Last week, construction finance platform Rabbet announced raising a Series A funding round of $8 million led by Goldman Sachs, QED Investors, and Camber Creek. The Fintech company which was formerly known as Contract Simply – helps companies involved in construction finance to digitize and view documents relevant to a deal.
“Rabbet brings efficiency, accuracy and visibility to the complex construction finance industry.”
Rabbet’s groundbreaking software solves a huge point of pain for construction loan processing by helping to expedite construction draw processing, which saves time and money while minimizing human error in data processing. Currently, these processes are manual and paper-based, making it time-consuming and prone to errors.
This funding round comes as the construction markets are in a big slowdown, a trend which has caused a shift from new developments toward the operations and technology end of the business. Given this “throttling back” environment, many in the business of construction finance are searching for new ways to streamlining and making more efficient all their processes.
Rabbet provides just such a streamlining solution, at a time when Fintech investing is empowering entreprenuers to blaze new trails with AI, machine learning, and VR. RealtyBizNews asked Jake Fingert, General Partner at Camber Creek about the VC firms investment in Rabbet. Here’s what Fingert had to say:
“Given the recent deceleration of the construction market, many in the industry are shifting more of their focus from new development to operations and technology. Rabbet is the leading construction loan software solution, an area ripe for innovation and where many in the space, such as Goldman Sachs, are looking for more efficient ways of doing business. Rabbet’s technology significantly reduces the time it takes to process a loan, which means faster payments for subcontractors and more interest for banks, all while digitizing the workflow to improve compliance and record keeping. Instead of ten days, banks are pushing out draws in as little as two days.”
Rabbet’s platform helps banks, developers, and contractors to perform streamlining functions which are currently manual paper-based functions. The Austin based startup makes use of machine learning to located and extract key information from documents so that data and information can be migrated to PDF or spreadsheet form. At the end of the day, Rabbet technology creates a cross-sharing capability that is not currently available. Will Mitchell, Rabbet’s , CEO and co-founder, told interviewers last week:
“All this information is trapped in disconnected PDFs, spreadsheets, emails. We want to focus on the efficiency, accuracy and transparency that software can bring to this complex industry.”
Goldman Sachs’ construction finance division uses Rabbet’s software for streamlining and modernizing their construction investing operations, according to this Reuters release.
Babbet announced the company will use the new funding to continue to invest in the development of its automation platform, to expand service offerings, and to cultivate partnerships. The company also announced an expansion of its software engineering and sales teams in Austin.
Founded back in 2017, Babbet (Contract Simply) was accelerated with Y Combinator. Since that time the company has seen rapid growth, having improved efficiency for projects sized up to $150 million nationwide.
Phil Butler is a former engineer, contractor, and telecommunications professional who is editor of several influential online media outlets including part owner of Pamil Visions with wife Mihaela. Phil began his digital ramblings via several of the world’s most noted tech blogs, at the advent of blogging as a form of journalistic license. Phil is currently top interviewer, and journalist at Realty Biz News.
Summer is usually the housing industry’s busy season for good reason, but a few things could make 2017 one of the best opportunities to buy for a long time.
1. Housing inventory is shrinking
An interesting trend this year? Tightening housing markets. Across the country, inventory has started to drop, and experts don’t see that changing any time soon, thanks to baby boomers choosing not to sell and developers responding slowly. If you really want options, summer is your best chance to find them.
2. Moving with children will be a whole lot easier
Buying a house and moving when the kids are out of school makes a lot of sense for families. It keeps children from missing too much school and gives them the opportunity to adjust before starting back up. Even if you don’t have children, the increased activity in the market from families selling, buying, and moving opens up opportunities–so keep any eye out.
3. Home prices are rising
When supply is tight and demand is high, prices rise. While it’s always possible for them to dip again, industry experts say that is unlikely to happen in the near future. So if you’re hoping to buy over the next few years, this summer is your best chance before prices creep higher.
4. The weather is better for moving and home improvements
If you live northern parts of the country, then you know that for half the year outdoor work gets unpleasant. If you’re buying a fixer upper—or even just doing the moving on your own—summer and early fall offer you the most daylight and the best weather for getting the job done.
5. Interest rates are low, but rising
After years of low interest rates, it’s hard to believe that they used to routinely hit double digits—or that they could again. Right now, interest rates are still historically quite low at under 4%. But they’ve already spiked twice so far this year, and most industry experts expect to see that rising trend continue throughout the rest of 2017 and into 2018.
Your interest rate will depend on several personal factors like credit score and debt levels. To get a rate quote from Total Mortgage, get in contact with us here.
The Jefferson Avenue commercial district in Buffalo, New York, is anchored by a supermarket.
There are dozens of other businesses and services along the 12-block corridor — a couple of bank branches, a library, a coffee shop, gas stations, a small plaza with a dollar store and a primary care clinic and a business incubator for entrepreneurs of color.
