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☆ Meet 30 rising stars of real estate who are transforming the way homes are sold and offices get built at firms like Blackstone, Redfin, and CBRE
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Robert Davis | Dan Latu | Jordan Pandy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Meet Insider's third-annual slate of emerging talent in commercial and residential real estate. We selected 30 young professionals 35 and under whose leadership spans a vast industry. Insider has tried to capture the brightest of the bunch in our third-annual Rising Stars of Real Estate list. But real estate isn't all about making money. Presented in alphabetical order by last name, here are the rising stars of real estate for 2022.

☆ How siblings transformed shipping containers into 2 Airbnb getaways that brought in $10,000 in revenue last month
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-27 | by ( Dan Latu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Landon and Heather Schlabach run a short-term-rental management firm overseeing 75 properties. Their younger brother, Reece, joined them to flip two shipping containers into secluded retreats. Even Mom is involved — she handles cleaning the two shipping containers between guests. After their initial porch talk, Landon was able to track down a Spartanburg, South Carolina, company that sells shipping containers that come clean and painted with cutouts for windows. The recently opened second container has a small pond and waterfall feature under the home with a chair swing for relaxing evenings.

☆ A 48-year old Airbnb host breaks down how she used Facebook and Instagram to bring in $25,000 through direct bookings
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Dan Latu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Amie Sommer, an Alaska resident, rents out a $1 million Arizona home that sleeps 10. When she launched her listing, she used Facebook to get direct bookings from family and friends. Half of those bookings she told Insider were from promoting her direct booking link on the social-media sites Facebook and Instagram. Lodgify provides Sommer with a central calendar that syncs bookings between her website, Airbnb, and Vrbo. When it came time to book her first guests, Sommer was looking for "guinea pigs."

☆ An Ohio real-estate investor who boasted about his home-flipping portfolio on TikTok is projecting a $30,000 loss on one deal — and issued a somber warning to anyone trying to best the housing market
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( Dan Latu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Austin Rutherford told his 700,000 followers he will likely take a loss on a recent flip in Ohio. Real estate investor Austin Rutherford, who has over 700,000 followers on TikTok, has talked at length about the opportunities for wealth in real estate investing since the start of the pandemic. But, in a recent video, he breaks down how his latest deal will likely result in a $30,000 loss. The iBuyer firm OpenDoor has been losing money on homes in pandemic real estate hotspots Austin, Atlanta, and Phoenix. Flippers see home values slidingA Pickerington, Ohio house that Rutherford predicts will take a loss in this tough market.

☆ The race to build thousands of new homes is stalling, with hurdles highest for developers of 'affordable' apartments
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Dan Latu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Residential builders are feeling the pinch of higher financing costs of their own. He estimated that, in aggregate, developers like him would decrease production by 10% to 20% this year, in a potentially devastating setback for affordable housing. "The failure to act is only made clear a few years later, given the timeline of real-estate development," he said. "In a couple of years from now, we're going to look back and say this was a missed opportunity" to close the affordable housing gap. "Financing can be very targeted towards affordable development and can be subsidized much more aggressively," he said.

☆ A Los Angeles superagent with a team of 160 that's sold $1.6 billion in real estate this year is leaving Compass: 'It's no secret that Compass is in a difficult situation'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Dan Latu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Aaron Kirman, a top real-estate agent, has racked up more than $1.6 billion in sales in 2022. Kirman leads 160 agents in what RealTrends, a company that ranks real-estate brokers, has called a "mega team." RealTrends identified the Aaron Kirman Group as the top-grossing mega team from Compass last year, with an annual sales volume of $1.1 billion. But the company posted a $494 million loss in 2021 during a historically hot real-estate market . "At the end of the day, it is a real-estate company," he told Insider.

☆ How Hurricane Sandy transformed the Jersey Shore into 'a playground for the rich'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( Zoe Rosenberg | Dan Latu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +17 min

Jersey Shore residents battled through a patchwork of programs to rebuild after Hurricane Sandy. Even 10 years after Hurricane Sandy, Barbara is still reminded daily of the mental and financial toll it took on her. Courtesy of BarbaraThe bureaucratic red tape around flood insurance and rebuild programs linked to Hurricane Sandy deepened the divide between the haves and have-nots of the Jersey Shore. Milliman, an actuarial company that works with FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program, found that about 47% of coastal dwellers had flood insurance, The Inquirer reported. "After Sandy, there was a lot more money coming in," Mery, who has built Jersey Shore homes for 15 years, told Insider.

