said. "This is sneaking the smart system into the building" through the wiring, Baldwin said. Wong and Baldwin walked Insider through the pitch deck they used to raise the round.

☆ Converting empty office buildings into apartments sounds like a no-brainer, but big landlords are resisting for one big reason
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Three experts tell Insider office prices need to fall before conversions are commonplace. But for these plans to be successful, the world of real estate must address the elephant in the room: Office buildings are simply too expensive. Moody's laid out some basic math: In 2021, the average New York apartment building traded at $434 a square foot. Now in the US, he's up to the same business but not yet with the vacant office buildings that dot the downtowns of large metropolises. Among them is an older, 130,000-square-foot St. Louis office building, which represents some of the city's most outdated stock, Rubin told Insider.

☆ The growing number of distressed office buildings reflects a recognition by owners and lenders that the robust return to office they had hoped for isn't likely to materialize
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Office owners like Brookfield, RXR, and Related are in the process of defaulting on office loans. Some of real estate's biggest names have defaulted on their office debt in recent weeks. The delinquency rate for office loans is only 1.83% now, according to Trepp, a firm that researches real-estate debt. Loans come dueOver this year and next year, 24% of commercial real estate loans will be coming due, many of them office loans, per Hendry. Office buildings, from the newest and shiniest Class A towers to the older and less-sexy Class B buildings, were a pretty safe investment, as long as they were in the right locales.

☆ A proptech startup used this pitch deck to raise $5.1 million to build a LinkedIn for construction workers
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Contractors are challenged in hiring skilled workers. Skillit, founded in 2021, offers a platform specifically for recruiting skilled labor. The company's CEO walked Insider through a pitch deck used to raise $5.1 million in seed funding. What's more, many skilled workers are getting ready to retire. The company's first product focuses on recruiting craft workers, or construction workers who hone their skills in trade schools and apprenticeships.

Tiny-home startup Boxabl amassed a 160,000-person wait list since Elon Musk was linked to a Casita. Max, who put down a $2,400 deposit for a Casita in 2021, told Insider he is fed up with the delay. They told Insider they've received little communication from the company about when the homes, called Casitas, will be finished. One Arizona-based prospective buyer, Max, told Insider that he put $2,400 down for two Boxabl homes in 2021. Boxabl's founders — the colorful father-and-son team of Paolo and Galiano Tiramani — told Insider the six-year-old startup is now worth $3 billion.

☆ One of the most active homebuyers on Wall Street just predicted the demise of Opendoor and other iBuyers that have made housing so volatile
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

In an interview with Bloomberg, Mullen doesn't see nearly as much chaos in today's housing woes, though pitfalls and opportunities still abound. In today's market, with most homeowners paying substantially lower mortgage rates than prevailing levels and mortgage delinquencies low, regular people aren't likely to sell. Homebuilders, representing another industry that's highly sensitive to housing market swings, are under pressure but can survive, Mullen said. Stepping back, Mullen's read is that too many institutions got in at the top of the housing market. "The most obvious example is iBuyers," Mullen said.

☆ Ojo, a home-listings site aiming to rival Zillow, sells its Canadian operations to Royal Bank of Canada and raises funds from Vista Equity Partners in combined deal of nearly $200 million
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Home-listings company Ojo Labs sold its Canadian operations to the Royal Bank of Canada. The transactions, totaling nearly $200 million, will help Ojo navigate a bumpy housing market. "We put the company in an extremely healthy cash position, while others are having to retrench," Berkowitz told Insider. These services can differentiate Ojo from Zillow and Realtor.com, which are most intently focused on the home transaction. CoStar, the real estate data giant that's reached a dominant position in commercial real estate data, has recently trained its eye on residential listing platforms.