But Tops Friendly Markets, the only grocery store on Buffalo’s vast East Side, is the center of activity. More than just a place to buy food, pick up medications and use an ATM, the store is a communal gathering space in a predominantly Black neighborhood that, for generations, has been segregated, isolated and disenfranchised from the wealthier — and whiter — parts of the city.
Which explains how it came to be the site of a mass shooting on a spring day in May of last year. On that Saturday, a gunman, who lived 200 miles away in another part of the state, drove to Jefferson Avenue and went into Tops, and in just a few minutes killed 10 people, injured three and inflicted mass trauma across the community.
It is a scenario that has sadly, and repeatedly, played out in other parts of the country that have experienced mass shootings. But this one came with a twist: The gunman’s intention was to kill as many Black people as possible.
To achieve that, he specifically targeted a ZIP code with one of the highest percentages of Black residents in New York state. All 10 who died that day were Black.
“The mere fact that someone can research, ‘Where will the greatest number of Black people be … on a Saturday morning,’ that’s not by chance,” said Franchelle Parker, a community organizer and executive director of Open Buffalo, a nonprofit focused on racial, economic and ecological justice. “That’s not a mistake. It’s a community that’s been deeply segregated for decades.”
The day of the shooting, Parker, who grew up in nearby Niagara Falls, was driving to Tops, where she planned to buy a donut and an unsweetened iced tea before heading into the Open Buffalo office, which is located a block away from Tops. The mother of two had intended to complete the mundane task of cleaning up her desk — “old coffee cups and stuff” — after a busy week.
She saw the news on Twitter and didn’t know if she should keep driving to Jefferson Avenue or turn around and go back home. She eventually picked the latter.
When she showed up the next day, there were thousands of people grieving in the streets. “The only way that I could explain my feeling, it was almost like watching an old war movie when a bomb had gone off and someone’s in, like, shell shock. That’s how it felt,” said Parker, vividly recounting the community’s collective trauma in a meeting room tucked inside of Open Buffalo’s second-story office on Jefferson Avenue.
Almost immediately following the May 14, 2022, massacre, which was the second-deadliest mass shooting in the United States last year, conversations locally and nationally turned to the harsh realities of the East Side and how long-standing factors that affect the daily life of residents — racism, poverty and inequity — made the community an ideal target for a white supremacist.
Now, more than a year after the tragedy, there is growing concern that not enough is being done fast enough to begin to dismantle those factors. And amid those conversations, there are mounting calls for the banking industry — whose historical policies and practices helped cement the racial segregation and disinvestment that ultimately shaped the East Side — to leverage its collective power and influence to band together in an effort to create systemic change.
The ideas about how banks should support the East Side and better embed themselves in the neighborhood vary by people and organizations. But the basic argument is the same: Banks, in their role as financiers and because of the industry’s history of lending discrimination, are obligated to bring forth economic prosperity in disinvested communities like the East Side.
I know banks are often looked upon sort of like a panacea, but I don’t particularly see it that way. I think others have a role to play in all of this.
Chiwuike Owunwanne, corporate responsibility officer at KeyBank
“Banks have been very good at providing charitable contributions to the Black community. They get an ‘A’ for that,” said The Rev. George Nicholas, an East Side pastor who is also CEO of the Buffalo Center for Health Equity, a four-year-old enterprise focused on racial, geographic and economic health disparities. “But doing the things that banks can do in terms of being a catalyst for revitalization and investment in this community, they have not done that.”
To be sure, banks’ ability to reverse the course of the community isn’t guaranteed — and there is no formula to determine how much accountability they should hold to fix deeply entrenched problems like racism. Several Buffalo-area bankers said that while the Tops shooting heightened the urgency to help the East Side, the industry itself cannot be the sole driver of change.
“There are a lot of institutions … that can certainly play a part in reversing the challenges that we see today,” said Chiwuike “Chi-Chi” Owunwanne, a corporate responsibility officer at KeyBank, the second-largest bank by deposits in Buffalo. “I know banks are often looked upon sort of like a panacea, but I don’t particularly see it that way. I think others have a role to play in all of this.”
A long history of segregation
How the East Side — and the Tops store on Jefferson Avenue — became the destination for a racially motivated mass murderer is a story about racism, segregation and disinvestment.
Even as it bears the nickname “the city of good neighbors,” Buffalo has long been one of the most racially segregated cities in the United States. Of the 114,965 residents who live on the East Side, 59% are Black, according to data from the 2021 U.S. Census American Community Survey. The percentage is even higher in the 14208 ZIP code, where the Tops store is located. In that ZIP code, among 11,029 total residents, nearly 76% are Black, the census data shows.
The city’s path toward racial segregation started in the early 20th century when a small number of job-seeking Black Americans migrated north to Buffalo, a former steel and auto manufacturing hub at the far northwestern end of New York state. Initially, they moved into the same neighborhoods as many of the city’s poorer immigrants and lived just east of what is today the city’s downtown district. As the number of Blacks arriving in Buffalo swelled in the 1940s, they were increasingly confronted with various housing challenges, including racist zoning laws and restrictive deed covenants that kept them from buying homes in more affluent white areas.
