The pandemic has changed the way the world communicates, from remote work Zoom meetings to social media. It’s also affected the efficiency in which many industries operate, including real estate. To better enhance the way agents promote themselves and their properties, Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing alum and founder of Douglas Elliman’s top-producing brokerage, The Eklund | Gomes Team, Fredrik Eklund recently co-founded new social real estate app REAL alongside entrepreneur Thomas Ma.
REAL is a social app for real estate that fuses an Instagram-style platform with WhatsApp-style chat abilities that allows agents to promote themselves for free and create another stream of revenue. Thus, it allows agents to take better control of their business. How REAL works is that agents and consumers create profiles and curate their feed of listings. Sellers, buyers, and other agents can follow each other to get a more in-depth sense of the agent’s offerings, personality, and style that they might not get from an advertisement. Not only might this enhance an agent’s revenue, but consumers are also able to find their ideal agent that specializes in a certain region, price point, and ore. The agents are able to curate their featured images, content, and chat topics that best reflect their personal knowledge and experience. The app also features a range of price points for home sales.
The REAL app enhances agents’ businesses with a dedicated social platform for real estate.
REAL
“Those in the real estate industry use traditional social media to market properties, which has been a trend for years and years,” Eklund tells Forbes. “With Covid-19, however, everything moved into the palms of our hands. With so many properties being sold via WhatsApp and over FaceTime, this app allows you to scroll through something very beautiful and aspirational, but also curated to your needs. With Instagram, Facebook, and, of course, TikTok, turning into video platforms very quickly, this app is exclusively developed for real estate agents on one hand and consumers, like buyers and sellers, on the other. I call our app, REAL, a combination of Zillow, WhatsApp, and Instagram.”
With home sales moving so quickly, the app allows people to communicate in real-time and immediately get in contact with an agent via the chat capability to receive immediate information about certain listings. Not just that, but agents are also able to promote properties not yet on the market. Sellers and buyers can follow and interact with several agents at once, whether they are buying a property or listing one. The high-speed accessibility of the app also makes the user experience seamless and efficient.
The free app uses advanced AI technology to conduct specific searches tailored to a specific need. People can perform very detailed searches, whether they want to look at kitchens or living rooms, or are looking for specific home amenities like a gym, home office, or swimming pool. The app then will tailor your content to what you’re looking for.
The app makes it easy to message many agents at once to find the perfect fit.
REAL
Agents can also communicate directly with each other at lightning speed to move transactions along and share information. The Eklund | Gomes Team, which has 92 agents in five states, uses the app’s chat capabilities over text so information won’t get lost.
Eklund partnered with Hong Kong-based Ma, a licensed real estate agent and successful entrepreneur, to address the current problems in the real estate market, which includes agents paying too much to advertise their properties, excessive follow-ups from clients, slow response times, ineffective cold calling, and so much more.
“Agents are getting licensed in many different states and there’s a complete crossover happening, especially in the luxury market,” he says. “Current real estate apps, like Zillow, do not provide quick answers and MLSs are slow. I run a large team and see all facets of the market, in all price points, and how quickly it moves. People want to use their mobile phones for this, they want it to be fun, and they want it to be FAST. At the same time, they see what people around them like and look at.”
Agents can easily create a better revenue stream through the real estate-focused app.
REAL
He says that agents must pay sites like Zillow to have their listings featured, and those platforms ultimately retain control over what their listing looks like online. This app allows agents to post their listings for free and control the aesthetic of their page. It also allows agents to position themselves as a leader in their market. For example, Eklund recently opened a brokerage in Stockholm, and his agents are using the app to promote their properties and become an ambassador in that city.
“With so many properties being sold via WhatsApp and over FaceTime, this app allows you to scroll through something very beautiful and aspirational, but also curated to your needs,” he says. “You can use the functions of the app to find your home, or just sit there and dream away like you’d look at a beautiful magazine featuring the most beautiful real estate.”
The global app can be downloaded in different languages and in any city or town. Since its soft launch 11 months ago, there are over 147,500 downloads and is continuing to grow. He says that unlike Instagram, REAL is a true revenue stream, which he hopes will ultimately entice real estate agents to adopt the app into their business.
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Robert McLister: Tax shelters don’t make housing more affordable, but those with the cash would be foolish not to use them
Published Apr 19, 2024 • Last updated 55 minutes ago • 4 minute read
With housing unaffordability near its worst-ever level, our trusty leaders are on a quest to right their housing wrongs and get more young people into homes.
Part of Ottawa’s big strategy to “help” is promoting tax-sheltered savings accounts and pumping up their contribution limits. That, of course, stimulates real estate demand amidst Canada’s population and housing supply crises. But save that thought.
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First-time buyers now have three government piggy banks to stockpile cash for a down payment:
1. The 32-year-old RRSP Home Buyers’ Plan — which lets you deduct contributions from your income to defer taxes and then borrow from the account interest-free for your down payment (as long as you wait 90-plus days to withdraw any contributions);
2. The 15-year-old Tax-free Savings Account (TFSA) — which lets you save after-tax dollars, grow your money tax-free and withdraw it without the taxman taking a bite;
3. The one-year-old First Home Savings Account (FHSA) — which is a combination of an RRSP and TFSA. It lets you deduct contributions from income, compound it tax-free and never pay tax on withdrawals used to buy a home. You can even save the deduction for a year when you need it more — when you’re earning more money.
Assuming you have the funds and contribution room, these tax shelters can combine to help you amass a supersized down payment.
“Looking at the FHSA alone, with the max annual contribution room of $8,000 for 2023 and 2024, a potential first-time home buyer could have as much as $16,000 deposited in the account today for a down payment,” says Eric Larocque, chief mortgage operations officer at Questrade’s Community Trust Company.