☆ A tiny-home startup has attracted 160,000 customers, including Elon Musk. But disgruntled customers, an empty factory, and a tie to an alleged Iranian agent cloud its future.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Daniel Geiger | Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +17 min

A Boxabl Casita being delivered to a SpaceX facility in Texas. Tackling the US housing crisisStamped out on an assembly line, Boxabl homes could finally begin to help quench America's perpetual housing shortage. Homeowners, meanwhile, could rent out Boxabl units as secondary dwellings in their backyards or as Airbnbs. Firooznia, Tiramani said, sometimes provided a tiebreaking vote when the father and son disagreed on business decisions. During a tour of Boxabl's factory in December, a freelance reporter for Insider saw Tiramani's wife, Shauna, arrive with their four young children.

☆ This company says it can cut building costs with AI technology that herds contractors and measures their progress. See the pitch deck it used to raise $10 million.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Construction relies on myriad contractors, making it hard for developers to fully follow projects. OnsiteIQ raised $10 million to bring AI vision on board so developers can see and record progress. The company's CEO walked Insider through the deck the firm used to raise the funds. According to Khosrowpour, that's why 72% of construction projects experience delays. Khosrowpour walked Insider through the pitch deck that helped the firm raise $10 million.

☆ Inside homebuilding heir Bill Pulte's battle against a Twitter troll who turned out to be an executive at his former company
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Bill Pulte, the grandson of one of the homebuilding industry's most successful founders, has built a Twitter following of 3.2 million. He's such a believer in Twitter that the Pulte family office participated in Tesla CEO Elon Musk's bid for control, with an investment he says in the "millions of dollars." Pulte alleges that Jones used Twitter bots to harass him and the larger Pulte family with damaging, incendiary accusations, including that his father, Mark Pulte, was an arsonist. Additionally, he said Sheldon's account appeared to have interacted with at least one of Jones' Twitter accounts. With his suspicion that multiple executives were involved in the Twitter harassment, Pulte's digging in his heels.

☆ In 2022, UWM became the top US mortgage lender and its CEO bought an NBA team. Against the odds, it expects to grow more.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

United Wholesale Mortgage became the country's largest originator in 2022. Mortgage rates soared at their fastest rate in decades, halting refinances and slowing home purchases to a crawl. In a way, UWM's strategy is much more old-fashioned than other mortgage players, including Rocket Mortgage. "The idea that you can go on a computer, click a button, and there's your mortgage, that's foolish," he said. To Rocket Mortgage, that's a fundamental misunderstanding of its business.

☆ See the pitch deck this company used to raise $21.5 million and help small landlords prepare for tough times by guaranteeing rent
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The property-management company Doorstead raised funds in a tough venture-capital market. The company's cofounders walked Insider through the pitch deck they used to raise $21.5 million. It was late 2021, and the founders of Doorstead, a tech-focused property-management company, were losing sleep. "One customer lost $20,000 in rent because their former property manager sold a promise that couldn't be fulfilled by the market," Waliany said. The combination of the rental guarantee and property-management services has helped the company attract property owners seeking passive income.

☆ Blackstone's real-estate strategy, laid out in a leaked transcript, sets the stage for tenant battles over evictions and rising rents
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Rebecca Ungarino | Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

The major real-estate investor Blackstone is playing defense as tenants scrutinize its policies. This week, tenants addressed Blackstone and an investor, UC Investments, to raise concerns. A transcript of an executive's remarks, obtained by Insider, sheds light on Blackstone's strategy. It is Blackstone, the New York-based investment giant that has become the world's largest real-estate investor. Vik Sawhney, Blackstone's chief administrative officer and global head of institutional client solutions, introduced Meghji, according to the transcript.

☆ Blackstone is predicting steady growth for its real-estate business, which could be bad news for its tenants
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Now imagine if your landlord wasn't just some mom-and-pop family that owned your building, but the world's largest private-equity firm. And while it's received a fair share of scrutiny over it, the performance of one of its real-estate funds has reignited criticism. But the Blackstone executives' comments indicated the firm could also be planning to raise rent and evict tenants, which includes those in affordable housing and student housing. Click here to read more about how Blackstone's real-estate strategy is setting the stage for an ugly battle with tenants. Top executives at Davos share their thoughts on how bad things might get in 2023.