Black Buffalonians also faced housing discrimination in the form of redlining, the practice of restricting the flow of capital into minority communities. In 1933, as the Great Depression roiled the economy, a temporary federal agency known as the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation used government bonds to buy out and refinance mortgages of properties that were facing or already in foreclosure. The point was to try to stabilize the nation’s real estate market.
As part of its program, HOLC created maps of American cities, including Buffalo, that used a color coding scheme — green, blue, yellow and red — to convey the perceived riskiness of making loans in certain neighborhoods. Green was considered minimally risky; other areas that were largely populated by immigrant, Black or Latino residents were labeled red and thus determined to be “hazardous.”
“The goal was to free up mortgage capital by going to cities and giving banks a way to unload mortgages, so they could turn around and make more mortgage loans,” said Jason Richardson, senior director of research at the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, an association of more than 750 community-based organizations that advocates for fair lending. “It was kind of a radical concept and it has evolved over the decades into our modern mortgage finance system.”
The Federal Housing Administration, which was established as a permanent agency in 1934, used similar methods to map urban areas and labeled neighborhoods from “A” to “D,” with “A” considered to be the most financially stable and “D” considered the least. Neighborhoods that were largely Black, even relatively stable ones, were put in the “D” category.
The result was that banks, which wanted to be able to sell mortgage loans to the FHA, were largely dissuaded from making loans in “risky” areas. And Buffalo’s East Side, where the majority of Blacks were settling, was deemed risky. Unable to get loans, Blacks couldn’t buy homes, start businesses or build equity. At the same time, large industrial factories on the East Side were closing or moving away, limiting job opportunities and contributing to rising poverty levels.
“Today what we’re left with is the residue of this process where we’ve enshrined … a pattern of economic segregation that favors neighborhoods that had fewer Black people in them and generally ignores neighborhoods that had African Americans living in them,” Richardson said.
Case in point: Research by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition shows that three-quarters of neighborhoods that were once redlined are low- to moderate-income neighborhoods today, and two-thirds of them are majority minority communities.
Adding to the division between Blacks and whites in Buffalo was the construction of a highway called the Kensington Expressway. Built during the 1960s, the below-grade, limited-access highway proved to be a speedy way for suburban workers to get to their downtown jobs. But its construction cut off the already-segregated East Side even more from other parts of the city, displacing residents, devaluing houses and destroying neighborhoods and small businesses.
As a result of those factors and more, many Black residents have become “trapped” on the East Side, according to Dr. Henry Louis Taylor Jr., a professor of urban and regional planning at the University at Buffalo. In 1987, Taylor founded the UB Center for Urban Studies, a research, neighborhood planning and community development institute that works on eliminating inequality in cities and metropolitan regions. In September 2021, eight months before the Tops shooting, the Center for Urban Studies published a report that compared the state of Black Buffalo in 1990 to present-day conditions. The conclusion: Nothing had changed for Blacks over 31 years.
As of 2019, the Black unemployment rate was 11%, the average household income was $42,000 and about 35% of Blacks had incomes that fell below the poverty line, the report said. It also noted that just 32% of Blacks own their homes and that most Blacks in the area live on the East Side.
“Those figures remain virtually unchanged while the actual, physical conditions that existed inside of the community worsened,” Taylor told American Banker in an interview in his sun-filled office at the center, located on the University at Buffalo’s city campus. “When we looked upstream to see what was causing it, it was clear: It was systemic, structural racism.”
Banks’ moral obligations
As the East Side struggled over the decades with rampant poverty, dilapidated housing, vacant lots and disintegrating infrastructure, banks kept a physical presence in the community, albeit a shrinking one. In mid-2000, there were at least 20 bank branches scattered across the East Side, but by mid-2022, the number had fallen to around 14, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s deposit market share data. The 14 include four new branches that have opened since early 2019 — Northwest Bank, KeyBank, Evans Bank and BankOnBuffalo.
The first two branches, operated by Northwest in Columbus, Ohio, and KeyBank, the banking subsidiary of KeyCorp in Cleveland, were requirements of community benefits agreements negotiated between each bank and the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. In both cases, Northwest and KeyBank agreed to open an office in an underserved community.
Evans Bank opened its first East Side branch in the fall of 2021. The office is located in the basement of an $84 million affordable senior housing building that was financed by Evans, a $2.1 billion-asset community bank headquartered south of Buffalo in Angola, New York.
Banks have been very good at providing charitable contributions to the Black community. They get an ‘A’ for that. But doing the things that banks can do in terms of being a catalyst for revitalization and investment in this community, they have not done that.
The Rev. George Nicholas, an East Side pastor who is also CEO of the Buffalo Center for Health Equity
On the community and economic development front, banks have had varying levels of participation. Buffalo-based M&T Bank, which holds a whopping 64% of all deposits in the Buffalo market and is one of the largest private employers in the region, has made consistent investments in the East Side by supporting Westminster Community Charter School, a kindergarten through eighth-grade school, and the Buffalo Promise Neighborhood, a nonprofit organization focused on improving access to education in the city’s 14215 ZIP code.
