After today’s jobs report, which showed unemployment at 3.7%, it’s now clear that the Federal Reserve does not need to create a job-loss recession to bring down the growth rate of inflation. The Fed has much to answer for after their massive rate hikes and quantitative tightening policy. These were created to bring down inflation by impacting the labor market but they disproportionally affected housing in a negative way. The groundwork for rate cuts are now in place for 2024.

To understand what the Fed should do next, let’s do a quick review of the economic markers that got us to this point.

1. I published my COVID-19 recovery model on April 7, 2020, because at that early date the U.S. economy had already started to recover. That model worked like a charm and I retired it on Dec. 9, 2020, setting the stage for the second phase of the expansion to happen, which meant focusing on the labor market recovery.

2. In that next phase of recovery, I said job openings should get to 10 million. I doubled and tripled down on this call even when we had some big misses in 2021 in the jobs report.  Job openings got all the way to 12 million in March 2022 and are currently at 8.7 million.

3. My forecast was that we would get back all the jobs lost because of COVID-19 by September of 2022; this timeline was 100% correct as this happened by that date. 

4. The final part of labor recovery we needed after COVID-19 was not just the jobs we lost during the pandemic, but what we would have gained. Imagine we didn’t we have any COVID-19 and the economy had expanded at a normal level since 2020: our employment numbers would have been between 157 million-159 million today. So, until we broke into the 157 million camp, we were still in make-up demand mode while the job growth data was cooling off.

This would look perfectly normal to me as population growth is slowing so we really can’t have big jobs reports anymore if the economy is still expanding. What I believe people got wrong since early 2022 is that they assumed that job growth slowing down meant a recession in 2022 or 2023. That isn’t the right way to look at the economy: the labor market breaks when jobless claims data breaks.

For me that means jobless claims over 323,000 on the four-week moving average and as you can see in the chart below, that hasn’t happened. 

What does all this mean for the Fed? They messed up and over-hiked, but they can correct their mistakes by talking dovish now, cutting rates toward the three, six, and 12-month trend of PCE core inflation, and landing the plane.

Their policy is still restrictive and the one sector of the economy that is back down to Great Financial Recession sales levels — the existing home sales market — needs a boost in demand. Let’s get America back on track and give up the stay-at-home economic housing policy of the Fed since March of 2022.

Now, on to the report.

From BLS: Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 199,000 in November, and the unemployment rate edged down to 3.7 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in health care and government. Employment also increased in manufacturing, reflecting workers’ return from a strike. Employment in retail trade declined.

Here is the breakdown of jobs gained and lost; of course, the return of striking workers boosted the headline number in this report, giving a one-time boost to the data. However, the trend is still the same: job growth is slowing down as it should, but we haven’t broken yet.

In this jobs report, the unemployment rate for education levels looks like this:

  • Less than a high school diploma: 6.3%
  • High school graduate and no college: 4.1%
  • Some college or associate degree: 2.8%
  • Bachelor’s degree or higher: 2.1%

What a month for the 10-year yield, currently trading at 4.25% after the labor data got better.

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What I want people to get out of this report isn’t the headlines you will hear today about how the recession isn’t here yet: we know that the jobless claims data is still not at 323,000 on the four-week moving average. The real story here is that the Fed was wrong about needing a job-loss recession to slow the growth rate of inflation down.

The housing market is still in deep recessionary sales levels, and it’s time for a dovish Fed to start talking about ways to get home sales to grow, because one thing we have seen now is that it’s not the 1970s. This is not the time to be old and slow.



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Many Massachusetts real estate schools offer online courses. We’ve researched the best online programs to help you quickly complete the 40 hours of prelicensing classes required by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The state requires live interaction between students and instructors for at least half of all qualifying prelicensing courses.

After completing an approved course of study, you’ll be able to sit the state real estate exam. You’ll want to choose a program that gives you flexibility to fit your schedule and timeline for getting licensed in MA, while preparing you to pass the state exam on your first try, and successfully launch your new career. Let’s review our findings!

At-a-glance: Best real estate schools in Massachusetts for 2024

Best real estate schools in MA for customized continuing ed

The CE Shop

From $285

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Best real estate schools in MA for exam prep

Colibri Real Estate School

From $399

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Best real estate schools in MA for career support

Freedom Trail Realty School

From $229

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Visit Website

Best real estate schools in MA for part-time students

AREA School of Real Estate

From $245

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Best real estate schools in MA for every stage of your career

Lee Institute

From $390

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Best real estate schools in MA for inclusivity

New England Real Estate Academy

From $299

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Best real estate schools in MA for getting your license fast

Metropolitan School of Real Estate

From $350

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At-a-glance: Best real estate schools in Massachusetts for 2024


Best real estate schools in MA for customized continuing ed

The CE Shop

From $285

Jump to Details ↓

Visit Website


Best real estate schools in MA for exam prep

Colibri Real Estate School

From $399

Jump to Details ↓

Visit Website


Best real estate schools in MA for career support

Freedom Trail Realty School

From $229

Jump to Details ↓

Visit Website


Best real estate schools in MA for part-time students

AREA School of Real Estate

From $245

Jump to Details ↓

Visit Website


Best real estate schools in MA for every stage of your career

Lee Institute

From $390

Jump to Details ↓

Visit Website


Best real estate schools in MA for inclusivity

New England Real Estate Academy

From $299

Jump to Details ↓

Visit Website


Best real estate schools in MA for getting your license fast

Metropolitan School of Real Estate

From $350

Jump to Details ↓

Visit Website


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The CE Shop

Best real estate schools in MA for customized continuing ed

Overall Rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars






Rating: 5 out of 5.

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Enroll + SAVE 30%

Use Promo Code HW30

Overview

According to the CE Shop, its prelicensing student satisfaction rate is 96% and its students have a 64% pass rate (12% better than the national average). They attribute these success rates to their consistently up-to-date course content and interactive approach to learning. An interactive user interface is proven to be considerably more effective than reading a PDF or textbook.

The CE Shop leverages their exclusive online learning platform, LEAP, to encourage students to engage with essential content. The CE Shop offers two learning formats for online students:

  • Live streaming
  • Online self-paced

Course Options

See Details – Use promo code HW30 to save 30%



  • Pricing

    Course TypePrices Starting atPackage FeaturesUpgrade Features
    Prelicensing$285Course Only Package: Business eBooks, digital flashcards, downloadable resources, real estate glossary, study schedule & career resourcesStandard: All Main Features + National and Massachusetts Exam Prep Edge

    Value: All Standard Features + 3 Business Building Courses

    Premium Bundle: All Value Features + 12-Hour MA Post-licensing CE Package + Real Estate Basics & Beyond eTextbook

    Broker Prelicensing$$485Standard Package: Required 40 hrs of coursework, unlimited practice exams & Broker Exam Prep Edge
    Post-licensing CE$$105CE Package: Required 12 hrs of coursework. Includes the following online courses: Environmental Issues, Comparative Market Analysis, Advertising Compliance and the Law, Conducting Open Houses and Developing a Safety Plan, Fair Housing, 1031 Exchanges & Code of Ethics (not for CE)CE Individual Courses: Select from nine 2-hr, ala carte courses

     


  • Pros + Cons

    Pros:

    • Free 5-Day Trial of the Massachusetts Prelicensing course
    • Option to complete prelicensing education in one month
    • Multistate, customized packages can be created to meet CE requirements

    Cons:

    • Lack of access to live instructors

  • Features

    Course Formats: Live streaming and online self-paced.

    Course Access: Six months from the date of enrollment.

    Money Back Guarantee: With the CE Shop’s “Money Back Guarantee,” you can request your money back within 30 days of purchase, as long as the course is not more than 50% complete.

    Student Support: Support is available seven days a week via chat, email, and phone.

    Exam Prep: The CE Shop offers comprehensive, interactive Exam Prep classes to better prepare you for the licensing exam as part of the CE Standard, Value, and Premium packages. Packages include an assessment to gauge student’s competencies for each topic before beginning the prep course. Exam Prep can also be purchased as stand-alone packages (see options listed below).


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Colibri Real Estate School

Best real estate schools in MA for exam prep

Overall Rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars






Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

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Overview

For over 40 years, more than 500,000 students have enrolled in Colibri to prepare for their real estate license exam using the school’s all-inclusive CompuCram exam preparation. Colibri Real Estate is a state-approved real estate education provider with over 132 instructors experienced in Massachusetts real estate sales and teaching best practices. Students appreciate the well-organized, easy to comprehend content presented by experts in simplifying complex concepts likely to be included in the state exam, as well as the visual aids for assistance with retention and understanding. Colibri’s online prelicensing courses are self-paced.


Course Options

See Details



  • Pricing

    Course TypePrices Starting atPackage FeaturesUpgrade FeaturesUpgrade FeaturesUpgrade Features
    Prelicensing$399The Basics: Online package for disciplined self-starters. Required 40 hrs of coursework includes 3 study guides, streamlined course navigation, and 800+ new visual learning objects & videosExam Preparation: All features of The Basics + Pass or Don’t Pay Guarantee and CompuCram Exam Prep, including simulated exams, flashcards, readiness assessment & audio review guidesExam Preparation Plus: All features of Exam Prep + Live Q&A with local instructors and Exam Crammer webinar seriesUltimate Learning: All features of Exam Prep Plus + Career Booster Pack, including over 20 “how-to” videos, new agent job aids, customizable action plan templates, buyer and seller checklists & printed textbook
    Exam Prep$115Exam Prep: Pass or Don’t Pay Guarantee, and CompuCram Exam Prep, including simulated exams, flashcards, readiness assessment & audio review guidesExam Prep Live: All features of Exam Prep + Live Q&A with local instructors and Exam Crammer webinar series
    Broker Prelicensing$429Broker Basics: Required 40 hrs of Coursework, math eBook, instructor support discussion board, free 1-yr RISMedia premier membership including monthly market reports, free admission to webinars and virtual events & in-person event discountsBroker Ultimate Learning: All features of Broker Basics + printed course textbooks

  • Pros + Cons

    Pros:

    • Self-paced options idea for students who are balancing school, work, and family demands
    • Next-gen student dashboard allows students to track their progress
    • Unlimited practice tests are part of Exam Prep packages

    Cons:

    • Online and livestream classes cannot be mixed and matched. Each class must be completed in the format it was started

  • Features

    Course Formats: Self-paced online courses.

    Course Access: Six months from your registration date in most cases. The Prelicensing Ultimate Learning package offers one-year access.

    Pass Guarantee: Colibri’s Pass or Don’t Pay Guarantee is available with all packages, with the exception of the Prelicensing Basic package. If students don’t pass the Massachusetts real estate license exam within 30 days of completing the course’s exam prep, Colibri will reimburse the original cost.

    Student Support & Engagement: Expert local instructors are available to share their real-world insight. Additionally, Colibri’s courses have recently been upgraded with hundreds of new visual learning objects and videos, as well as streamlined course navigation, created to improve learning engagement and retention. And Exam Prep Plus includes 40 hours a month of Live Q&A with local instructors for a personal, guided approach.

    Exam Prep: The Basic Prelicensing package features three e-books and a course manual designed to help you retain essential real estate concepts and prepare for the state exam.

    And the Ultimate, Exam Prep, and Exam Prep Live Prelicensing packages include six 1-hour, instructor-led webinars that provide a hyper-focused approach to exam prep.


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Freedom Trail Realty School

Best real estate schools in MA for career support

Overall Rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars






Rating: 5 out of 5.

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Overview

Freedom Trail is Massachusetts’ first-ever board certified online real estate school. With pass rates that are 14 points higher than the state averages, student surveys reveal that 99.4% of those that used Freedom Trail’s study materials as directed passed the Massachusetts Real Estate License exam on their first try. If your priority is landing a job as soon as you pass the exam, Freedom Trail provides access to its Massachusetts real estate job board, enabling you to get hired faster and start your new career. You can also opt-in to Freedom Trail’s broker recruitment program to be contacted directly by local brokerages that are hiring new agents.


