The Off Market - May 8

The insider's guide to off-market properties.

If you’re new here and wondering why you’re receiving this, it’s probably because you interacted with one of our posts on Facebook or Bigger Pockets. If you’ve returned for another edition, welcome back! As a reminder, we break down the latest real estate data, give commentary (and hot takes) on trending topics, and provide resources to help you close more deals. Let’s dive in.

General Update

We’re in the full swing of fundraising at the moment, and it’s looking like we’ll have the round closed by the end of the month.

On the product/engineering side, we’ve started the integration of the Ohio data sets and are finalizing the integration with ReportAll. We’ve also kicked off conversations with Transunion and Equifax to help with the data cleaning and enrichment steps in the current flow. Our intern starts next week, and we plan to make two full time offers in the next day or so to the top engineering candidates in our pipeline.

On the go-to-market front, our presence on social has been working, last week we hit a record. Also, our podcast officially got accepted into the major directories, check it out and give us a 5-star review: Spotify, Apple, Amazon Music.

Real Estate Data

Highlights

• 30 YR Fixed-Rate Mortgage: 7.20% vs 7.51% last week (source)
• Mortgage Applications - Purchase: -0.96% WoW, -14.73% YoY (source)
• Mortgage Applications - Refinance: -5.59% WoW, +3.30% YoY (source)

Commentary - Fractional Ownership

Fractional ownership is on the rise again in residential real estate. Individuals are looking to own portions of homes in popular areas, rather than timeshares to avoid the HOA fees, and to capitalize on the appreciation of the asset. For instance, someone could purchase a fraction of a mansion on Marco Island, Florida or a fraction of a ski-chalet home in Jackson, Wyoming. They use the property for a few weeks a year to reap the benefits of ownership, without having to maintain the physical structure.

Real Estate Commentary

Commercial Real Estate Foreclosures Spike 117%

In March, there were 625 commercial foreclosures. That’s up 117% since March 2023, when there were 288 commercial foreclosures. California, which accounts for 11.7% of the nation’s population, was home to 29.9% of all commercial foreclosures in March 2024. To be clear, these foreclosures are mostly centered around office buildings vs large SFR or mixed-use.

Redfin Pays $9.25m To Settle Broker Commission Lawsuits

Redfin has agreed to pay $9.25 million to settle federal lawsuits alleging that its practices led to artificially inflated broker commissions for U.S. homeowners selling their homes. This settlement was disclosed in a regulatory filing with the SEC. The settlement, agreed upon last Friday, aims to resolve class action lawsuits in Missouri and protect Redfin from similar future lawsuits nationwide.

Resources

Off Market Podcast: Rebecca Hidalgo, The #1 Latina Agent in Arizona

Rebecca has always been a trailblazer. She first got into real estate in the 90s when HUD and VA Repo homes became popular. In the ‘07 mortgage crisis she transitioned to foreclosures and short sales, and most recently with the crypto boom, became the first fully crypto & metaverse certified real estate team. Rebecca is the #1 Latina Agent in Arizona, the #29 Latino realtor in all of the United States, and #1 BREA Agent in the Southeast Valley. She’s sold thousands of homes and has been ranked in the top half of the Top 1% of realtors. Tune in here.

Off Market Podcast: Neema Bardi, Youngest Real Estate Broker in CA History

This week we dropped the third episode of the Off Market podcast, featuring Neema Bardi, the youngest Real Estate Broker in CA History. Neema is a lifelong entrepreneur, who started out charging electric scooters and selling $8 coffees on the USC campus. When he learned about commercial real estate syndication, he was hooked! He graduated, became a realtor, and sold 20+ homes in his first three months. He then went out on his own, becoming one of the youngest brokers in history! Tune in here.

The Closing Bell

As always, thanks for reading! If you need introductions to investors, wholesalers, cash buyers, financing (EMD, double closes, rehab…etc.), or title companies you know where to reach us.

• Austin & Max