Currently, Buffalo Promise Neighborhood operates four schools. In addition to Westminster, it runs Highgate Heights Elementary, also K-8, as well as two academies that serve children ages six weeks through pre-kindergarten. Twelve M&T employees are dedicated to the program, according to the Buffalo Promise Neighborhood website. The bank has invested $31.5 million into the program since its 2010 launch, a spokesperson said.
Other banks are making contributions in other ways. In addition to the Jefferson Avenue branch and as part of its community benefits plan, Northwest Bank, a $14.2 billion-asset bank, supports a financial education center through a partnership with Belmont Housing Resources of Western New York. Meanwhile, the $198 billion-asset KeyBank gave $30 million for bridge and construction financing for Northland Workforce Training Center, a $100 million redevelopment project at a former manufacturing complex on the East Side that was partially funded by the state.
BankOnBuffalo’s East Side branch is located inside the center, which offers KeyBank training in advanced manufacturing and clean energy technology careers. A subsidiary of $5.6 billion-asset CNB Financial in Clearfield, Pennsylvania, BankOnBuffalo’s office opened a month after the shooting. The timing was coincidental, but important, said Michael Noah, president of BankOnBuffalo.
“I think it just cemented the point that this is a place we need to be, to be able to be part of these communities and this community specifically, and be able to build this community up,” Noah said.
In terms of public-private collaboration, some banks have been involved in a deeper way. In 2019, New York state, which had already been pouring $1 billion into Buffalo to help revitalize the economy, announced a $65 million economic development fund for the East Side. The initiative is focused on stabilizing neighborhoods, increasing homeownership, redeveloping commercial corridors including Jefferson Avenue, improving historical assets, expanding workforce training and development and supporting small businesses and entrepreneurship.
In conjunction with the funding, a public-private partnership called East Side Avenues was created to provide capital and organizational support to the projects happening along four East Side commercial corridors. Six banks — Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America, the second-largest bank in the nation with $2.5 trillion of assets; M&T, which has $203 billion of assets; KeyBank; Warsaw, New York-based Five Star Bank, which has about $6 billion of assets; Northwest and Evans — are among the 14 private and philanthropic organizations that pledged a combined $8.4 million to pay for five years’ worth of operational support, governance and finance, fundraising and technical assistance to support the nonprofits doing the work.
Laura Quebral, director of the University at Buffalo Regional Institute, which is managing East Side Avenues, said the banks were the first corporations to step up to the request for help, and since then have provided loans and other products and education to keep the program moving.
Their participation “is a signal to the community that banks cared and were invested and were willing to collaborate around something,” Quebral said. “Being at the table was so meaningful.”
Richard Hamister is Northwest’s New York regional president and former co-chair of East Side Avenues. Hamister, who is based in Buffalo, said banks are a “community asset” that have a responsibility to lift up all communities, including those where conditions have arisen that allow it to be a target of racism like the East Side.
“We operate under federal charters, so we have an obligation to the community to not only provide products and services they need but also support when you go through a tragedy like that,” Hamister said. “We also have a moral obligation to try to help when things are broken … and to do what we can. We can’t fix everything, but we’ve got to fix our piece and try to help where we can.”
In the wake of a tragedy
After the massacre, there was a flurry of activity within banks and other organizations, local and out-of-town, to respond to the immediate needs of East Side residents. With the community’s only supermarket closed indefinitely, much of the response centered around food collection and distribution. Three of M&T’s five East Side branches, including the Jefferson Avenue branch across the street from Tops, became food distribution sites for weeks after the shooting. On two consecutive Fridays, Northwest provided around 200 free lunches to the community, using a neighborhood caterer who is also the bank’s customer. And BankOnBuffalo collected employee donations that amounted to more than 20 boxes of toiletries and other items that were distributed to a nonprofit.
At the same time, M&T, KeyBank and other banks began financial donations to organizations that could support the immediate needs of the community. KeyBank provided a van that delivered food and took people to nearby grocery stores. Providence, Rhode Island-based Citizens Financial Group, whose ATM inside Tops was inaccessible during the store’s temporary closure, installed a fee-free ATM near a community center located about a half-mile north of Tops, and later put a permanent ATM inside the center that remains there today. And M&T rolled out a short-term loan program to provide capital to East Side small-business owners.
One of the funds that benefited from banks’ support was the Buffalo Together Community Response Fund, which has raised $6.2 million to address the long-term needs of the East Side.
Bank of America and Evans Bank each donated $100,000 to the fund, whose list of major sponsors includes four other banks — JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, M&T and KeyBank. Thomas Beauford Jr., a former banker who is co-chair of the response fund, said banks, by and large, directed their resources into organizations where the dollars would have an immediate impact.
“Banks said, ‘Hey, you know … it doesn’t make sense for us to try to build something right now. … We will fund you in the work you’re doing,'” said Beauford, who has been president and CEO of the Buffalo Urban League since the fall of 2020. “I would say banks showed up in a big way.”