Course Options

See Details



  • Pricing

    Course TypePrices Starting atPackage FeaturesUpgrade FeaturesUpgrade FeaturesUpgrade Features
    Prelicensing$229Base: Required 40 hrs of coursework. Audio book, eBook, 1100+ practice questions, 24/7 on demand classes & Livestream online classes. 25 hrs livestream access. 6 months course accessRidgeline: All features of Base + Livestream option and Forms Training 101. 40 hrs livestream access. 9 months course accessPeak: All features of Ridgeline + over 1700 practice questions, archived live class recordings, unlimited practice tests. 60 hrs livestream access. 12 months course accessSummit: All features of Peak + RE14R07: Architecture Class and 1 on 1 course & study support. 100 hrs livestream access. 12 months course access
    Post-licensing CE$15Online CE Courses: Select 1 of 10 two-credit CE classes ala carte. Classes are broken into short lessons with videos, illustrations & textLevel Up License Renewal Package: Required 12 hrs of coursework includes 6 classes: Architecture, Fair Housing Law, Investment Property Basics, MA Licensing Law, Protecting the Protected Classes and Tech & Real Estate BrokerageRefresher License Renewal Package: Required 12 hrs of coursework includes 6 classes: Brokerage Relationships, Contract Law, Fair Housing Law, Financing, MA Licensing Law & Protecting the Protected Classes
    $129Non-credit MA Reciprocal Licensing Course: For those with out-of-state licenses applying for an MA reciprocal license. Covers reciprocal application process, relevant laws & regulationsBase Non-Credit NH Reciprocity: For anyone licensed in MA seeking NH reciprocity eligibility. Covers licensing laws & the reciprocal licensing process. Includes eBook, unlimited on- demand access, 3 months of course access, job recruiting & morePeak Non-Credit NH Reciprocity: All features of Base + 10 hrs of live-streaming class access with practice questions and exams. Includes NH Salesperson Licensing course

  • Pros + Cons

    Pros:

    • Access to a real estate job board helps you jumpstart your career
    • Course software makes it easy to study part or full time, automatically tracking progress and requirements
    • Mix and match options let you combine live online and archived classes to complete the program in under two weeks
    • Self-paced

    Cons:

    • Exam prep packages are not available

  • Features

    Course Formats: Take self-paced online courses on your computer, phone, or tablet.

    Course Access: You have from six months to one year of course access, depending on the package you purchase. And every required class topic is available both live and on demand.

    Pass Guarantee: Freedom Trail will refund your purchase under the Pass or Don’t Pay Guarantee within 30 days of your request if you purchase the Pass or Don’t Pay Guarantee access, score higher than 85% on all sections of online practice exams, and take your licensing exam within 90 days of course completion. The guarantee only applies to first-time exam takers and is not available as part of Base or Ridgeline Prelicensing packages.

    Student Support & Engagement: Regularly scheduled, interactive live online classes are taught by Massachusetts-licensed real estate instructors who are available to answer questions, much like an in-person class. You can also participate in class discussions with both your instructor and your classmates.

    Reciprocal Licensing: You can get your Connecticut and / or Rhode Island license with any Massachusetts prelicensing class. Once you’ve taken the Massachusetts real estate classes and passed the licensing exam, you can apply to the Rhode Island Real Estate Commission for a Rhode Island real estate license and the Connecticut Real Estate Commission for a Connecticut real estate license. Since you’ll already have your Massachusetts license, you’ll receive your CT and RI license automatically.


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AREA School of Real Estate

Best real estate schools in MA for part-time students

Overall Rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars






Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

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Overview

American Real Estate Academy (AREA) has 46 years of experience as a Massachusetts real estate education provider, making it the oldest continuously owned and operated real estate school in Massachusetts, and one of the oldest in the nation. Licensed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to teach real estate continuing education, AREA students appreciate the exam prep materials and course review videos of the online classes while the in-person classes are known for being conveniently located in Weston, MA. And with unlimited access to course review for up to two years from the date of registration, students with scheduling constraints who are taking classes part-time won’t feel rushed. In-person classes available.


Course Options

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  • Pricing

    Course TypePrices Starting atOnline FeaturesIn-Person WeekdaysIn-Person Weekdays
    Prelicensing$245Required 40 hrs of coursework, self-paced and livestream. Full practice exams, quizzes with over 400 exam prep questions, on-demand course review videos, e-textbook, online note taking feature, Terms & Definitions, makeup for missed classesAll features of online class + textbook. Classes meet 4 x per week for 2 weeks.All features of online class + textbook. Classes meet Sat. and Sun. for 2 weeks.
    Broker Prelicensing$375Required 40 hrs of coursework. Includes e-textbook, over 700 practice exam questions, free review videos. Self-paced and streaming, half of the course is self-paced and half is completed via scheduled classes, streamed online & offered on a rotating basis
    Post-license CE$125Select two-credit classes ala carte or all required 12 hrs of CE coursework for a discounted price. Includes HI-Def video classesFull 12 hours of CE coursework offered in-person. Held at the Weston School on specific dates.

  • Pros + Cons

    Pros:

    • Discounts available for military, first responders, and nurses
    • HI-Def video classes that are mobile and tablet compatible
    • Unlimited access to course review for up to two years from registration date

    Cons:

    • Online students only have 90 days from the registration date to complete the course

  • Features

    Course Formats: In-person and online classes. Self-paced or livestream, online classes can be attended via your computer or smartphone.

    Course Access: Online students have 90 days from the registration date to complete each course. If a student needs more time, AREA will extend the time by 90 more days at no charge. In-person students must complete their live course within the scheduled dates. Unlimited access to course review is available for up to two years from the date of registration.

    Refund Policy: AREA’s online course students may be eligible for a full refund, minus a $25 cancellation fee, if you withdraw from a course before attending the class within 90 days of registration. Live, in-person students may also be eligible for a full refund, minus a $25 cancellation fee, if you cancel the course up to 48 hours before the scheduled first day of class. If you’ve already started your course, you are not eligible for a refund.

    Student Support & Engagement: Experienced instructors are available via phone during normal business hours. You can also email the instructors, who will respond to your inquiry within 24 hours.

    Exam Prep: AREA’s Real Estate Drill and Practice QBank offers comprehensive review of every topic students need to know for the licensing exam. QBank features custom quizzes that concentrate on your problem areas, as identified by the performance tracker.

    Final Exam: After students finish the prelicensing real estate class, AREA provides the education certificate necessary for the real estate exam, as well as instructions and paperwork for the state exam. You’ll have two years from the date you complete your class to take and pass the Massachusetts real estate exam.


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Lee Institute

Best real estate schools in MA for every stage of your career

Overall Rating: 4.2 out of 5 stars






Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

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Overview

The Lee Institute School of Real Estate combines professional instruction and video format training to make the concepts of the real estate business more digestible and engaging. Students chose the school for its offering of live instruction classes for salespersons, brokers, appraisers, mortgage, and home inspection courses at various locations and convenient times, including weekend classes. The Lee Institute has many decades of course preparation and research, and has given millions of students the proper training to pass the Massachusetts exam on the first try.


Course Options

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  • Pricing

    Course TypePrices Starting atPackage FeaturesUpgrade FeaturesUpgrade Features
    Prelicensing$390Live Salesperson Course: Required 40 hrs of coursework. Includes text and study materials. Class scheduled for specific dates, 2 weekends in a rowOnline Salesperson Supervised Video Course: Required 40 hrs of coursework. Webinar format. Mon – Sun access. 60 days given to complete courseGold Online Supervised Video Salesperson Course: Webinar. 330+ PowerPoint electronic image slides outlining study lessons for each video and 120 questions for the National and State part for online practice exams. Student has 30 days to complete 40-hr course, access course Mon-Sun
    Exam Prep$199National PSI & Pearson Vue Salesperson Refresher Course: Webinar. Mon – Sun. 30 days to complete the courseNational PSI & Pearson Vue Broker Refresher Course: Webinar. Mon – Sun course access. 30 days to complete the course
    Post-licensing CE$78Online Course Packages, 12 Hrs Each: Includes 12 hrs of CE for MA featuring various combinations of six 2-hr classesC R Silver Package: Includes 12 hrs of CE for MA commercial real estate and residential continuing education. Features Commercial Lease Clauses of Tenant Concerns: Part III and other residential coursesC Gold Package 12 Hrs: Includes 12 hrs of CE for MA commercial real estate. Features Commercial Real Estate Basics and 5 other landlord and tenant courses
    Broker Prelicensing$420Online Broker Supervised Video Course: Webinar. Mon – Sun access. 60 days to complete course

  • Pros + Cons

    Pros:

    • Provides students with career assistance
    • Offers one-on-one coaching and training

    Cons:

    • Website is not easy to navigate
    • Textbooks not included

  • Features

    Course Formats: Online live streaming and virtual classes.

    Course Access: 60 days to complete courses.

    Refund Policy: While the Lee Institute does not offer a pass guarantee, the school can refund a student within seven business days from your registration date if you send an email canceling your registration and requesting a refund, and you have not logged onto and/or begun the online course.

    Student Support & Engagement: Should you have any comments or questions, the Lee Institute staff is available via email, phone, or 24-hour live chat. Technical support is available during normal business hours via a submission form.

    Exam Prep: The Lee Institute’s exam tutorials help both the salesperson and broker prepare for the licensing exams. Students who access the online practice exam questions will also find support from a team of experts.


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New England Real Estate Academy

Best real estate schools in MA for inclusivity

Overall Rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars






Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

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Overview

Since 2010, New England Real Estate Academy has been offering real estate classes and it was one of the first schools to be accredited to offer online training in 2016. In addition to Massachusetts-approved, prelicensing courses and continuing education courses for MA and NH license renewals, New England Academy provides professional development courses for sales and management development in an online, multimedia format.

Webinars are hosted by expert instructors, so you’ll get practical, real-world insights based and lessons based on advanced learning methodologies. The academy also customizes design courses to meet the ever-evolving needs of the real estate industry, and offers courses to accommodate real estate students who speak Chinese, Portuguese, and Spanish.


Course Options

See Details



  • Pricing

    Course TypePrices Starting atPackage FeaturesPackage FeaturesPackage Features
    Prelicensing$299Required 40 hrs of coursework divided into 2 parts. Part A: 20 hrs of self-directed videos and 1,000+ quiz questions to be completed in 180 days. 180 extra days for review videos and quiz review.
    Part B: 20 hrs of online live, instructor-led webinars at set dates/times. 6 month access to interactive classes, either mornings or evenings. Digital manual and audiobook included
    Broker Prelicensing$349Required 40 hrs of coursework (5 topics, 4 hrs each) divided into 2 parts. Part A: 20 hrs of self-directed videos & test-prep quiz questions.
    Part B: 20 hrs of instructor-led, live webinars at set dates/times. 6 month access to on-demand videos. Classes held quarterly. Manual and all materials provided online
    Post-licensing CE$15A La Carte courses: Select 2-jr courses ala carte or all Required 12 hrs of CE credits for a special bundle price. Receive one certificate for each completed courseMA Bundle A: Includes Buyer Agency, Financing, Offers, Fair Housing, Code of Ethics (with optional REALTOR component), and Conducting Open Houses and Developing a Safety PlanMA Bundle B: Includes Intro to Commercial Real Estate Basics, 1031 Exchanges, Investment Property Basics, Chapter 93A- Consumer Protection, and Residential Rental-Landlord Tenant Issues Part 1 & 2

  • Pros + Cons

    Pros:

    • Mix and match morning, evening, and Saturday online sessions to fit your schedule
    • Closed caption course options in Chinese, English, Portuguese, and Spanish for live and online licensing classes
    • The 40-hour courses have two parts and can be completed in any order

    Cons:

    • There is only one prelicensing real estate agent course offered
    • School is lacking 24/7 or live chat customer support

  • Features

    Course Formats: Live and on-demand classes.

    Course Access: 180 days from the date of registration to complete your 40-hour course.

    Course Guarantee: With New England Academy’s Prelicensing Course Guarantee, you may retake your class for free within 12 months of your course completion date if you don’t pass the Massachusetts Real Estate exam the first time.

    Student Support & Engagement: Real-life instructors are available to answer any questions, Monday through Friday, via email. During the week, you can also contact the Student Concierge team by phone. General support is available daily via phone, email, or chat.

    New England’s instructors are available to answer questions, provide support on technology and course materials, or address application/exam concerns. They can be reached by phone or email, Monday through Friday from 9AM to 4PM.

    Exam Prep: Designed to refresh your memory and prepare you to take the Massachusetts real estate exam, the License Exam Review Course features over 12 hours of video recapping the most critical licensing topics from your real estate license course. It also includes 535 quiz questions, as well as access to the videos and quiz questions for up to three months.

    Reciprocal Licensing: If you have dual licenses in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, you can save time with the 15-hour MA & NH Combined CE Package, which includes courses designed to satisfy both states’ CE requirements. After the class, you will receive the certificate for each state to renew both states’ licenses. The MA & NH package includes required Core Course, Buyer Agency, Financing, Disclosures / Seller Due Diligence, 1031 Exchanges, Code of Ethics, and Conducting Open Houses and Developing a Safety Plan.


