Easyknock
Although at Proptechaweek we are big fans of Benedict Evans we use and understand the #tech and #proptech terms rather loosely. Although the startup we present this week is more a finance play than a tech venture it is 100% property-related one.
What?
Easyknock provides sale and leaseback opportunities to residential homeowners. They provide different packages based on the specific use case of the seller, but all of them with the goal for the seller to stay in the house as a renter.
Photo by Sandy Millar on Unsplash
Why
Easyknock provides flexibility to free-up funds locked up in real estate without adding up the additional costs and hassle of moving to another property. Depending on the program you even keep some of the upside of appreciation receiving additional value when you eventually vacate the premise and the property is sold off to a third party.
Why not?
Obviously, there are costs involved in a sell and leaseback operation and the fact that the offering is targeted at people who have some sort of solvency issues (focussing on speed and accessibility) means that there are probably cheaper ways to finance if you got other options.
Who?
Easyknock was founded in 2016 by Ben Black a former Executive Director at Morgan Stanley and Jarred Kessler who also has a comprehensive background in Wall Street. The since managed to get extensive financial backing form various VC-firms among which Viola fintech and Blumberg Capital.
Who else?
Easyknock has first-mover advantage on this specific offer, but in the meantime Rentback introduced a software platform offering a similar service but through a marketplace mechanism where property investment companies can send in offers and the seller can select the most optimal offer, decoupling the technology from the financing, which could make the model scale easier.
Further reading?
Fred Wilson on Fractionalizing Home Equity
Andreessen Horowitz explaining why selling a house sucks (youtube)
Things happening…
Google is taking a swing at real estate development again… YC backed Snapdocs raises 60m to digitize mortgages… Fifth wall en BNP Paribas launch a european proptech fund…