Fourteen months later, banks say they are committed to playing a positive role on the East Side. For the second year, KeyBank is sponsoring a farmers’ market on the East Side, an attempt to help fill the food desert in the community. Last fall, BankOnBuffalo launched a mobile “bank on wheels” truck that’s stationed on the East Side every Wednesday. The 34-foot-long truck, which is staffed by two people and includes an ATM and a printer to make debit cards, was in the works before the shooting, and will eventually make four stops per week around the Buffalo area.
Evans has partnered with the city of Buffalo to construct seven market-rate single family homes on vacant lots on the East Side. The relationship with the city is an example of how banks can pair up with other entities to create something meaningful and lasting, more than they might be able to do on their own, said Evans President and CEO David Nasca.
The bank has “picked areas” where it can use its resources to make a difference, Nasca said.
“I don’t think the root causes can be ameliorated” by banks alone, he said. “We can’t just grant money. It has to be within our construct of a financial institution that invests and supports the public-private partnership. … All the oars [need to be] pulling together or this doesn’t work.”
‘Little or no engagement with minorities’
All of these efforts are, of course, welcomed by the community, but there is still criticism that banks haven’t done enough to make up for their past contributions to segregating the city. And perhaps more importantly, some of that criticism centers on banks failing to do their most basic function in society — provide credit.
In 2021, the New York State Department of Financial Services issued a report about redlining in Buffalo. The regulator looked at banks and nonbank lenders and found that loans made to minorities in the Buffalo metro area made up 9.74% of total loans in Buffalo. Overall, Black residents comprise about 33% of Buffalo’s total population of more than 276,000, census data shows.
The department said its investigation showed the lower percentage was not due to “excessive denials of loan applications based on race or ethnicity,” but rather that “these companies had little or no engagement with minorities and generally made scant effort to do so.”
“The unsurprising result of this has been that few minority customers or individuals seeking homes in majority-minority neighborhoods have made loan applications … in the first instance.”
Furthermore, accusations of redlining persist today, even though the practice of discriminating in housing based on race was outlawed by the Fair Housing Act of 1968.
In 2014, Evans was accused of redlining by the New York State Attorney General, which said the community bank was specifically avoiding making mortgage loans on the East Side. The bank, which at the time had $874 million of assets, agreed to pay $825,000 to settle the case, but Nasca maintains that the charges were unfounded. He points to the fact that the bank never had a fair lending or fair housing violation, no specific incidents were ever claimed and that the bank’s Community Reinvestment Act exam never found evidence of discriminatory or illegal credit practices.
The bank has a greater presence on the East Side today, but that’s because it has grown in size, not because it is trying to make up for previous accusations of redlining, he said.
“Ten years ago, our involvement [on the East Side] certainly wasn’t what you’re seeing today,” Nasca said. “We were looking to participate more, but we were participating within our means and our reach. As we have grown, we have built more resources to be able to do more.”
Shortly after accusations were made against Evans, Five Star Bank, the banking arm of Financial Institutions in Warsaw, New York, was also accused of redlining by the state Attorney General. Five Star, which has been growing its presence in the Buffalo market for several years, wound up settling the charges for $900,000 and agreeing to open two branches in the city of Rochester.
KeyBank is currently being accused of redlining by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. In a 2022 report, the group said that KeyBank is engaging in systemic redlining by making very few home purchase loans in certain neighborhoods where the majority of residents are Black. Buffalo is one of several cities where the bank’s mortgage lending “effectively wall[ed] out Black neighborhoods,” especially parts of the East Side, the report said.
KeyBank denied the allegations. In March, the coalition asked regulators to investigate the bank’s mortgage lending practices.
Beyond providing more credit, some community members believe that banks should be playing a larger role in addressing other needs on the East Side. And the list of needs runs the gamut from more grocery stores to safe, affordable housing to infrastructure improvements such as street and sidewalk repairs.
Alexander Wright is founder of the African Heritage Food Co-op, an initiative launched in 2016 to address the dearth of grocery store options on the East Side, where he grew up. Wright said that while banks’ philanthropic efforts are important, banks in general “need to be in a place of remediation” to fix underlying issues that the industry, as a whole, helped create. (After publication of this story, Wright left his job as CEO of the African Heritage Food Co-Op.)
Aside from charitable donations, banks should be finding more ways to work directly with East Side business owners and entrepreneurs, helping them with capital-building support along the way, Wright said. One place to start would be technical assistance by way of bank volunteers.
“Banks are always looking to volunteer. ‘Hey, want to come out and paint a fence? Want to come out and do a garden?'” Wright said. “No. Come out here and help Keshia with bookkeeping. Come out here and do QuickBooks classes for folks. Bring out tax experts. Because these are things that befuddle a lot of small businesses. Who is your marketing person? Bring that person out here. Because those are the things that are going to build the business to self-sufficiency.