Logo-metropolitan-school-of-real-estate

Metropolitan School of Real Estate

Best real estate schools in MA for getting your license fast

Overall Rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars






Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

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Overview

Not only does Metropolitan School of Real Estate offer a fast track package for completing your Massachusetts prelicensing education requirement in less than two weeks, but students report that even the more moderately-paced courses fly by thanks to the engaging instructor and content. All courses are created by Michael Albano, Massachusetts real estate broker and professional real estate educator for two decades. Albano’s teaching style is meant to get students excited about real estate. What’s more, Metropolitan offers students the chance to be hired by its partner real estate brokerage, with optional participation in a career seminar during a class break.


Course Options

See Details



  • Pricing

    Course TypePrices Starting atPackage FeaturesPackage FeaturesPackage Features
    Prelicensing$350Fast Track Package: Complete required 40 hrs of coursework in 9 days with live, online webinar course via Zoom. Textbook, downloadable e-Book, PDF presentation, Exam tip worksheet & 12 months of access to online education video library. Offered monthly, Each class is 6 full days (mix of weekdays & weekends)Weekends/ Weekday-only Package: Complete required 40 hrs of coursework. Attend 2 monthly online live Fast Track classes, full weekend days only. Includes textbook, downloadable e-Book, PDF Presentation, Exam tip worksheet & 6 months of access to online education video libraryTues/Thur-only Package: Complete required 40 hrs of coursework in 3 weeks. Attend online live Zoom class. Includes textbook, downloadable e-Book, PDF presentation, exam tip worksheet & 6 months of access to online education video library
    Post-licensing CE$10Individual CE Courses: Required 12 hrs of Coursework. Select from seven 2-hr, ala carte coursesComplete CE Package for $50: Required 12 hrs of coursework. Includes the following online course modules (2 credit hrs each): Brokerage Professional Ethics, Tech & Real Estate Brokerage, Appraisal Process, Environmental Issues, and Financing & Brokerage Relationships

  • Pros + Cons

    Pros:

    • Affordable and engaging courses
    • Ideal for those who need to get their prelicensing requirement fast

    Cons:

    • Few prelicensing packages to choose from and no exam prep or broker pre-licensing packages offered
    • Classes are on a set schedule, not self-paced

  • Features

    Course Formats: Online, live courses via Zoom.

    Course Access: While the live online courses themselves must be taken on set days / times, access to the online educational video library ranges from six to 12 months, depending on the package you purchase. Additionally, you can access the class recordings for a full year after class.

    Reimbursement Policy: If you get hired by Metropolitan’s partner brokerage, you might be eligible for a full tuition reimbursement.

    Student Support: If you have questions or comments, support is available daily via phone, email, or form submission.

    Exam Prep: Based on a robust understanding of the licensing exam and how to approach, take, and pass it, Metropolitan’s exam prep includes a powerpoint presentation, study book, and 30+ hours of online videos as bonus material.


Methodology: How we chose the best real estate schools in Massachusetts

To determine the very best Massachusetts real estate schools, we evaluated and scored each school based on the following:

  • Course offerings, including study aids and tools
  • Flexibility and format options
  • Pass guarantees or return policies
  • Pricing and affordability
  • Instructor quality and accessibility
  • Student support and engagement
  • User reviews and pass rates

Finally, we considered the schools with unique features and professional development opportunities that can have lasting value to real estate agents like yourself.

Frequently asked questions


  • How long is the Massachusetts licensing exam?

    The Massachusetts Real Estate License Exam consists of multiple choice questions and is based on the 40-hour pre-licensing curriculum. Typically, the number of questions included on the Real Estate License Exam in Massachusetts are as follows:

    • The salesperson exam consists of 120 multiple choice questions. You’re given 4 hours to complete this section
    • The broker exam consists of 115 multiple choice questions. You’re given 4 hours to complete this section

  • What is the average salary for a Massachusetts real estate agent?

    According to Glassdoor.com, the estimated average salary for a Massachusetts Realtor is $154,301 annually. This value represents the median. Additional pay is estimated to be $47,028 per year and may include cash bonus, commission, profit sharing, and tips.


  • How much does real estate school cost in Massachusetts?

    Getting your real estate license in Massachusetts will require an investment, especially when you’re just getting started. But considering that the average Massachusetts real estate agent earns nearly $155,000 per year, it’s worthwhile. Here’s what to budget for:

    • prelicensing exam coursework = $229 to $399
    • Salesperson exam, initial application fee = $31
    • Salesperson written exam fee: $54
    • License renewal fee after 2 years = $103

    Estimated total = Between $415 and $588 [1]


  • What are the requirements for taking the Massachusetts real estate salesperson exam?

    The requirements for taking the Massachusetts real estate salesperson exam are as follows: [2]

    • Be at least 18 years old
    • Complete 40 hours of Massachusetts prelicensing real estate classes
    • Receive a Massachusetts Board of Real Estate Educational Certificate after finishing your required coursework
    • Receive three endorsement letters from individuals who aren’t related to you or who aren’t classmates
    • Apply for and pass the real estate licensing exam within two years of completing your real estate course
    • File and pay all of your Massachusetts state tax returns

  • Can I take the Massachusetts real estate exam online?

    In addition to taking the Massachusetts real estate licensing exam at one of the state-approved locations, you can take the real estate licensing exam online. To take the online exam, you must read and submit the Candidate Information Bulletin as instructed on the application here.

The full picture: Best real estate schools in Massachusetts

Starting a new career in real estate can be both exciting and daunting. Our guide to the best real estate schools in Massachusetts will help you choose the program that’s best for your goals and needs.

At HousingWire, we provide the information you need to start and advance your career in real estate. By providing tips on finding the right school and strategies to help you pass the MA licensing exam, our primary goal is to help you thrive and succeed as a newly licensed Massachusetts real estate agent. 

Here are some helpful links and sites you’ll want to visit as a prospective Massachusetts real estate agent:


Footnotes

  1. PSI Services. “MACandidate Information Bulletin.”
    https://www.mass.gov/doc/psi-candidate-information-bulletin-12921/download
  2. Mass.gov. “Renew your Real Estate License”
    https://www.mass.gov/how-to/renew-your-real-estate-license

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Democratic lawmakers in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate have introduced bills in their respective chambers designed to ban hedge funds from participating in the single-family housing market, citing supply and affordability challenges as justification.

First reported by the New York Times, Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon introduced the “End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act of 2023” to the Senate. Rep. Adam Smith of Washington introduced the House version.

Democratic Reps. Jeff Jackson and Alma Adams of North Carolina introduced a separate bill, the “American Neighborhoods Protection Act.” It would “require corporate owners of more than 75 single-family homes to pay an annual fee of $10,000 per home into a housing trust fund to be used as down payment assistance for families,” according to the Times.

Affordability challenges

“You have created a situation where ordinary Americans aren’t bidding against other families, they’re bidding against the billionaires of America for these houses,” Sen. Merkley told the Times. “And it’s driving up rents and it’s driving up the home prices.”

In an announcement on his congressional website, Rep. Smith expounded on his reasons for supporting the effort.

“In 1971, my father was able to buy the house I grew up in for $15,000 on the salary he earned as a baggage handler at SeaTac Airport,” he said. “That same house would cost nearly $500,000 today yet wages for workers like my father have not kept up. Too many families in the Puget Sound region and across the country are struggling to afford to rent or buy a home.”

An “increasing number of large investors purchasing a significant percentage of single-family homes” exacerbates the issue, which “squeezes out prospective buyers,” Smith added.

Likelihood of passage is low

In an interview with the Times, Smith acknowledged that realities in Congress — which just saw its Republican majority thinned by one member after the retirement announcement of Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California — make passage of the bills unlikely. Still, Congress must start a conversation on this issue, he said.

Data shows that institutional investors currently maintain a sizable stake in the single-family housing space.

“By June 2022, institutional investors owned 3 percent of all single-family rentals nationwide, but in more affordable markets they owned a considerable market share; in Charlotte, they owned 20 percent, according to the Urban Institute,” the Times explained. “Even as the housing market slows, investors have remained active, buying 26 percent of the single-family homes that sold in June 2023, according to CoreLogic, a data analytics company.”

However, David Howard of the National Rental Home Council told the Times that the issue is not institutional investors as much as a lack of action from homebuilders.

“Policies really need to be shaped and crafted so that they support the production, investment and development of new housing,” he said. “I think bills that work against that ultimately are just going to perpetuate the challenges we’re already facing.”

Recently, Democratic lawmakers also turned their eyes toward a bill proposal seeking to  “preserve” and “revitalize” manufactured home communities across the United States.



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As we edge towards 2024, the real estate landscape buzzes with both opportunities and uncertainties. With home prices expected to hold steady and even grow in many markets, real estate agents face a unique market shaped by shifting demographics, evolving buyer expectations and lingering economic uncertainties. Amidst this backdrop, the role of real estate software is now perhaps more crucial than ever.

Having the right real estate transaction management and CRM softwares is not just helpful, but rather a necessity for navigating the complexities of a market where informed decisions and quick responses can make the difference between closing a deal and missing an opportunity.

In this article, we zero in on the best real estate software for 2024, helping agents stay ahead in a market brimming with potential, yet fraught with unique challenges. Here, we summarize the real estate software programs that help you capture leads, organize data and connect with clients more effectively — in a year that promises to be anything but typical.

Overview: Best Real Estate Software for 2024

BEST OVERALL

Propertybase

Jump to Details ↓

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BEST FOR SOCIAL MEDIA LEADS

Market Leader

Jump to Details ↓

Visit Website

BEST FOR SMALL TEAMS

Wise Agent

Jump to Details ↓

Visit Website

BEST FOR EMAIL SEQUENCES

Zurple

Jump to Details ↓

Visit Website

BEST FOR CRM-WEBSITE COMBO

Boomtown

Jump to Details ↓

Visit Website

BEST FOR ATTRACTING & TRACKING LEADS

RealGeeks

Jump to Details ↓

Visit Website

BEST FOR REAL ESTATE CRM

IXACT Contact

Jump to Details ↓

Visit Website

BEST FOR CLIENT FOLLOW-UPS

Top Producer

Jump to Details ↓

Visit Website

BEST FOR DATA-DRIVEN VALUATIONS

HouseCanary

Jump to Details ↓

Visit Website

BEST FOR BUDGET-FRIENDLY LEAD NURTURING

Realvolve

Jump to Details ↓

Visit Website

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Overview: Best Real Estate Software of 2024


BEST OVERALL

Propertybase

Jump to Details ↓

Visit Website


BEST FOR SOCIAL MEDIA LEADS

Market Leader

Jump to Details ↓

Visit Website


BEST FOR SMALL TEAMS

Wise Agent

Jump to Details ↓

Visit Website


BEST FOR EMAIL SEQUENCES

Zurple

Jump to Details ↓

Visit Website


BEST FOR CRM-WEBSITE COMBO

Boomtown

Jump to Details ↓

Visit Website


BEST FOR ATTRACTING & TRACKING LEADS

RealGeeks

Jump to Details ↓

Visit Website


BEST FOR REAL ESTATE CRM

IXACT Contact

Jump to Details ↓

Visit Website


BEST FOR CLIENT FOLLOW-UPS

Top Producer

Jump to Details ↓

Visit Website


BEST FOR DATA-DRIVEN VALUATIONS

HouseCanary

Jump to Details ↓

Visit Website


BEST FOR BUDGET-FRIENDLY LEAD NURTURING

Realvolve

Jump to Details ↓

Visit Website


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Our pick

IXACT Contact logo; a real estate CRM or customer relationship management software

PropertyBase

Starting at $79 per user per month

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Who it’s for

PropertyBase is an ideal all-in-one solution for larger real estate agencies and brokerages that require robust CRM capabilities and lead generation tools.

Why we picked it

We chose PropertyBase for its integration of Salesforce’s powerful CRM with superior IDX integration. This combination is highly effective for agents needing to keep track of the latest MLS listings and manage client relationships efficiently.


Buying Options

See Details



  • Pros + Cons

    Pros:

    • Custom client CRM pipelines
    • Built-in hyperlocal SEO features
    • Option to book a demo

    Cons:

    • Minimum of 10 users required.
    • Additional fee for IDX integration.
    • Inconsistent customer service.

  • Notable features

    • Salesforce-based CRM integration
    • Lead capture tools with email collection
    • Lead scoring tool for prioritizing clients

Market Leader logo; a real estate CRM or customer relationship management software

Market Leader

Starting at $139 per month

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Who it’s for

Market Leader is ideal for agents and brokerages aiming to enhance their lead generation and client management through a streamlined platform.

