According to the National Association of Realtors, the average age of first-time home buyers has risen to 36 years old. This may be because they are burdened with student debt. At the same time, since the Great Recession, investors backed by venture capital firms have bought a lot of apartment buildings and homes.
I am always fascinated by startups and how they solve changes in the market. Startups are now buying properties and attracting first-time real estate investors to purchase shares of homes (like a shareholder in a corporation). Who is this good for?
On The Small Business Radio Show this week, I talked with Amanda Hoover, a staff writer at Wired Magazine, about an article she wrote called “Your Next Landlord Could Be 100 Random People“. She previously wrote tech features for Morning Brew and covered the New Jersey state government for The Star-Ledger.
Here were my interview questions:
- You start the article about this new kind of startup called Arrived.com. Tell us what they are offering?
- Is this for people that can’t get a mortgage because they can’t afford the down payment or interest rate? Do they get “home equity sooner”?
- Is this good or bad for a crowded real estate market which seems to be being taken over by corporations more than individual homeowners?
- Have barriers to home ownership come down?
- Does it cause instability for homeowners that are only in it for a profit?
- You say that the CEO of Arrived.com, Ryan Fraizer says that 40% of the investors are renters themselves- did that surprise you?
- How much does the average investor invest?
- Another startup, Lofty AI lets people invests using a token system. Is this very different as a real estate investing platform? Another startup, ReAlpha lets people invest in vacation homes.
- How long do investors expect to hold these homes and maybe sell them for a profit?
Listen to the entire interview with Amanda on The Small Business Radio Show.
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Image: Wired