“Anything short of the capacity-building … that will allow folks to rise to the occasion and be self-sufficient I think is almost a waste,” Wright added. “We don’t need them to lead the plan. What we need them to do is be in the community and [be] hearing the plan and supporting it.”
Parker, of Open Buffalo, has similar thoughts about the role that banks should play. One day, soon after the massacre, an ATM appeared down the street from Tops, next to the library that sits across the street from Parker’s office. Soon after the ATM was installed, Parker began fielding questions from area residents who were skeptical of the machine and wanted to know if it was legitimate. But Parker didn’t have any information to share with them. “There was no outreach. There was no community engagement. So I’m like, ‘Let me investigate,'” she said. “I think that’s a symptom of how investment is done in Black communities, even though it may be well-intentioned.”
As it turns out, the temporary ATM belonged to JPMorgan Chase. The megabank has had a commercial banking presence in Buffalo for years, but it didn’t operate a retail branch in the region until last year. Today it has four branches in operation and plans to open another two by the end of the year, a spokesperson said.
After the Tops shooting, the governor’s office reached out to Chase asking if the bank could help in some way, the spokesperson said in response to the skepticism. The spokesperson said that while the Chase retail brand is new to the Buffalo region, the company has been active in the market for decades by way of commercial banking, private banking, credit card lending, home lending and other businesses.
In addition to the ATM, the bank provided funding to local organizations including FeedMore Western New York, which distributes food throughout the region.
“We are committed to continuing our support for Buffalo and helping the community increase access to opportunities that build wealth and economic empowerment,” the spokesperson said in an email.
In the year since the massacre, there has been some progress by banks in terms of their interest in listening to the East Side community and learning about its needs, said Nicholas. But he hasn’t felt an air of urgency from the banking community to tackle the issues right now.
“I do experience banks being a little more open to figuring out what their role is, but it’s slow. It’s slow,” said Nicholas. The senior pastor of the Lincoln Memorial United Methodist Church, located about a mile north from Tops, Nicholas is part of a 13-member local advisory committee for the New York arm of Local Initiatives Support Coalition, or LISC. The group is focused on mobilizing resources, including banks, to address affordable housing in Western New York, specifically in the inner city, as well as training minority developers and connecting them to potential investors, Nicholas said.
Of the 13 members, seven are from banks — one each from M&T, Bank of America, BankOnBuffalo, Evans and KeyBank, and two members from Citizens Financial Group. One of the priorities of LISC NY is health equity, and the fact that banks are becoming more engaged in looking at health disparities is promising, Nicholas said. Still, they have more work to do, he said.
“I need them to think more on how to strengthen and build the economy on the East Side and provide leadership around that, not only to provide charitable things, but using sound business and banking and community development principles to say, ‘OK, if we’re going to invest in this community, these are the types of things that need to happen in this community,’ and then encourage their partners and other people they work with … to come fully in on the East Side.”
Some bankers agree with the community activists.
“Putting a branch in is great. Having a bank on wheels is great,” said Noah of BankOnBuffalo. “But if you’re not embedded in the community, listening to the community and trying to improve it, you’re not creating that wealth and creating a better lifestyle for everyone.”
What could make a substantial difference in terms of banks’ impact on the community is a combination of collaboration and leadership, said Taylor. He supports the idea of banks leading the charge on the creation of a comprehensive redevelopment and reinvestment plan for the East Side, and then investing accordingly and collaboratively through their charitable foundations.
“All of them have these foundations,” Taylor said. “You can either spend that money in a strategic and intentional way designed to develop a community for the existing population, or you can spend that money alone in piecemeal, siloed, sectorial fashion that will look good on an annual report, but won’t generate transformational and generational changes inside a community.”
Banks might be incentivized to work together because it could mean two things for them, according to Taylor: First, they’d have an opportunity to spend money in a way that would have maximum impact on the East Side, and second, if done right, the city and the banks could become a model of the way to create high levels of diversity, equity and inclusion in an urban area.
“If you prove how to do that, all that does is open up other markets of consumption all over the country because people want to figure out how to do that same thing,” Taylor said.
Some of that is already happening, at least on a bank-by-bank case, said KeyBank’s Owunwanne. Through the KeyBank Foundation, the company is able to leverage different relationships that connect nonprofits to other entities and corporations that can provide help.
“I see this as an opportunity for us to make not just incremental changes, but monumental changes … as part of a larger group,” Owunwanne said “Again, I say that not to absolve the bank of any responsibility, but just as a larger group.”
Downstairs from Parker’s office, Golden Cup Coffee, a roastery and cafe run by a husband and wife team, and some other Jefferson Avenue businesses are trying to build up a business association for existing and potential Jefferson-area businesses. Parker imagined what the group could accomplish if one of the banks could provide someone on a part-time basis to facilitate conversations, provide administrative support and coordinate marketing efforts.
“In the grand scheme of things, when we’re talking about a multimillion dollar [bank], a part-time employee specifically dedicated to relationship-building and building out coalitions, it sounds like a small thing,” Parker said. “But that’s transformational.”