Why we picked it

We chose Market Leader for its unique offering of an all-in-one marketing hub. The platform’s ability to provide a customizable website, coupled with exclusive leads and a sophisticated CRM, makes it a standout choice for marketing and client management processes.


Buying Options

See Details



  • Pros + Cons

    Pros:

    • Offers a CRM with a mobile app
    • Fully customizable websites
    • Flat rate for exclusive leads
    • Access to real estate training guides

    Cons:

    • No free trial or money-back guarantee
    • No discount for annual subscriptions
    • Inconsistent quality in zip code-specific leads
    • Additional fee for social media features
    • Mixed reviews on Better Business Bureau

  • Notable features

    • Mobile app that syncs with the desktop CRM
    • Tailored drip campaigns and marketing automation
    • Exclusive leads package for more targeted connections

Wise Agent logo; a real estate CRM or customer relationship management software

Wise Agent

Starting at $27 per month, billed annually

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Who it’s for

Wise Agent is perfect for real estate agents and small teams in search of an affordable CRM solution. Its user-friendly interface and comprehensive feature set make it a strong contender for those requiring reliable customer support.

Why we picked it

The reason for selecting Wise Agent lies is for its balance of essential CRM functionalities and advanced marketing tools. Its intuitive design and affordability, coupled with exceptional customer service, make it a standout choice for real estate agents.


Buying Options

See Details



  • Pros + Cons

    Pros:

    • Intuitive and user-friendly interface
    • 24/7 support and one-on-one onboarding
    • Comprehensive drip campaigns and customizable landing pages
    • Advanced transaction management features.

    Cons:

    • No dedicated mobile app, relies on a web app
    • Absence of text messaging and dialer features
    • Occasional product updates can be inconvenient
    • Not an all-in-one solution, lacks integrated website and paid lead generation

  • Notable features

    • Easy contact management with enhanced lead profiles
    • Transaction tracking tools for efficient deal management
    • Customizable dashboard for a tailored user experience
    • Extensive integrations for a more versatile platform

Logo-Zurple-2

Zurple

Setup fee of $799 plus a starting price of $309 per month. Additional fees apply for multiple users and extra lead support options.

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Who it’s for

Zurple is tailored for real estate agents who prioritize email nurturing and conversion support in their lead generation strategies. It’s especially beneficial for professionals focusing on personalized follow-up and behavioral analytics.

Why we picked it

Zurple offers a distinctive approach in the real estate software market with its focus on email nurturing and lead conversion. While its initial investment might be higher compared to other platforms, the personalized email campaigns and behavioral analytics features present a unique value proposition. Real estate professionals looking for a tool that emphasizes detailed lead tracking and effective email communication will find Zurple to be a fitting choice. However, its lack of certain features like SMS marketing and a high setup fee might limit its appeal to a specific segment of real estate agents. As with any software, potential users should weigh these considerations against their specific business needs and goals.


Buying Options

See Details



  • Pros + Cons

    Pros:

    • Advanced personalized email follow-up system.
    • Automated email campaigns with a natural tone.
    • “Hot Behaviors” feature to identify ready-to-follow-up leads.
    • Detailed follow-up metric reports.

    Cons:

    • High setup fee and mandatory contract
    • No SMS marketing or task workflows in CRM
    • Limited customer support to email

  • Notable features

    • Targeted communication based on lead behavior
    • Automatic alerts and reminders for timely follow-ups
    • Personalized email campaigns with behavioral analytics
    • Exclusivity in ZIP code targeting

Logo-Boomtown!

Boomtown

Starting Price: Inquire to learn pricing options.

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Who it’s for

Though potentially costly for individual agents, BoomTown’s most comprehensive packages are perfectly suited for larger teams of 20+ agents seeking a full-service real estate solution. That said, individuals and duos can still benefit from BoomTown’s “Launch” package. Compare all products here.

Why we picked it

BoomTown earns its place for its excellent pay-per-click (PPC) advertising integrations and its versatile suite of real estate tools, from IDX-enabled websites with customizable themes to advanced CRM and lead generation capabilities. BoomTown caters to the diverse needs of real estate professionals, starting with individual products to packages meant to serve agencies of 25+ people. Its tiered packages include features like an AI-powered smart CRM, automated marketing tools, comprehensive listing management and training resources for real estate professionals.


Buying Options

See Details



  • Pros + Cons

    Pros:

    • Integrations with Facebook ads and Google PPC
    • Conversion-optimized website design
    • Option for agents to book a demo directly

    Cons:

    • Limited options for content marketing
    • Agents do not own the leads generated on the platform

  • Notable features

    • IDX-enabled website builder for listing integration
    • Predictive CRM system for AI-supported client management
    • Templates designed to maximize email sign-ups

Logo-Real-Geeks

RealGeeks

Starting at $299 per month

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Who it’s for

RealGeeks is designed for single agents, teams and brokerages aiming to scale their business with a mix of online presence and client management tools.

Why we picked it

Real Geeks excels in the real estate tech market with its dynamic range of tools designed for maximum lead generation and client management efficiency. From IDX websites optimized for conversions to the innovative Geek AI for automated engagement and a comprehensive CRM system for effective lead tracking and nurturing, the platform is a one-stop solution for agents and brokerages. Its competitive pricing, coupled with advanced features like automated email drip systems, SMS autoresponders, and a mobile app, positions Real Geeks as a powerful ally for real estate professionals aiming to streamline their marketing efforts and enhance client interactions.


Buying Options

See Details



  • Pros + Cons

    Pros:

    • Comprehensive IDX websites designed for high conversion rates
    • Property valuation tool helps generates qualified leads
    • Automated email drip system & SMS autoresponders streamlines lead nurturing
    • Facebook PPC tool simplifies Facebook advertising
    • Geek AI provides AI-driven auto-engagement assistant
    • Websites are designed to increase sign-up rates
    • Mobile-friendly CRM supports lead management

    Cons:

    • The range of features might require time to fully master (learning curve)
    • Heavily relies on digital channels for lead generation (not ideal for in-person events)
    • Some advanced features and tools might incur extra charges

  • Notable features

    • Market reports provide insights into the real estate market
    • Integrations with various tools for enhanced functionality.
    • Customizable marketing campaigns for specific service areas
    • User-friendly customer experience provides interactive maps, street views and new property alerts

Logo-Real-Geeks

IXACT Contact

Starting at $38 per month, billed annually

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Who it’s for

Real estate agents and teams who want a comprehensive, user-friendly CRM to manage contacts and enhance business productivity.

Why we picked it

IXACT Contact positions itself as a smart assistant, focusing on simplifying contact management and automating key tasks. Its blend of intuitive design, automated reminders and powerful sync capabilities make it a go-to choice for agents aiming to streamline their workflows and improve client engagement.


Buying Options

See Details



  • Pros + Cons

    Pros:

    • Attractive and intuitive user interface for ease of use
    • Customizable home page dashboard for personalized experience
    • Automated task and appointment reminders to stay on schedule
    • Keep in Touch Dashboard helps you set up birthday reminders, move-in anniversaries and done-for-you ghostwritten monthly e-newsletters
    • Comprehensive email marketing and direct mail marketing tools

    Cons:

    • The provided website is relatively basic and lacks some advanced features
      Add-ons can increase the overall cost, making it less affordable

  • Notable features

    • Rich contact profiles add personalized touches to client management
    • Real-time synchronization with Google, Outlook and more
    • Mobile app available on iPhone and Android for on-the-go access
    • Social Stream add-on for automated social media posting
    • Concierge support services for personalized setup and ongoing assistance

Top Producer logo; a real estate CRM or customer relationship management software

Top Producer

Starting at $109 per month for one user

Visit Website

Who it’s for

Top Producer is best suited for mid-level agents, teams, and brokerages focused on upscaling their business and boosting Gross Commission Income (GCI). It’s tailored specifically for agents ready to streamline their lead generation and workflow automation.

Why we picked it

Top Producer’s platform distinguishes itself with several lead generation tools and streamlined CRM workflows. For instance, the platform’s CRM is equipped with AI-driven insights that help you get a 360-degree view of the contacts in your database and personalize your interactions. Along with MLS integration, there are helpful follow-up tools and solutions for automated social media lead generation and multi-channel auto lead nurture.


Buying Options

See Details



  • Pros + Cons

    Pros:

    • Customizable and user-friendly dashboard
    • Market Snapshot tool for up-to-date market intelligence
    • Diverse lead generation tools to suit various needs
    • Good customer service reputation

    Cons:

    • Limited integration with the provided agent website

  • Notable features

    • Social Connect service for social media ad creation and lead generation
    • Smart Targeting using AI for identifying potential sellers
    • FiveStreet tool for automated lead follow-up
    • Comprehensive transaction management tools with visual timelines.

Logo-HouseCanary

HouseCanary

Starting Price: Inquire to learn buying options

Visit Website

Who it’s for

HouseCanary is designed for a range of real estate professionals including mortgage lenders, real estate investors, capital markets and private lenders. It’s an ideal solution for those seeking AI-powered valuation and brokerage services in the residential real estate sector.

Why we picked it

HouseCanary stands out due to its innovative technology, combining artificial intelligence (AI) and image recognition to provide actionable insights from extensive real estate data. It is quickly becoming a go-to valuation tool for professionals in the real estate world.


Buying Options

See Details



  • Pros + Cons

    Pros:

    • State-of-the-art AI-powered solutions for real estate valuation
    • Comprehensive brokerage services covering a vast number of properties
    • Advanced data-driven tools for investment analysis and decision-making
    • Price Match Guarantee for their valuation products

    Cons:

    • May require technical proficiency to fully leverage the AI and analytics tools

  • Notable features

    • In-depth valuation models trained with decades of data
    • Brokerage solutions for quick and informed property valuations
    • Real-time market insights and analytics for various real estate segments
    • Software and services that power major financial institutions and private lenders

Realvolve logo; a real estate CRM or customer relationship management software

Realvolve

Starting as low as $23 per user per month (paid yearly) for teams; Pro plan at $49 per month

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Who it’s for

Realvolve is ideal for both buyer and seller’s agents, particularly teams focused on automated relationship management. It’s well-suited for real estate professionals seeking to streamline their client interactions and process management.

Why we picked it

Realvolve stands out for its commitment to enhancing and automating real estate relationships. It offers a balance of simplicity and functionality, providing essential tools without overcomplicating the user experience with unnecessary features. With its focus on detailed workflow automation, extensive template libraries and integrated management tools, it empowers agents to efficiently handle more transactions while maintaining high-quality customer service.


Buying Options

See Details



  • Pros + Cons

    Pros:

    • Customizable CRM pipelines for efficient client management
    • Advanced custom automation tailored for diverse real estate processes
    • A comprehensive workflow library with industry expert content
    • User-friendly and customizable dashboard
    • Detailed notes and correspondence tracking for complete communication management

    Cons:

    • Some complex automation series can be less intuitive, requiring time to learn
    • Limited in terms of native integrations (there’s none for Google calendar; users must connect it through Zapier)

  • Notable features

    • Advanced ‘Workflows’ feature for sophisticated automation
    • Extensive pre-designed workflow library for various real estate scenarios
    • Customizable templates for emails and social media
    • Integrated calendar and activities management for streamlined scheduling
    • In-depth lead follow-up and nurturing tools to foster meaningful client relationships

The full picture

In today’s ever-changing real estate market, agents and brokerages are constantly seeking ways to stay ahead. Software like PropertyBase, Wise Agent, Zurple and more offer various functionalities that cater to every agent’s needs. From CRM and lead generation to transaction management and email nurturing, each software has its unique strengths. The common thread is their ability to enhance efficiency and client management, crucial for success in today’s market.

Agents should choose the right software considering their specific requirements, budget, and the size of their team to fully leverage these digital tools and maximize their business potential.

Our methodology

HousingWire is the destination for industry leaders and decision makers to stay informed and stay ahead of what’s going on in the constantly evolving U.S. housing industry.

To determine the best real estate software for industry professionals, we analyzed dozens of products and platforms, viewed demos and spoke with agents on our editorial team, weighing the pros and cons of each product alongside both quantitative and qualitative data like price, notable features, ease of use, return on investment, client support and customer reviews.

We crawled the web so you don’t have to, analyzing a wide sampling of reviews across social media, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and online discussion forums.

Frequently asked questions


  • What software do real estate agents use?

    Real estate agents are increasingly leveraging sophisticated real estate software like Realvolve, HouseCanary and Top Producer to streamline their operations. These platforms offer a range of functionalities from advanced CRM systems, automated workflow management, to AI-powered valuation and analytics tools, catering to the dynamic needs of today’s real estate professionals.