☆ We moved from Arizona to upstate New York after droughts and wildfires scared us into meticulously researching the most climate-resilient spots in America
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Dan Latu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Charles Matheus, 55, and Kelly Roberge, 54, lived in Prescott, Arizona, for over eight years. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Charles Matheus, a leadership consultant, and Kelly Roberge, who works in communications and graphic design. They were renting in Prescott, Arizona, when fears over the climate crisis prompted them to search for a new home. The spreadsheet that Matheus and Roberge used to evaluate and rank their relocation options. Courtesy of Charles Matheus and Kelly RobergeWe looked at Harrisburg and Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania.

COVID-19 sparked a boom in short-term rentals, and AirDNA found listings hit a record high in 2022. 18 cities across North America are looking to rein in Airbnbs and short-term rentals. From the beaches of California to the mountains of Vermont, communities are grappling with what the future of short-term rentals looks like. Some cities have simply called timeout: Chattanooga, Tennessee, paused new applications for non-owner-occupied units as it considered short-term rentals' future there. Here are 18 cities in the US and Canada where residents and local politicians are fighting back against short-term rentals.

☆ Beware, Florida homeowners. The worst is yet to come.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-06 | by ( Dan Latu | James Rodriguez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

They were paying $750 a month for the lot in a mobile-home park and couldn't fathom paying $7,200 a year for homeowners insurance, let alone additional protections for floods. (Flood insurance costs an average of more than $600 a year in Florida and can stretch even higher in high-risk areas.) But just 57% of those homes are covered by flood insurance, a Bank of America analysis of data from CoreLogic and the National Flood Insurance Program found. Some owners may not even know that they need a separate insurance policy for flooding, assuming it's covered by their homeowners insurance. Roughly a dozen firms that provide homeowners insurance in Florida have gone under in the past two years, The Washington Post reported.

☆ Only one city has foiled Blackstone's $320 billion real estate empire
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-01 | by ( Dan Latu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Danish parliament even passed a "Blackstone law," which prevents new landlords from raising rents. Blackstone has one of the largest real estate portfolios in the world, with $320 billion invested in commercial and residential properties spanning the US, Spain, and, at one time, Sweden. In the Guardian, reporter Hettie O'Brien details how a Copenhagen tenants group thwarted Blackstone's expansion, aided by a national political mood wary of international investors. Blackstone's journey to becoming a worldwide player in residential real estate began after it seriously invested in American properties following the 2008 housing and stock-market crash. Blackstone's involvement in the Copenhagen housing market angered locals for two reasons, according to the Guardian.

☆ An Airbnb host who manages 60 properties and has earned 4,300 5-star reviews shares the biggest errors she sees newbies make
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Dan Latu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

After seeing her listing on the front page of Airbnb search results, other hosts in the area reached out for advice. Now, she runs an operation with six assistants that oversees 60 properties nationwide, from condos in Myrtle Beach to fishing cabins in Colorado. This strategy will only ultimately frustrate guests, Mosher said. In addition to bad reviews, hosts with an over-capacity space are increasing liability for their space and the wear and tear on their furniture. For example, instead of "Thanks for your message," Mosher sends guests: "Thank you for the fantastic communication, safe travels and happy adventures."

☆ People and businesses are turning more skittish on real estate, including house hunters wary of buyers' remorse and a big US homebuilder that just walked away from 8,800 contracts
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-23 | by ( Dan Latu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

KB Home CEO Jeff Mezger said 35% of buyers canceled purchases last quarter. Relatively high mortgage rates and high prices may make prospective buyers rethink their decisions. One of the largest homebuilders in the US this week blamed a market slowdown on prospective buyers, including itself, getting cold feet. And we really can't control that," Mezger told analysts on the call, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript. Prospective buyers might also be taking their cues from homeowners who have recently taken the plunge.

And layoffs at proptech companies have become all too common. That makes it harder for such startups to find customers as well as to woo funding from VCs. We've covered the hottest proptech startups before, but the current economic environment makes it much more difficult to determine which ones stand the best chance at success. To identify the startups that deserve the most attention right now, we polled a dozen venture capitalists who invest in proptech. Some VCs identified in this list recommended multiple proptech startups.

☆ Airbnb hosts' worst nightmares — fires, falls, or deaths — can leave them on the hook for damages. Here are 4 steps to take right now to make any property safer.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-15 | by ( Dan Latu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Avoidable incidents occur in short-term rentals, of course. Ford's safety advocacy began with a Facebook page where he highlighted news stories about accidents in short-term rentals to educate hosts. An example of virtual inspection on an app Ford designed. But many guests choose short-term rentals specifically so they can cook, increasing the likelihood of a fire, he said. Invest in pool safetyA tragedy in North Carolina was prevented recently because of proper pool safety.