Freelancers are people who own their own business and contract out their services to other business owners or clients. They are considered independent contractors for tax purposes.
According to Upwork’s Freelance Forward Study, there were over 60 million freelancers in America in 2022, representing 39% of the entire U.S. workforce.
As a freelancer, a business may hire you for one-time gigs or you may get a long-term contract job with a company.
These days, the best freelance jobs allow you to work remotely, so you are able to work from home, while traveling, or wherever you have a good internet connection. Occasionally, companies hire you to do on-site work.
But like I said, many freelancers are able to travel full-time or whenever they like, and that’s because you most likely won’t be bound to one place. Many freelancers travel all over the world and work right from their laptop!
The ability to work wherever you like is one of the biggest perks of freelancing. It means you can live the way you want — traveling, working while you’re at home with kids, and more.
Another thing you may like about being a freelancer is that you will most likely be able to create your own hours and have a flexible schedule.
You will still have to keep up with the work the company has contracted you for, but the best freelance jobs allow you to create your own schedule. Because of this flexibility, freelancing can be a great side job if you’re already working full time, going to school, staying at home with kids, etc.
If you are looking for the kind of location and time freedom that comes with freelancing, I’m sharing the best freelance jobs with you today.
Related content:
16 Best Freelance Jobs
1. Virtual assistant
Virtual assistants (VAs) are in high demand.
I know working as a virtual assistant is one of the best freelance jobs from home because I used to be a virtual assistant, and I now have one of my own. I also know many, many people who have virtual assistants.
Not only does the internet allow us to complete more daily tasks online, but more and more people are also working stay-at-home jobs, such as running websites, social media, real estate, advertising, etc. That’s why virtual assistant jobs are one of the most in-demand freelance gigs right now.
As a virtual assistant, you may be helping with social media management, formatting and editing content (such as blog posts or social media posts), scheduling appointments or travel for the person you work for, managing someone’s email inbox, and so on. There are many, many different types of freelance virtual assistant work.
My friend Kayla is a full-time blogger, virtual assistant, and project manager who earns over $10,000 per month while working from home. She is also the founder of $10K VA, a course where she teaches you exactly how to regularly earn $10,000 per month as a virtual assistant!
I interviewed her at How Kayla Earns $10K/Month From Home as a Virtual Assistant, and we talk about:
How much money you can earn as a virtual assistant
How you can find your first virtual assistant freelance gig
How to become a virtual assistant
2. Bookkeeper
A bookkeeper is someone who tracks the finances of a business.
Now, before you skip this one because you think you’re not qualified, you might be surprised to learn that you don’t need to be an accountant, have any previous experience, or even have a college degree. This is a freelance skill that you can learn starting today.
I have an article where you can learn why bookkeeping is one of the best freelance jobs, and it answers questions such as:
What a bookkeeper does
How much a bookkeeper can earn
What’s the difference between a bookkeeper and an accountant?
How to find a bookkeeping job
Can I become a bookkeeper with no degree? How do I become a virtual bookkeeper with no experience?
You can learn more at Online Bookkeeping Jobs: Learn How To Get Started Today.
If you are interested in finding a freelance bookkeeping job, I recommend signing up for a free workshop all about finding a virtual bookkeeping job. Here, you will learn how to start a freelance bookkeeping business. You can sign up for free here.
3. Freelance writer
A freelance writer is someone who writes for a number of different clients, such as websites, blogs, magazines, advertising, books, and more.
And you can easily work from home as a freelance writer.
I was an online freelance writer for many years, and I enjoyed it a lot. I wrote for a variety of websites and companies, and I earned a great income doing so.
As a freelance writer, you may be writing a blog post, writing content for a company’s sales page, press releases, SEO content for a business (writing content for search engines, such as Google), ebooks, essays, and more.
You may be creating newsletters, a technical writer, a copywriter, a staff writer, a journalist, doing academic writing, writing emails, and more.
You can learn more at 14 Places To Find Freelance Writing Jobs – (Start With No Experience!).
4. Book reviewer
As a freelance book reviewer, you can get paid review books. Now, this may not always be a full-time freelancing gig, but it can be a great part-time option if that’s what you are looking for.
There are websites that will pay you to review books, or you could even start your own book review blog. Each site varies, but you are typically paid cash via PayPal or bank transfer, or you may receive a free book in exchange for your review.
Here are some websites that will pay for you to review books:
Online Book Club – With Online Book Club, the first review you complete is only paid via a free book. After the first book review, you are eligible for paid book review opportunities, plus the books that you review are given to you at no cost. With this website, you can get paid around $5 to $60 for each book review that you submit.
Kirkus – This platform is looking for book reviewers of English and Spanish language books. They need reviews that are about 350 words long, and they are due two weeks after you are assigned to read the book.
Upwork – With Upwork, you would need to create your own profile and make a listing as a book reviewer. This way, clients and authors can find you and hire you directly to read their book and review it. Plus, on Upwork, you can set your own pricing and decide which clients you want to work with.