  • Which software is best for real estate business?

    The best software for a real estate business depends on specific needs. For teams focused on automated relationship management, Realvolve offers customizable CRM pipelines and complex automation. HouseCanary is ideal for those needing AI-powered valuation solutions, while Top Producer is suited for agents seeking extensive lead generation options and workflow simplification.


  • What is the best lead generation software for real estate?

    For effective lead generation in real estate, software like Top Producer and Realvolve are highly recommended. They provide robust tools for capturing and nurturing leads, with features like customizable email templates, social media integration and advanced CRM functionalities tailored for real estate scenarios.


  • What is a CRM software for real estate?

    A customer relationship management software (CRM), such as PropertyBase, Boomtown, Realvolve and Top Producer, is designed to help agents manage client interactions, automate workflows and enhance communication. These tools offer features like detailed client profiles, automated follow-ups, lead nurturing and transaction reminders to streamline client relationship processes in real estate businesses.

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More home sellers on the East Coast are getting in on the commission lawsuit action.

Plaintiffs in Florida and Pennsylvania filed lawsuits on Monday, accusing real estate industry players of allegedly colluding to artificially inflate real estate agent commissions. Both lawsuits are seeking class-action status.

Similar to the other commission lawsuits, the latest two take aim at the National Association of Realtors’ Participation Rule, which requires the listing broker to make a blanket offer of compensation to the buyer’s broker to list the property on the MLS.

The Florida commission lawsuit was filed by Parker Holding Group, a Panama City-based firm that sold homes in March and August 2021, in Circuit Court of the 11th Judicial Circuit in and for Miami-Dade County.

Defendants in the lawsuit include the Florida Association of Realtors, the nation’s largest state Realtor group with 238,000 members, and 16 large local brokerages, with agent counts ranging from 655 to nearly 4,000. Brokerages named in the suit include The Keyes Company, LPT Realty, Charles Rutenberg Realty, Charles Rutenberg Realty-Orlando, United Realty Group, The K Company Realty, Florida Homes Realty & Mortgage, Dalton Wade, Avanti Way Realty, MVP Realty Associates, Florida Realty of Miami, Lifestyle International Realty, Watson Realty, Premiere Plus Realty, Future Home Realty and Michael Saunders & Company.

Like the other commission lawsuits, the Parker suit alleges that the defendants colluded “to impose, implement, and enforce anticompetitive restraints that cause home sellers in Florida to pay inflated commissions in connection with the sale of their homes.”

Because this is a state lawsuit, the complaint claims the alleged behavior is in violation of the Florida Antitrust Act of 1980 and the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, and not the Federal Sherman Antitrust Act.

The complaint names local Realtor associations, MLSs and the brokerages’ employees and agents as co-conspirators, accusing them of using their control over the state’s Realtor association-affiliated MLSs to impose rules from NAR that allegedly promote anticompetitive practices.

“In a raw demonstration of market power, the Florida Realtor MLSs overturn the natural order of a rational price system where home sellers and home buyers each separately bargain and pay for the services provided to each of them,” the complaint alleges.

The proposed class for the suit includes all Florida citizens who have sold a property through one of the state’s Realtor association-affiliated MLSs and paid a buyer broker commission between Dec. 4, 2019 and the present.

The plaintiffs are demanding a jury trial, treble damages, coverage of the cost of the suit and a permanent injunction “to permanently enjoin and restrain Defendants from establishing the same or similar rules, policies, or practices as those challenged in this action in the future.”

In an email, Marla Martin, a spokesperson for Florida Realtors, said the trade group was working on a statement about the allegations.

Juan Baixeras, the broker/owner of family-run Florida Realty of Miami, said he is hopeful that the state Realtor association will help him out and offer guidance.

“These allegations are absurd. It’s just law firms trying to cash in on the previous success of the other lawsuit,” he wrote in an email. “We have never fixed prices. Our commission has always been negotiable. We are a 100% commission office, we get paid a flat fee of $355 no matter what commission comes in. So, price fixing commissions would not help us at all, we would still make $355.”

Another commission lawsuit in Pennsylvania was filed by Homesellers Spring Way Center, John and Nancy Moratis and Nancy Wehrheim in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. Defendants in the suit include West Penn MLS, a local broker-owned MLS that is not affiliated with NAR, and eight local brokerages, including Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices The Preferred Realty, NRT Philadelphia LLC, Piatt Sotheby’s International Realty, NextHome PPM Realty, NextHome Dynamic, Realty One Group Gold Standard, Realty One Group Platinum and Realty One Group Horizon.

Despite not being affiliated with a Realtor association, West Penn MLS has adopted a rule similar to NAR’s Participation Rule.

The complaint alleges that the rule is anticompetitive because “it compels the seller to compensate the broker representing the purchaser even though that broker should be working for the purchaser, not the seller; it mandates a ‘blanket offer,’ meaning that the same compensation must be offered to every buyer’s broker, regardless of skill, experience, or the services provided; and it has the effect of encouraging ‘steering’ by buyer-brokers, because it incentivizes them to direct their clients to properties with higher commission offers.”

The Center suit complaint cites the Sitzer/Burnett case, stating that the defendants’ alleged practices “are not unique; rather, they are part and parcel of nation-wide collusion within the real estate industry to maintain inflated commissions.”

The lawsuit also names co-conspirators, including “local and state Realtor associations,” as well as “other brokerages within that geographic area.”

The proposed class for the lawsuit includes all home sellers who used a listing agent or broker affiliated with or employed by one of the brokerage defendants in the sale of a home listed on the West Penn MLS, and who paid a commission to the buyer’s broker.

This suit also demands a jury trial, treble damages, coverage of the cost of the suit and a permanent injunction “enjoining Defendants from (1) requiring that sellers pay the buyer broker and (2) continuing to restrict competition among residential real estate brokers in the manner set forth above,” according to court records.

The two new commission lawsuits are just the latest in an ever-growing pile of copycat cases that have been filed since late October when a Missouri jury found the real estate industry liable for colluding to artificially inflate agent commissions in the Sitzer/Burnett trial. A motion for injunctive relief has yet to be filed in that lawsuit and a final ruling from the judge is not expected until spring 2024.

Editor’s note: HousingWire reached out to all of the defendants in the latest lawsuits for comment and will update this story as comments are returned.



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Pennymac Financial Services is the latest mortgage company to issue debt in a challenging housing market. The California-based company announced on Wednesday it intends to offer a $650 million aggregate principal amount of senior notes due in 2029. 

“Proceeds from the offering will be used to repay a portion of the Company’s secured term notes due 2025 and for other general corporate purposes,” Pennymac said in an 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 

Analysts see mortgage companies issuing debt as a sign that market conditions may improve in 2024. Lenders are raising more money to invest in their business, improve liquidity and increase the share of unsecured debt, which has no collateral, on their balance sheet. 

In October, HousingWire reported that Freedom Mortgage and PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust moved to raise money through debt offerings with high investor demand. For example, Freedom raised $1.3 billion in about 24 hours, higher than the $1 billion expected by the company, reflecting an oversubscribed deal.

Other peers would follow suit, analysts said at that time.  

Pennymac Financial Services said its notes, to be offered in a private placement to qualified institutional buyers, will be “fully and unconditionally guaranteed on an unsecured senior basis.” The offer is subject to market conditions and other factors. 

At the end of September, Pennymac had a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.6 times, lower than its target of 3.5 times.

In total, $1.8 billion was unsecured debt, with $650 million notes at 5.357% due in October 2025, which is expected to be replaced. The company also has $650 million at 4.250% due in 2029 and $500 million at 5.750% due in 2031.  

Pennymac also informed the market this week that an arbitrator concluded the company has to pay $155.2 million to Black Knight in damages related to a breach of contract claim. 

In 2019, Black Knight filed a lawsuit accusing Pennymac of copying its mortgage servicing platform, MSP, to create its Servicing Systems Environment (SSE) platform. 

The arbitrator also concluded that Pennymac can keep all its intellectual property and software, including SSE, “free and clear of any restrictions on use.” 

Companies can still move to correct, modify or vacate the interim award before a state court confirms it. 



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Investing in real estate can build you massive wealth. And here’s the secret no one wants to tell you: it isn’t all that hard. But before you jump to conclusions and call real estate a get-rich-quick scheme, let’s lay down the law. Investing in real estate is a simple, repeatable process that MANY Americans have used to get rich, but it takes knowledge and time to succeed. Where do you go to learn how to buy your first or next rental property? Well, you’re already here!

In this bonus episode, Scott Trench, CEO of BiggerPockets AND decade-long investor, will share his five-step, repeatable process for finding and analyzing real estate deals. Scott has taken the SLOW route to wealth. He doesn’t have a hundred units, a big real estate fund, or a yacht. But he does have a thirteen-unit passive-income-producing rental portfolio that pays him money every single month.

Stick around to learn how YOU can get your first or next rental property in 2024. Want full access to the tools and resources from this episode, including calculators and rent estimators? Sign up for BiggerPockets Pro and use code “STABLEWEALTH24” for a special discount!