☆ Many office buildings are 'obsolete' and need to be converted or die, CEOs of some of real estate's biggest players told world leaders
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

It's time to face a harsher reality, real estate executives told financial and world leaders at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday. The results of flexible work programs have hit the values of older office buildings in cities across the world as office tenants downsize. Sajwani, Palladitcheff, Ulbrich and Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick all agreed that many office buildings will need to be repurposed or torn down. It's those less attractive places that face multiple challenges of crime and homelessness where the value of office buildings will deteriorate "quite quickly." Office buildings "will become eyesores and they will need to be fixed," Lutnick said.

☆ A housing market 'trough' is around the corner and should be a welcome relief to real estate firms like Zillow, a Bank of America analyst says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

High mortgage rates and home prices have put the housing market into a deep chill. A Bank of America analyst upgraded real estate stock Zillow from "underperform" to a "buy." A dark cloud is hovering over America's housing market with each week bringing signs of doom and gloom. The rosier view wasn't because of an imminent improvement in the housing market. That's hit Zillow — which earns most of its revenue from lead generation for real estate agents — squarely in the pocket.

☆ See 32 pitch decks that some of the hottest proptech startups used to raise millions from top VCs like SoftBank and a16z
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Alex Nicoll | James Rodriguez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

VC investment fell by 38% in 2022, but the technological transformation of real estate continues. investment fell by 38% in 2022, but the technological transformation real estate continues. Early innovators like Zillow showed that there was a place for real estate on the internet, while investments from firms like SoftBank showed that big money was paying attention. Insider has collected 32 pitch decks that successful firms have used to raise funding from VCs and private-equity firms. Clockwork AnalyticsThe pandemic laid bare the necessity of a technological transformation of commercial real estate.

☆ Let the consolidation begin: With venture markets frozen and profitability tenuous, proptechs turn to one another
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The co-living operators Common and Habyt merged; Pagaya brought the property manager Darwin Homes. The proptech companies that sprang up by the dozens in the past few years are now looking to one another for help. A massive consolidation among companies that seek to make real-estate transactions and services more efficient and profitable is underway. Cushman & Wakefield reported 90% occupancy rates for co-living companies at the end of the third quarter of 2022, and traditional real-estate firms like Cushman and Greystar are now offering their own co-living brands. In property management, the consolidation phase is already well underway, said Paul Stanton, the other founding partner at Proptech Bankers.

Proptech customers, employees, and investors said they went from delighted to disillusioned. Proptech investors eager to capture these trends pumped $32 billion into the industry in 2021. As markets deteriorated, disillusionment set in among proptech customers, investors, and employees. Some customers say they were disappointed buying homes via proptech startupsReal-estate startups like Divvy Homes and Better launched under the auspices of helping customers afford quality homes. Investors in proptech firms are taking financial hitsYou don't need to ask proptech investors whether they're disappointed in the sector's performance — just look at share prices.

☆ 4 survival strategies for proptech housing startups as they enter the sector's hardest year yet
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Proptech, the application of technology and venture capital to real estate, is naturally grappling with the change. Amid the threat of a recession, proptech startups have resorted to layoffs and other cost-cutting measures. In the meantime, Wedlake said, proptech companies and venture capitalists have shelved the "growth at all costs" mindset. In a recent blog post, Wedlake outlined four tactics that proptech startups were using to survive the deep freeze. So if proptech startups need to fundraise in 2023, they're likely going to have to accept lower valuations to attract any capital, Wedlake said.

Insider's rising stars of real estate span roles in leasing, affordable housing, and urban planning. We asked 20 of these young industry experts and innovators to offer predictions for 2023. 2022 wreaked havoc on the housing market: Mortgage rates rose at a fast clip, bidding wars cooled, the Airbnb market shifted, and some high-flying proptech darlings crashed back down to earth. Insider picked 30 rising stars of commercial and residential real estate who're transforming the way homes are sold and offices get built. Here are the predictions for 2023 from our rising stars:

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