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“If you also add in the cumulative contribution room of $95,000 for the TFSA, it amounts to $111,000 in potential funds available — and that’s before incorporating investment gains from either account.”
And it doesn’t stop there. RRSP, TFSA and FHSA savings limits keep increasing. If first-timers have enough contribution room, down payment savers in 2024 can sock away even more in these tax-sheltered troves.
“Factoring in the recent changes to the Home Buyers’ Plan, which now permits RRSP withdrawals of up to $60,000 — up from $35,000 — we land at a potential total of $171,000 in deposited funds that can be tapped for a first-time home buyer’s down payment,” Larocque adds.
That’s quite a wad — easily enough to cover the 20 per cent ($139,706) down payment required to avoid mandatory (and pricey) default insurance on the average home. Canada’s average abode is now worth $698,530 by the way, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association.
Here’s the rub: Canada’s living costs are sky-high, and real disposable income has trended downward. So, how’s an average first-time buyer household, raking in less than six figures, supposed to amass such a stash?
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Based on national averages, saving 10 per cent of one’s pre-tax income per year (who does that?) would take a young FTB couple over 15 years to sock away $140,000. History shows what would happen to home values if you waited 15 years — they’d jet off without you.
If you have no other resources and your bet is that historical appreciation rates continue — despite slower population growth, more building and potentially higher long-term rates — you’re better off saving less and buying sooner with a five per cent down insured mortgage.
So, does Big Brother really expect your typical first-time buyer to max out all these savings plans? Nope. But hey, throwing a buffet of options at you sure paints a pretty picture of government effort, doesn’t it?
Ottawa’s dirty little secret is that these nifty programs crank up demand, turning renters into buyers. So don’t bet on them making the home-owning dream any cheaper, for first-timers or anyone else.
Take advantage of them anyway.
The government sets limits on these tax shelters with well-off home buyers in mind. One lucky bunch who can make use of all three down payment savings plans is the first-timer with prosperous parents.
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Such buyers can make a withdrawal from their parental ATM (a living inheritance, some call it), deposit that cash in all three savings vehicles above and reap: hefty income tax savings or deferrals (thanks to the FHSA and RRSP deductions); tax-free/tax-deferred growth on the investments; and tax-free withdrawals if the money is used to buy a qualifying home (albeit, you’ll have to pay the RRSP HBP back over 15 years, starting five years after your withdrawal).
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The more opportunities it gives people to save for a down payment, the more Ottawa worsens the imbalance between purchase demand and supply. And that, of course, boosts real estate values skyward — which is dandy for existing owners but contradictory to the government’s affordability messaging.
But hey, these tax treats are ripe for the picking. Home shoppers with the means — especially those with deep-pocketed parents — might as well take advantage of all three accounts.
Robert McLister is a mortgage strategist, interest rate analyst and editor of MortgageLogic.news. You can follow him on X at @RobMcLister.
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Successful real estate investors have long followed the adage: When there is blood in the street, buy property.
Historically, this approach has yielded dividends, and it explains the mindset behind a new venture from Hines, a real estate giant with over $93 billion in assets under management. Hines recently announced a new platform called Hines Private Wealth Solutions that seeks to capitalize on the recent troubles in the real estate industry.
The management at Hines has been carefully watching the real estate industry for decades, and they believe that today’s market presents the perfect opportunity for investors to buy distressed assets and sell them at a profit in the future. When you consider that nearly $4 trillion in commercial real estate loans are set to mature between now and 2027, it’s easy to see the logic behind Hines Private Wealth Solutions.
The developers behind many of those projects took out loans assuming they would be able to refinance at pre-COVID interest rates. Considering that current interest rates are about double what they were before COVID-19, that assumption looks more like a losing bet every day. It also means there will be a lot of foreclosures that a well-positioned fund can snap up for pennies on the dollar.
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That’s where Hines Private Wealth Solutions seeks to step into the picture. It’s already contracted with investing heavyweight Paul Ferraro, former head of Carlyle Private Wealth Group, and raised $10 billion in funds for the new project. It will offer its clients a range of investment options, including:
In addition to these offerings, Hines will also give personal guidance to its investors on how to best manage their real estate assets. It is targeting investors who want to turn away from the traditional 60/40 investment model by channeling more money into real estate and away from other alternative investments. Hines is banking on the idea that high interest rates and high inflation will be around for a while.
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When that happens, it becomes more important for investors to hold inflation-resistant assets. That’s a big part of why Hines is betting that real estate is near the bottom after years of declining profits resulting from high interest rates and major losses in the commercial sector. Hines’s conclusion that now is the time to buy real estate is based on long-term company research showing that real estate typically declines after a 15- to 17-year-long growth period.
Its research shows that the decline normally lasts around two years, which is about the same length of time the real estate market has been suffering from high prices and high interest rates. Theoretically, that makes this the perfect time to make aggressive moves in the real estate market, and the Hines Private Wealth Fund was conceived to allow investors to take advantage of current market conditions.
Despite the deep troubles facing today’s real estate industry, it’s not hard to see the logic in Hines’s approach.
“This is a great vintage, it’s a great moment. This real estate correction began really over two years ago, right when the Fed started raising interest rates,” Hines global Chief Investment Officer David Steinbach told Fortune magazine. “So, we’re two years into a cycle, which means we’re near the end.”
If Hines is correct, real estate investors will have a lot of good bargains with high upside to choose from in the next 12 to 24 months. The good news is that even if you’re not wealthy enough to buy into the Hines Private Wealth Solution, there may still be plenty of opportunity for you to adopt their investment philosophy and start scouting for an undervalued, distressed asset to scoop up. Keep your eyes open and be ready.
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This article $93 Billion Real Estate Giant Is Betting The Market Is About To Hit Rock Bottom originally appeared on Benzinga.com
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