Scott:
Hi everybody and welcome to a very special bonus episode of the Real Estate Podcast. A couple of weeks ago I recorded a webinar called The Long-Term Approach to Real Estate in 2024. We at BiggerPockets thought that it was packed with good value and that we wanted to share on our podcast feed. As we all know, the market’s been really unpredictable with fluctuating interest rates, low inventory, and investors wondering what to do next. And in this webinar I’m going to discuss market conditions, strategies for 2024, and how do identify good deals that can bring long-term wealth for those willing to be patient. We cut down this webinar to make it a bit more listenable for you, our podcast audience, but if you’d like to view the slide deck I created and watch the whole webinar, we did post it on the BiggerPockets YouTube channel.
All right. Before we jump in, in the middle of the show, I do mention two BiggerPockets online resources, our calculators and our agent finder tool and how they function. I did not fully mention their URLs, so I wanted to make sure that I did that in the intro here for you. Our agent finder tool can be found at biggerpockets.com/agentsforinvestors and our calculators at biggerpockets.com/calculators. Without further ado, I hope that you enjoy this webinar, The Long-term Approach to Real Estate in 2024.
Today we’re going to talk about the long-term traditional approach to investing in real estate and how to make that work here in 2024. This is what I call building wealth, the boring, unsexy and practical way. Hopefully that doesn’t describe me too literally here. Welcome everybody. You’re here I believe because you want financial freedom. You’re here because you know real estate is a viable way to get there, but you might have some questions and fear. You don’t know if real estate’s the right path. You don’t know whether it works today in the sense that you can buy a cash flowing rental property in late 2023, early 2024. You probably have a healthy fear of 2024s market. I think you should, and we’ll talk about 2024s market and I’ll talk about the puts and takes that are going to go on there. And you don’t know where or how to go about finding a deal that works, again in the context of a 25% down payment with conventional mortgage financing for example, much less a good deal that might produce a really good return.
So we’re going to cover determining if real estate fits into your long-term plans. We’re going to talk about the traditional approach to normal long-term rentals. We’re going to talk about a market forecast for 2024. We’re going to talk about building a realistic buy box within a given market, how to state a hypothesis, test into it, validate or invalidate it, iterate on it until you are comfortable understanding what a good deal looks like and you know what you might act on and we’ll talk about how to actually act on that. First I want to give a little quick preview about BiggerPockets. What is BiggerPockets? We have a platform with blogs, forums, podcasts, webinars, webinar replays, books, networking, videos and more. All designed to help you use real estate investing to achieve your goals. We’ve got a free membership for the dabbling real estate investors, some education, networking and Q&A forums that will help you build confidence over time.
And we have a pro membership, which is an advanced toolkit to help you ace property analysis, project cashflow. It’s a real estate command center to manage your business and it’s tools for those who are ready to take the serious steps towards offering on purchasing real estate. And here at BiggerPockets, we believe that real estate’s a really powerful long-term wealth building tool, that it’s not quick and easy and that there’s a price that you as investors must pay to invest in real estate and that’s in the form of time, self-education, analysis and management of the portfolio. A little bit about me here. I’m Scott, I’m president and CEO of BiggerPockets. I started my career in 2014 with my first house hack. Fun fact, I was working at a company that was rated the worst company to work for in the United States of America back in 2014, making $48,000 per year and that might’ve had a little something to do with my desire to become financially independent through real estate as fast as possible.
I built up to a portfolio of five properties over nine years. There’s 13 units there. This is not a remarkable outcome and that’s the point. I think that I have a very average experience in real estate investing here. Very consistent, slow, steady, whatever my position was, ready to take down that next property. I’m also a big index fund investor, right? Boring long-term, practical investment strategies. I put a little bit of money aside in the stock market every month and I buy a property every 18 months or so with a partner. I also wrote Set for Life and First-time Home Buyer here. And by the way, most investors are like probably you and definitely me, right? They own 10 or fewer properties, maybe a couple dozen units. We’ve got 17 million investors in this country who own at least one investment property and 90% of those folks are mom and pop investors [inaudible 00:04:28] owning 10 or fewer properties, right?
There’s 28 million rental properties in this country that includes big multifamily, apartment buildings and single family rentals. They’re about 18 to 20 million single family rentals, another two to 4 million duplexes, triplexes and quads, and almost all of them are owned by the little guy, me, you and other landlords using boring 30 year fixed rate conventional mortgages. So first question I want to answer today is does real estate investing make sense as part of your journey? And I’m not going to give you an emphatic yes, I’m going to give you a more practical maybe. Maybe it makes sense to you. It makes sense if you plan to invest the necessary elements which include first and foremost time.
There’s a price you’re going to pay in the real estate investing business in the form of self-education, and you’re either going to put that price, you’re going to pay that price upfront by listening to podcasts, reading books, watching videos, reading blog articles, networking and studying your market. Or you’re going to pay it in two or three years when you have a disaster in your rental property that you were unprepared for and you have to spend a lot of cash and time and money getting out of that. So that’s a really big upfront cost. You need to have the cash, the energy, the sweat, maybe the preparedness and willingness to do a little bit of DIY work, which can enhance returns and more.
Also, you need to believe in real estate investing. Right. You need to believe that over the next five to 10 years you have a fair shot at appreciation. Right. I’ll talk about this later, but real estate is a bet on long-term inflation in US housing prices and the specific bet on the long-term inflation in prices in your market. So you need to believe in appreciation, rent growth, the ability of that property to produce cashflow, the amortization, the ability to pay off the debt that is associated with the property and then that that is going to provide tax advantage wealth that is better than or diversified from the alternatives that all of us have from investing like stocks, bonds, private businesses and other opportunities.
And last, real estate may be a good investment for you if you have your financial house in order. That means you have sufficient reserves, you’ve got a financial runway built up, tens of thousands of dollars in cash, you’re managing your spending, you’re patient, you have a long-term vision. You got to meet all of these criteria in my opinion, in order to be successful in real estate and before you ask every single year is terrifying. And the most terrifying part of the real estate investing journey is buying that first property. When I bought my first duplex in 2014, the sky was about to fall. Property values have been going up for multiple years in a row. You couldn’t find cashflow anywhere in Denver. It didn’t make sense. Interest rates were rising. I posted a blog article a while back where I literally found very reputable media outlets calling a bubble in housing prices every single year from 2014 all the way through to the present.
One of these years they’re going to be right. We’re going to talk about how to address that fear and the legitimate struggle that it takes to get into that first property. Every single year is terrifying and if you’re not scared, I think you’re probably at risk, some of these things. That fear is healthy in my opinion here. And by the way, I do have a quick little downloadable here. This is free. You go to biggerpockets.com/readychecklist. I wrote 10,000 words going in much more detail on what I just mentioned here and produced a checklist that has qualitative and quantitative things to check off, right? Some of these are hard things like I’ve got the down payment for my property, I’ve got a strong credit score, I’ve got the closing costs, I’ve got the six months reserves after all the costs that I think I’m going to put into the property, and some of them are more qualitative.
I believe in real estate as an opportunity to produce better financial results and more wealth for me than the other alternatives that I have access to. I understand my end game and long-term goals and real estate is a pathway to get me there. You don’t need to check every single box. I certainly didn’t check every box when I first got started, but if you’re not checking 75% of them, you should probably do a lot more self-study and reflection because this is a big investment. It’s going to probably be one of the biggest financial decisions of your life. If you feel ready to invest in real estate and hopefully that’s most of the folks on this call, what is then the best strategy? My philosophy is to buy a property in a great location at a fair price, right? I buy a good property in a great location at a fair price.
I love Warren Buffett’s mentality here. I’m certainly no Warren Buffett, but I like to try to apply that high level philosophy to real estate investing in my own portfolio. So I buy one to four unit properties purchased with long-term fixed rate debt. I buy properties in good locations that I’d be willing to live in personally. I want the opportunity to move the property to its best and highest use. Usually for me that means a light rehab, flooring, paint, maybe addressing certain concerns in the exterior, landscaping, those types of things. I don’t like moving walls, I don’t like redoing kitchens in a big way. Those are great ways to add value, but I’ve got a day job and I want the lighter projects that are a little bit easier for me to manage. It needs to produce positive cashflow immediately after acquisition with reasonable capitalization, right? That’s 25% down payment, long-term debt, conventional financing.
It needs to have a fair shot at long-term appreciation. I need to believe in the long-term prospects of the neighborhood in the market and the property needs to be able to be held indefinitely, putting money into my pocket the entire time. Right. And that is both a function of these other things here, the positive cashflow and the fair shot at long-term appreciation, and it’s also, and perhaps more importantly, a function of my personal financial position. I don’t try to time the market. I buy when my cash position builds up over the months as I save a few thousand dollars a month and build up the down payment for that next property that I’m ready to then put into the unit. So my philosophy is essentially a bet on a continuation of long-term inflation in US housing prices. I want to sit on this for a second here because I think this is an important point.
This is real estate in a nutshell, right? You’re betting on long-term inflation in US housing prices, right? A great thing here and my long-term bet by the way, is on the US generally, and Denver specifically just for me personally. You need to think about that for your market. A great tool to think about this is the Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index. The Case-Shiller Index, and I’m going to get a little technical here, but talks about existing home sale appreciation, right? New home sales are often bigger and newer, have different features, and as an investor, we’re buying a property and by definition, when we go to sell it at some point in the future, we will then be selling an existing property, right, because even if we’re buying a brand new property, it will be an existing property at the time it sells. And this average is close to about a three and a half percent average for the nation as a whole, and it’s higher for Denver on average than a nation as a whole.
Note that the scale is a little bit different here and we’ve got more appreciation in a market like Denver. This might be a little less in a market like Detroit, and you need to factor that over the historical average, and you need to make a guess going forward at what you think that long-term appreciation rate is going to look like in the market that you’re suggesting because there’s a major impact on the long-term returns that you’re going to find in your portfolio. Okay. So this is fundamental to your decision to invest in real estate. I believe it’s a long-term investment. If you’re subscribing to the strategy that I’m talking about on this webinar, this is a core underlying assumption that you need to wrap your head around here because it’s really meaningful to the overall returns you’re going to generate in your portfolio here.
With this approach, I don’t have to time the market. If the market appreciates great, I make money. If the market declines, great, also great. I buy the next deal at a lower price. Trying to time the real estate market is a lot like trying to time the stock market. I apply the exact same mentality to my index fund investments as I do to real estate. Obviously in a stock market graph, we’d see something fairly similar here. And an index fund approach to stock market investing is to buy a little bit, 100 bucks a month or whatever throughout the entire journey and participate in the growth of that investment. I subscribed to the same approach in real estate with the obvious exception that I cannot buy a property every month. I don’t have $90,000, whatever it is to put down on a rental property here in Denver accumulating every single month.
So I’m timing bets just at more infrequent intervals, right, across this journey and enjoying that long-term appreciation return that I believe I’m going to see in a market like Denver, Colorado. Okay. So that’s the philosophy at the highest level. I did promise we’ll talk about the 2024 market and my expectations coming up for next year. Again, that is not necessarily relevant to my long-term investing strategy here, but I will talk about my thing there because I’m a complete nerd on it, even though timing the market’s a fools game.
So to talk about 2024, we have to talk about how we arrived here at the end of 2023. Right. And over the last 18 months, we’re all aware that interest rates have gone skyrocketing. The consequences of those rising interest rates have been really interesting. Right. First, one of the consequences very obvious to everyone is higher interest rates drive down affordability, right, and that reduces demand, but what it also did is it reduced supply. This is called the lock-in effect. Homeowners and real estate investors who have a 3% interest rate mortgage don’t want to sell their property and give up this very awesome debt financing tool that’s locked in for the next several decades in many cases.
So supply dropped even more than demand because of this interest rate phenomena and prices are up year over year 2023, right now versus the same time in 2022. Right. And I think that that has taken some folks by surprise. But what’s also happened here is that we’ve seen fewer home sale transactions. 2021 and the first part of 2022 saw transaction volume close to the historical high. And 2023 here is seeing transaction volume fairly close to the historical low. If 2022 was an average year because the first half had lots of volume and the second half had low volume, 2023 is about 20% below the historical average, and 2021 was about 20, 25% above the historical average.
So you’ve seen a huge decline in transaction volume. There are these factors that impact pricing in the housing market. Right. And they have different weights on a scale and affordability is a big factor here. Rising interest rates obviously has a downward pressure on affordability. It’s a big bubble here, but it’s been offset by inventory, which is almost as large and then smaller upward facing pressure components here, like migration. The United States has inbound migration on an annual basis. Demographics, millennials are in peak home buying years, housing tenure, homeowners typically have a lot of equity in the United States right now. They’ve got low interest, fixed long-term rate debt on their properties. So my best guess at 2024 is that we’re going to see more of the same as we saw in 2023.
Now, I’m going to get more specific than this, so bear with me here, but I think first we’re going to see interest rates are going to remain high. Jerome Powell reducing interest rates, that doesn’t make sense to me unless there’s a severe economic crash, right, where unemployment rises drastically and think through if that happens. If that happens, that will absolutely also potentially have an impact on prices and rents in certain cases. So I do not think the Fed is going to lower rates. I think they’re going to stop raising them and we’re going to see the federal funds rate stay where it’s at. We’re going to see the yield curve un-invert, and we’re going to see mortgage rates remain right about where they are currently. That’s my prediction. You know what they say about predictions, but that’s what I’m sensing here, and I think that will be the case heading into the back half of Q2 2024, the first half of 2024. I think we’re going to see that from here. That will keep transaction volume low and that will create huge regional volatility.
We’ll talk about why there’s going to be huge regional volatility in a second here. I have some data for the next slide here. And there’s a lot of reasons that people buy single family housing in this country. Right. I want to make memories. I want to become a homeowner. It’s the right time in my personal life and I’m going to invest for the long term in my family. It’s a vacation property that I want to make memories on. There’s only one reason that people buy commercial and multifamily real estate, and that is for the income stream. So interest rates already have crushed valuations in the multifamily real estate space and in much of the commercial real estate market. We’ve seen a 30% decline in apartment values from the peak because of the rising interest rates and we’ve seen a similar decline in office. Other parts of the commercial real estate market are seeing a more muted impact. Right.
Now one of the big things, remember our waiting scale here is inventory, right? One of the wild cards for 2024 is going to be new home construction. As you can see here, there are about 1.6 million units currently under construction in this country. We’re hearing all these headlines about housing’s permits and starts declining. That’s true. Housing permits and starts would be very low right now, but new construction takes time. There’s a backlog for several years in many cases for building properties, new developments that have many single family homes, for example, development projects and new builds in certain cities. And of course large multifamily can take several years to get through the pipeline, get permitted and get built. So while there’s fewer starts, you’re seeing historically high, historically high new construction come on the market. Right. And that is absolutely going to be a pressure on rents and home prices in certain parts of the country, and I think that it gives us a couple of, so what’s heading into 2024? Right.
So the first is that if you want a prediction around national averages, that’s super hard to predict and largely useless, right? I’m going to give you a huge range, plus or minus 4%, could be even beyond that next year. We do hope to refine that a little bit, but I think a more practical value is going to be looking at your region and thinking through the combination of net inbound migration, new housing that is going to hit your market, demographic trends and relative affordability, right? If you’re in a place where properties are relatively affordable and you have very low inventory, you’re going to have a market with some tailwinds here, and the rising interest rates are a big upward pressure on rents in that market. If you’re in a market that maybe overestimated migration trends, has a very high expectation but maybe is unlikely to see that, has a ton of inventory coming on and is unaffordable, you should be thinking about that as you’re heading into 2024 and thinking about how it might impact prices here.
For example, I’m very bearish on places like Florida and Texas. Right. These places have a lot of new construction going on. They’re in the South where we’re seeing a lot of that stuff. They do have high net inbound migration in the past, but I wonder if that’s going to continue given the lock-in effect that we’ve seen here. They’re seeing high upward pressure on costs like taxes and insurance, and I think that that’s a recipe for really high risk for property values and prices. I think you’re going to see similar things in places like Denver and Phoenix. I’m not even bullish on my home market in 2024. I’m very bullish on it by 2034 or 2054. Right. So these are all things you got to think about heading into the next year. I think certain strategies are likely to see huge losses. I think it’s going to be really tough for CRE investors in the commercial space.