☆ Everyone wants to be an Airbnb host, but homes are so expensive. Here are 13 vacation-rental spots with the best returns where investment properties cost under $450,000.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-15 | by ( Dan Latu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Vacation-rental-management company Vacasa ranked the best spots to buy a vacation home. Insider highlighted the 13 spots where median home prices are under $450,000. Vacasa data showed the top destinations clocked in with cap rates ranging from 6% to 12%, which Vacasa considered strong. Insider highlighted the destinations where median home prices sat under $450,000. Other classic vacation destinations like historic Savannah, Georgia, and scenic Tucson, Arizona, made appearances, too.

☆ A 32-year-old CMO took advantage of his company's work-from-anywhere policy to spend 3 months in Spain. Here's what his days are like.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-07 | by ( Dan Latu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

His employer, Enablix, has a work-from-anywhere policy and he received support from his manager. Ziech-Lopez and his family are considering a permanent stay after their initial three months. Luckily, Ziech-Lopez works for Enablix, an Atlanta-based marketing-software firm that has a work-from-anywhere policy. While leaping into the unknown can be daunting, one person's journey can shed light on what a work-from-anywhere policy looks like on the ground. The green space in Madrid, Ziech-Lopez said, is striking.

COVID-19 sparked a boom in short-term rentals, and AirDNA found listings hit a record high in 2022. Some locals and officials in hot cities say they deplete housing stock or cause noise disturbances. 18 cities across North America are looking to rein in Airbnbs and short-term rentals. From the beaches of California to the mountains of Vermont, communities are grappling with what the future of short-term rentals looks like. Here are 18 cities in the US and Canada where residents and local politicians are fighting back against short-term rentals.

Tiny homes had a coming-out party in 2022, as more places began building or budgeting for tiny home villages. Gimmicks aside, tiny homes are being used as solutions to housing crises in cities like Chicago or Bridgeton, New Jersey — where tiny homes are being used to house former inmates for free after their release. The often-modular approach of tiny homes can help reduce construction costs and make housing cheaper. Tiny homes can range in price and aesthetics, but typically remain under 600 square feet. We've compiled a list of the hottest tiny-home companies to look out for in 2023, all shaking up real estate in different ways.

☆ A mom spends 30 minutes a day designing Canva templates for Airbnbs. Her low-lift Etsy side hustle brought in $900 last month.
▼ + stars: | 2022-06-11 | by ( Dan Latu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Mary Dailey created a simple Canva template for Airbnb hosts to use to make their own welcome signs. She had no design experience before and it takes her only an hour a day to tend to her Etsy shop. Dailey — a mother of two and part-time human-resources professional in Boone, North Carolina — runs an Etsy shop that specializes in "printables" for short-term rentals. It took just 90 minutes of work for Dailey to create one Canva template, for example, that has sold over 650 times for about $4 each. EtsyDailey started her Etsy shop in 2021Dailey's goal in launching her Etsy shop was to bring in extra income and flex her creative muscles.

☆ Airbnb hosts say they're fed up with how the vacation-rental platform treats them and favors guests. Some are planning to 'strike' or even quit Airbnb altogether.
▼ + stars: | 2022-04-18 | by ( Dan Latu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The host, Ryan Villines, is organizing a boycott, encouraging hosts to "snooze" their listings. Like Johnson, many Airbnb hosts and property managers are frustrated by what they describe as the vacation-rental platform's tendency to favor guests in disputes. Liz DeBold Fusco, an Airbnb spokesperson, said the new policy was meant to provide "greater flexibility" to hosts and guests. After outrage from hosts, Airbnb walked back the reimbursement component, but hosts said it's too little, too late. Airbnb host Ryan Villines is "snoozing" his listings in Missouri and Montana as a protest.

☆ 'Million Dollar Listing' star Fredrik Eklund, who has 1.4 million Instagram followers, says 'social media isn't so effective anymore' for new real-estate agents
▼ + stars: | 2022-01-02 | by ( Dan Latu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Younger agents should spend their time on old-school methods like mailers, he advised. He's not abandoning social media, though. The only paths to success right now for agents on social media fall between the two extremes, he said. Eklund, however, has no plans to abandon social media. The superagent believes that a new generation of apps won't solely be social media, but instead will be real-estate apps with a "social aspect" to them.

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