I don’t think that even though they’ve lost 30% of their value, the pain is over yet. [inaudible 00:19:49] is potentially a real fear heading into 2024. In short-term rental markets, you’re not just competing with other investors, you’re competing with vacationers and people who want a family home to visit in the mountains or whatever it is. Right. And there’s a double-edged sword here. Right. With higher interest rates, people can’t refinance their home and buy that vacation property. With higher rising rates and the pressure that’s putting on the economy, everybody’s going to be looking for cashflow. That’s a recipe for potentially a lot less demand for vacation rentals, which is downward pressure on pricing. And at the same time, there’s pressure on supply where a lot of people who maybe previously weren’t renting out their homes will rent out their rooms on Airbnb, even though average daily rates may come down, that increased competition might come because you’re still making something if you weren’t previously renting your property on short-term rental, so and you have regulations.
So I’m really worried about the short-term rental market in 2024. Hopefully I’m wrong there. Given this, how do I think about my local market or select an out-of-state market here? Right. And the first thing we have to recognize here is that there’s no such thing as a perfect market. No perfect market offers both great cashflow today and a high probability of great appreciation. Right. Detroit, Michigan has the best quote, unquote rent to price ratio in the country, but Detroit, Michigan is a very different investing experience on those types of properties than what you’re going to find here in Denver, Colorado. Investors can make money in both locations. That’s not a dig on Detroit with this, but there’s a reason why those properties are priced that way. Detroit has not seen a appreciation in a meaningful way since 2000 and Denver, Colorado has had a very different outcome there.
So if people expected Detroit to have a lot of appreciation, prices would rise rapidly and it would become an appreciation market, right? So there’s inherently a trade-off between these two things in a market. I believe that the best market is often the one that is local to you. I think that whether it’s a cashflow or appreciation market, there are huge advantages that come with investing locally. You know the market, you can fix problems yourself, you can cut costs. We’re going to analyze some deals in a minute, and I’m going to assume a property management fee for each of those deals. You should assume a property management fee for each of your deals, but if it’s a local market and push comes to shove and times get tough, you can fire your property manager and self-manage that property and save costs there. That’s a great defense mechanism. Right.
You can go and fix certain problems yourself instead of hiring a handyman. So super, super important there. I’m going to use an illustrative example market here. This is Albany, New York, and I’m using this as an example because it’s three hours from New York City, it’s three hours from Boston and three hours from Montreal. A two family in New York City or Long Island is going to go for a million bucks and in Albany or Troy, you can buy 5 properties or 10 units for that same price. Right. I’m also going to call two additional markets. We’re going to talk about an Ohio market and Florida here. I’m going to give you a couple of extra deals today here with this, but this is an example market where you would think through a potential deal. So we have a strategy, long-term rentals. We’re betting on long-term inflation in a given market.
You have a market. How do you find a deal that works is the next question. What is something that actually might cashflow here? And I’m going to give you a five step process to get to this point. Okay? So the first step here is to hypothesize a deal that works. You got to start somewhere and you start with a guess, right? That’s what strategy is. Strategy is a guess, and then we’re going to do a lot of digging and refinement, a lot of research to refine that guess and make it a much, much more high quality guess, right? We’re going to make the best possible bet here. So we’re going to draft a hypothesis for a deal that works. We’re going to test that hypothesis against recently sold comps, and we’re going to iterate on that hypothesis until you believe it is realistic in your market.
So here’s a guess for Albany, right? And I started with this guest because I’ve talked to a number of people. An example, Albany buy box would be a one to four unit property, 75,000 per unit, a fixed 30-year mortgage, a 25% down payment, the option to add value, traditional long-term rental period, and a long-term hold. Now, step two is to test that hypothesis with the real estate investing community, right? You can just start with a guess like that in a given market and just post it to the forums.
So this is literally my first post to the BiggerPockets forums posted sometime in May 2014, nine years ago, and here I am stating a hypothesis. I’m telling everybody who I am. I did not know this at the time. I would not be able to articulate exactly what I was doing like this, but I said, “I want to buy and hold real estate portfolio within 100 miles of Denver over the next several years. I’ve been educating. I have currently made my way through the podcasts. At this point, I saved enough money to qualify for conventional financing and properties priced at or below $200,000. My short-term goals are to make bids in the area that I conducted rent surveys on downtown Denver with the objective of appearing three properties by the end of the year.” Boy was I aggressive. It took me another four or five years to get actually to those three properties. I did not get to that. “And I love to continue meeting investors’, agents, wholesalers, and anyone else that’d be gracious enough to pass on their knowledge.”
An agent reached out to me, her name was Mickey, and sent me a message in response to this post maybe two or three weeks, maybe two or three months after I initially posted this and sent me a duplex that went on to be my first house hack deal, was a $240,000 duplex. So my hypothesis was wrong, but by stating it, I got feedback from the community, got encouragement and began getting examples with which to analyze and begin progressing here. So look, if you do nothing else from today’s webinar, you should post a hypothesis to the BiggerPockets forums and get feedback. Step three is to actually begin doing the analysis work.
So when you’re doing this analysis work, do not start with active listings. Okay. Often active listings are stale listings. They’ve been on the market for a very long time. They’re often overpriced. They often have something wrong with them. Right. When you look at the properties that are for sale today, that can be really discouraging for a lot of people. If you look at the properties that have sold recently, you’re going to get actual comps and see what the market is actually doing. You’re not going to be staring at something that’s $50,000 potentially overpriced here.
Step two is to contact an agent. If you want to contact an agent, we have this awesome tool here called the agent finder. You can go to, I like Troy, New York. So you can go to Troy. In a minute or two you can say, look, what type of property looking for in Troy? I’m looking for a multifamily. I’m looking for eh, probably in the next three to six months is when my position will be ready. My purchase price range $250,000. I have not yet started my loan process here for this particular purchase, and I’ve got three to five investment properties, got my five properties and great, we’ve got a match here, and I’m going to look at these agents here in this market. Right. So these are all in the Troy or Albany area. Troy is a market that is next to Albany, by the way. I should have probably said that.
And then we’ve got Giovanni here, right? Giovanni is the person that I reached out to. I can click request contact here and connect with him. And Giovanni sent me an example deal that we’re going to analyze here. So Giovanni sent me this deal. I said, “Giovanni, what I’m looking for is I don’t want to be a genius. I want an average deal, like a bread and butter deal, all day deal in the Troy or Albany area that is not something that was on the MLS, that was sold on the MLS, listed and purchased by a client, an out-of-state client. Give me that example because I want to think about it and I want it to be intentionally an average deal, something that is not extraordinary. You didn’t have to go through a crazy process to find here.”
So this is XX Cherry Avenue for Troy. This is a real deal with a real client, so we didn’t want to use this specific address here. There it is. The acquisition price here is, this was purchased on September 2nd, so it’s two months ago. It was purchased for $160,000. The estimated after repair value is $204,000 if $10,000 per unit in renovation was added, right? The rents at the time of sale with the tenants in place were 1250 and 1350, giving us $2,600 a month, and Giovanni estimated that those rents could be increased to $1,500 or 3000 per month total with a nice remodel. He also provided examples that were from the actuals here for this particular property here. I’m going to go to the calculators and I’m going to look at some reports. So to save some time, I did pre-analyze this particular deal using the calculator, and we’re going to go through it.
So this is Cherry Avenue, Troy. We’ve got the additional property features. There’s five beds, two baths. It’s a duplex, so we have to kind of be able to work through that. $106,000 purchase price. We’ve got a purchase closing costs. This is a really important thing here for property value growth. What do you think that long-term appreciation rate is going to be in that market? In Denver, I’d probably put probably four for this. I wouldn’t necessarily count on the appreciation, but I do expect to see more appreciation in Denver than I do in Troy, and I’m sure even Josh or some of the investors in Troy would agree with that particular assumption there. Although they both should appreciate long-term. I’d put down 25% in this particular example, and I’d use a 7.7% interest rate. You can easily Google 30 year mortgage rates here and you’d say for someone with a good credit score. 7.6 is a 30-year fixed rate for now.
So let’s actually reduce this by a little bit. So just say what we would be buying it for if we got it today. 30 year loan term. We’ve got our actuals here, $2,600 a month. Lets sanity check real quick here as well with the rent estimators. Okay, there we go. Okay, this is a duplex. I’m going to look for rent for one of the sides here. Two bed, one bath, and we’re going to take a look here. So just a sanity check, right? We’ve got our monthly rent is 1200 bucks. We have high confidence. There are a lot of comps for this particular property in the area, right? We’ve got a number of units. Many of those units were listed very recently and many of them have very similar square footage, so we can be super confident in the rents or we have a reasonable chance.
We’ve got the rents, the actuals, we’ve got our estimates from Giovanni, and those are checking out with what we’re seeing from a comp perspective. And the opportunity to move this two one unit to 1500 is not out of the question. It would have to be one of the nicer units, but it’s not out of the question based on the analysis that we’re seeing here. The other side is three bed, one bath. So we can take a look at that one and we can say that, okay, that is right on the money for this particular one. And again, there are plenty of units here that are renting in that $1,500 range that are fairly recent, so we can be fairly confident that the analysis there is reasonable. Property taxes are high here. We’ve got the monthly estimate here. This is New York. We’ve got an insurance estimate. These are actuals again, from there.
I’m assuming a much more conservative statement for repairs and maintenance than Giovanni put in at 5%, a capital CapEx at 5%. I’m assuming vacancy at 5%. Some people even like to be more conservative than that. I’m assuming 10% for management fees. I’m not going to be in Troy to go manage this thing. I live in Denver and then I’m assuming that the tenants will pay most utilities except for water and sewer, which was given to me as an output here. And then this is snow removal and lawn care for the duplex. At least in Denver, I’m able to pass that to the tenants. That may not be the case in Troy. We got 404 here a month with this set of assumptions for a cash on cash ROI of 11% here, a five-year NRO return of 18%. That’s assuming again the $2,600 a month in rent, the 125 for lawn care.
We’ve got the vacancy management, we’ve got our loan, loan term and interest rate, and we can always adjust all of these details here. So for example, if you thought the vacancy was too aggressive, we could move that up to 10% and we’d see our monthly cashflow drops to 274 here. Okay. So once we’ve done this, we need to iterate and revise until we’re highly confident in our buy box. Right. We’re not going to buy one of those properties or a property very similar to it just because we did a single analysis in that particular market. Right. We’re going to refine and refine and refine. We’re going to dig and we’re going to dig into it, we’re going to dig, we’re going to talk to people who have bought those properties in recent areas. We’re going to analyze dozen or dozens of deals in those areas and we’ll continue to refine and refine and refine until we get to what we have identified as a good deal.
So this is a refined buy box for the Albany or Troy market where we say, okay, we found something for $75,000 a unit. Can we find something for $65,000 per unit, right? Can we find that great deal in the market, right? Can we find options for student housing? There’s a college near there, State University of New York, SUNY. That could potentially provide really good rentals there. Are there specific blocks or neighborhoods that I want to really target or that I should know about and get to learn a little bit more to make a more informed decision? Those are the types of investigation that you need to do on the ground meeting local investors, talking to agents, physically visiting the location that you’re going to invest in to get comfortable with those things. This is an example real quick, I’m not going to spend too much time on it, of my personal Denver buy box.
I like one to four unit properties. I like the higher price point, 300 to $350,000 per unit and I like the big one. I don’t have as much competition because a lot of investors are looking for the 200 or $150,000 mythical units that are hard to find and are often not in as good neighborhoods, but I really like those big ones. I think they attract really good tenants. They have optionality to do rent by the room should problems come and look, I have a very specific buy box that I’ve built out. Right. And this is half of it. Right. I talk about the properties I want, the neighborhoods that I have, I take a map and I draw little things on the map for the areas that I want to target. Right. You can literally do that in most MLS systems. I have the properties that I’m looking for. I have a thesis. I have things I don’t want. I don’t want lots next to high schools or middle schools with lots of foot traffic.
I like elementary schools. That brings certain advantages. I want yards that are attractive to pet owners and that will attract those types of tenants because I think they’re likely to stay. If you can have a big place that is really attractive nearby an elementary school with pet owners, think that attracts good tenants. And then I continue going on here, and you should refine your buy box until you have something that is as clear in your mind as this. You don’t have to start here. You just post a hypothesis that’s like that one that I did earlier and get feedback, but you’re working to getting to this point. And then once you’re done there, you can go fishing. Right.
And so look, I have my buy box. I’m confident what I want to do. Now, I’m going to sit back, relax, say I’ve made my decision. I’m going to buy the next property that meets this criteria. Right. I know that five or 10 of them have sold in the recent past, so I’m not in fantasy land. There’s a very realistic possibility I’m going to get there, but because only five or 10 have sold in the last 90 to 180 days, they’re not common. That’s every two and a half weeks by the way that a deal’s coming online that’s meeting this criteria, right, if you refine it appropriately. And I’m going to be ready when the next one comes on the market. I know I might miss a few of them and lose. Right. I’m going to contact an agent and ask them to start sending me listings in that buy box. I’m going to get pre-qualified or pre-approved.
So I’m ready to pounce. I’m going to tell everyone in my network about my buy box, which that’ll include wholesalers, that’ll include my agent or that’ll include other investors that are potentially looking to sell. That’ll include the BiggerPockets community. I’m going to analyze deals on a regular basis with the BiggerPockets tools, and I’m going to continuously iterate and make sure I’m continuing to be confident in my hypothesis. And then once that property hits the market, well, once it’s sent to me, I may not be leaving work at noon, but I’m canceling my evening plans and I’m going to look at that property I’m offering that night because a good deal does not sit on the market for two weeks waiting for you to decide. You decide now, cool, calm and collected over the next couple of weeks, and then you act once that property that you’ve already predetermined is the right one hits the market.
Okay. All right. To recap here, we talked about determining if real estate fits into your long-term plans. We talked about a traditional approach to long-term rentals and my philosophy. I talked about a forecast for 2024, and we talked about how to build a buy box, identify a deal that works, and refine, refine, refine it until we find a good deal within a given market, BiggerPockets is here to help with that. Right. So we think we’ve built most complete real estate investing toolkit in the world to help you with this. We have tools to help you ace property analysis. We’ve got nine real estate investment calculators. We have that rental estimator tool that I showed you. We’ve got a rehab estimation tool, right? These are powerful tools. We’re going to tell you where we’re confident. We’re going to help you view comps. We’re going to make sure that you don’t forget a key assumption in your analysis.
We’re going to help you build a very detailed rehab plan if that’s part of your estimate, that you can then test with contractors here. So all that’s available. We help you supercharge your network. Pro members with three times more colleague requests. They get exclusive access to the Pro only forums. They get the ability to see who’s viewed their profile. It’ll help you protect your investments. You get free lawyer approved lease agreement packages for all 50 states. Right. Those are 4950 in value. You get to build your real estate command center. We’ve got all-in-one property management software with RentRedi, right? This is completely included with Pro. You get a one-stop shop for accounting and portfolio monitoring with Stessa, a Roofstock Company. This is completely free with Pro. You get the ability to find your next off market deal within Invelo. That’s a $500 a year value free with Pro and by the way, you get a couple bucks towards your first marketing campaign if you’re looking to send mailers or cold calls or those types of things.
And you can save 50% on our bootcamp programs, which are both live and interactive on your own pace, programs that will help you with a variety of different strategies for rookies, multifamily, BRRRR. We’re constantly adding to this portfolio of bootcamps, and the number one reason, of course is because this thing works, right? Aaron is a Pro member who locked up his first three unit within a couple of weeks, becoming a Pro member and sold it for $70,000. The calculators helped him understand what was a good deal and make sure his numbers are right. Patrick, he got a property under contract three weeks after signing up for Pro, and then a week later got another property that was six units and he made his money back at the closing table here after now analyzing these deals and building up his confidence with the Pro membership here.
So Pro membership is 299, is the code stable wealth 24 at checkout. You get all the features that we ask today, plus a few bonuses. You’re going to get a free copy set for life. By the way, if you go Pro anytime, we give you a free trial for 30 days. So if you don’t like it, you can email [email protected] and get a 100% refund on the Pro membership. So this is a guarantee. We hope that it’s a no-brainer for you to try this. We think it’s a powerful, powerful command center. If you’re serious about building that buy box and actually getting moving on your journey as a real estate investor here. Again, that’s the code stable wealth 24.
Thank you all so much for joining me on this very special bonus episode of the Real Estate Podcast. I hope you got good value out of this webinar and that you check out biggerpockets.com and all it has to offer. Our Pro membership is a fantastic tool to help you gain insight in these changing market conditions. And to help you make the most informed decisions on your real estate investing journey, go to biggerpockets.com/pro and use the code stable wealth 24 to upgrade and start analyzing smarter today.

 

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Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.



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Residential sale-leaseback platform EasyKnock has acquired home equity investment platform Balance Homes, the company announced on Tuesday.

The latest acquisition comes on the heels of a series of other proptech startup purchases. Last May, EasyKnock gobbled up Ribbon, a power buyer firm, and in September, it acquired home maintenance platform Onder

The terms of Balance Homes’ acquisition were not disclosed.

With this new integration, EasyKnock aims to provide homeowners with additional options to convert their home equity into cash. 

“This acquisition is the next step on EasyKnock’s clear path to lead the industry as the first platform to offer customers alternative solutions to buy and sell, finance new homes and utilize their equity in one place,” Jarred Kessler, CEO and founder of EasyKnock said in a statement.

In addition, Balance Homes CEO and co-founder Judd Schoenholtz will become EasyKnock’s chief revenue officer (CRO), while the other co-founder Aaron LaRue, will become chief technology officer (CTO). 

“We are thrilled to bring Balance Homes’ unique co-ownership product, technology and team into EasyKnock,” Schoenholtz said. “EasyKnock and Balance Homes share the vision of empowering American homeowners, providing new innovative solutions to access their equity, and together, we can help more homeowners.”

EasyKnock received $57 million in venture capital in February 2022. Investors included Blumberg Capital, Gaingels, Moderne Ventures, QED Investors, Viola FinTech, and Zillow founder, Spencer Rascoff’s venture firm 75 & Sunny.



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When individual mortgages are originated by lenders like banks or credit unions, they may
bundle groups of these mortgages together into financial vehicles called mortgage-backed
securities (MBS) that are then sold to investors on a secondary market.

This allows investors to gain exposure and returns from the mortgage market, while the lenders gain immediate capital to issue new mortgages.

However, if a mortgage in an MBS bundle defaults or contains errors, there is a “repurchase
risk.” This means the entity that assembled and sold the MBS is obligated to buy back any non-performing or defective mortgage loans. This ensures their bundle retains its credit rating and market value.

If too many mortgages default, the MBS can lose significant value. As a result, lenders aim to include reliable mortgages in their securities and have technology to assess credit risk, detect fraud, and monitor performance — in order to avoid forced buybacks or losses for investors that diminish market confidence. In Q1 of 2023, there were $459 million in repurchases on about $68 billion in Fannie Mae loan-acquisition volume, or a 68 basis-point repurchase rate.

Benefits of technology for repurchase risk

Emerging technologies are proving essential to reducing repurchase risk and improving
confidence in mortgages sold on secondary markets, enhancing transparency and security of loan data transfer to minimize errors.

For example, automated underwriting powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning allows lenders to more accurately assess risk and detect potential fraud during the application process, leading to higher-quality loans less likely to default.

Lenders are also utilizing predictive analytics on borrower behavior to identify early signs of trouble and take preventive action through improved loan monitoring systems.

With automated tracking enabling quicker interventions as needed, these technological capabilities help drive down default rates, ensure smooth payments and significantly mitigate repurchase risk. By leveraging such innovations, lenders can greatly strengthen investor trust in bundled mortgage products.

Specific types of technologies to reduce risk

Cutting-edge data technologies are invaluable for mitigating repurchase risk across sectors,
especially in mortgages. For instance, certain firms now employ automated direct-source data connections to validate applicant details in real-time, confirming income, employment, assets and other information at the moment of origination. This prevents falsities upfront.

Additionally, enhanced data access enables lenders to monitor loan performance factors on an ongoing basis. Via API connections, loan data is streamed into systems allowing staff to catch early warning signs of borrower distress, like missed payments on other credit accounts. This data empowers lenders to take timely preventive and corrective actions with struggling borrower before complete default.

Between advanced application fraud checks and early intervention on emerging trouble signs, these data capabilities attack repurchase risk from both sides, further safeguarding mortgages for downstream investors.

Benefits to lenders and consumers

Employing such technological safeguards carries major advantages across mortgage lending stakeholders. With reduced defaults and minimized repurchase requests, lenders can reap higher profits on sold mortgages while strengthening investor trust in associated securities. This helps attract ongoing investment capital into the housing sector.

Consumers also benefit as improved loan quality and lower perceived default risk opens lending access, allowing originators to offer more borrowers mortgage financing, often at better interest rates.

By cutting risk through data and automation, these innovations allow for mortgage market growth, fueling a win-win for both lenders and everyday borrowers seeking to purchase homes. The enhanced market stability and consumer access further establishes technology’s power to drive positive change in lending.

Technology is transforming how mortgages are originated, bundled and sold on secondary
markets to mitigate repurchase risk and improve stability. Through automated underwriting,
direct source data verifications, and API-driven performance monitoring, lenders can
significantly reduce defaults and errors in loan pools.

With lower repurchase risk, lenders enjoy greater revenue potential and investor confidence in the mortgage instruments they bring to market. Further boosted by early warning systems that enable targeted borrower interventions, these capabilities don’t just move risk off lender books, but actively prevent it at scale.

The results are profitable loan growth and expanded consumer access. Government agencies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac both have integrated these capabilities into the loan origination process to confirm the reliability of data from day one through closing and the eventual sale of the loan.

While regulations and diligent processes remain essential, innovations in data and analytics
provide the infrastructure to continually improve mortgage quality over time. As adoption
accelerates, technology systems will become the indispensable foundation upholding housing market growth for generations to come.

John Hardesty is general manager of mortgage at Argyle, the leading platform for consumer-permissioned payroll connectivity.



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Prospective homebuyers are slowly growing less sensitive to home prices and high-interest rates, and fewer of them are willing to wait for a better market to buy a home. 

According to Bank of America’s 2023 Homebuyer Insights report, only 62% of prospective homebuyers are willing to wait for home prices and/or rates to fall, down from 85% in June 2023. Purchase activity picked up in September, as sales of new single-family homes increased to a seasonally adjusted level of 719,000, up from 680,000 sales in April 2023. 

“When it comes down to it, if buying a home is your goal and within your budget, the best time to buy is when you’re ready financially and you can find a home that fits your needs,” Matt Vernon, head of consumer lending at Bank of America, said in the report. “Even in the current interest rate environment, there are clear benefits to purchasing a home and beginning to build equity.”

As of July 2023, about 80% of outstanding U.S. mortgages had an interest rate below 5%, according to Zillow. Meanwhile, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate topped 8% in October. As a result, many homeowners stayed put and kept their mortgages and postponed listing their homes. It deepened an already existing inventory shortage and worsened affordability woes. First-time homebuyers were particularly harmed by this trend. 

However, homebuyers are resourceful and show signs of adaptation to the current market

BofA researchers found that homebuyers were willing to sacrifice several features to find their home quicker. Almost a third of people surveyed reported being ready to give up on having a brand new home, living close to their family, having access to public transportation, or living in a neighborhood with historical charm. There were also some generational disparities in what would-be buyers were willing to sacrifice. Gen Zers, individuals born between 1997 and 2012, cared more about space but were willing to compromise on location, whereas boomers, who were born between 1946 and 1964, were the opposite. 

Meanwhile, 50% of current homeowners would be willing to exit their mortgage to buy their dream home 

According to the survey, 50% of homeowners would be prompted to sell their homes if their dream home became available, and 54% would move if they found a more affordable area, regardless of the current mortgage rates.

Homeowners listed other reasons that could prompt them to sell:

  • 40% of respondents said they would move for a job opportunity or a nicer neighborhood
  • Between 30-to-40% said they would be willing to sell for a bigger house or a social community to be a part of
  • Between 20-to-30% said they wanted to explore a new area or live in a home with rental potential

For 53% of the participants, homeownership was the top indicator of financial success

Homeownership ranked number five in a list of top indicators of success. It came after being healthy, having personal growth, strong relationships, and having a good work-life balance. It came before career fulfillment, having a family, and reaching a certain amount of money in savings.

However, homeownership scored the first position in the list of top indicators of financial success, with 53% of respondents naming homeownership. Two-thirds of the surveyed homeowners said that owning a home was “one of their greatest achievements,” more than raising a family (50%) or being in a committed relationship (32%).

“There’s a clear desire for homeownership, but for some, it has become more challenging to achieve due to current market realities,” Vernon said. 



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