The US Review of Books – This website uses freelance writers to review books and write reviews that are around 250-300 words long.
Reedsy – Here, you can review hundreds of different books before they are published and earn money at the same time. Authors submit their books to Reedsy, specifically to be reviewed by book reviewers. You then get paid by readers (those who buy a book) as a tip for the review. These tips can be $1, $3, or $5.
Booklist – This website pays for book reviews that are around 150 to 175 words long that describe the plot and suggest an ideal audience. This website pays $15 for each published book review.
Related content: 7 Best Ways To Get Paid To Read Books
5. Transcriptionist
A freelance transcription job is when you turn audio or video content into a text document.
There are many businesses looking for transcriptionists too – since transcriptionists convert audio and video to text for virtually any industry, there are many clients in many different industries.
You may be working for digital marketers, authors, filmmakers, academics, speakers, and conferences of all types.
New transcriptionists can expect to make around $15 an hour to start.
If you’re interested in learning more, read Make Money At Home By Becoming A Transcriptionist. Here, you will learn things such as:
What kind of work a transcriptionist does
The type of training you need to become a transcriptionist
How to find the best freelance jobs for transcriptionists
6. Proofreader
Proofreading is one of the best freelance jobs for good reason!
Proofreading is a flexible and detail-oriented job that only requires a laptop or tablet, an internet connection, and a good eye for finding grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes.
Proofreaders are responsible for putting the finishing touches on written content, from blog posts, web copy, marketing materials, resumes and cover letters to academic articles, legal briefs, and much more.
You can learn more about how to become a proofreader at How To Start A Proofreading Business And Make $4,000+ Monthly.
7. Business consultant
A consultant is someone who helps improve your business, and consultants can focus on many different aspects of your business.
They have an outside view on how to solve challenges and issues that you may be dealing with so that you can improve your revenues and profit, as well as other areas of your business that you are hoping to improve on.
As a business consultant, your salary and income can be quite high. Many consultants earn a six-figure income.
8. Digital marketer
As a freelance digital marketer, your goal would be to help companies improve their reach and find new customers.
This means that you may be helping a company get traffic and/or customers to their website, social media platform, their email list, through search engine optimization, advertising, and more.
Important skills as a freelance digital marketer would be marketing skills, technology skills (because you may be using different platforms in order to improve the company’s reach), and creativity.
9. Translator
If you are fluent in another language, then you may be able to find a freelance translating job where you translate articles, books, text, and more.
Your expertise is important here, and this is probably one of the harder freelance jobs because you need to be fluent in another language, and that can take a long time to learn!
Here are some sites where you can find the best freelance jobs for translators:
Upwork – Freelance professionals can simply create a free profile and apply for translation jobs on this website.
Babelcube – This is a website that sends freelance translation projects to you. You select which books you translate, translate them to one of more than 15 different languages, and partner with published authors.
Guru – Guru is a website that lists freelance writing and translation jobs.
Indeed – Indeed lists translation jobs that they find from job boards, staffing firms, company websites, and more.
Today Translations – This is a website that is looking for translators to freelance for them.
Fiverr – Fiverr is an online marketplace where you can find freelance jobs all over the world. You can list your translation services and have clients find you.
Ulatus – This is a website that provides translation services. Due to that, they frequently hire translators.
10. Voice over actor
A voice over actor is the person you hear but don’t usually see on radio advertising, YouTube videos, explainer videos, corporate narration, documentaries, e-learning courses, audiobooks, commercials, movies, cartoons, and more.
No, you don’t need to be a famous person to become a voice over actor – most aren’t!
This is one of the best freelance jobs because it doesn’t require previous experience or special skills – you just need to have the voice the company is looking for.
And before you think that this isn’t for you – you should give it another change! I actually know a few people who work as voice over actors, and it’s a very interesting and fun field to get into.
If you have questions, such as:
What does a voice over actor do?
How much money can a new voice over actor make?
How can a person find their first freelance voice acting job?
Please head to How To Become A Voice Over Actor And Work From Anywhere to read further.
11. Facebook ads manager
By running Facebook ads for local businesses, you can help small businesses reach new customers.
Facebook is one of the largest advertising spaces that exists, so this is an area that will just continue to grow and be popular. Many, many businesses run Facebook advertising in order to reach new customers, and they use a Facebook ads manager to do so!
If you have questions, such as:
Why small businesses need Facebook advertising to find new customers
How you can find your first Facebook ads client
How much you can make doing this type of work – the average is around $1,000 extra a month per client
You can head to How To Make $1,000 Extra With Facebook Each Month to learn more about why this is one of the best freelance jobs.
12. Scopist
As a scopist, you are editing legal documents for court reporters.
Scopists who are working with a court reporter tend to earn around $30,000 to $45,000 each year working full-time hours.
If you are wondering what a scopist does or more information on how much money they can earn, please head to How To Become A Scopist And Make $40,000 Per Year Working From Home to learn more.
13. Food photographer
You can make money from home by becoming a freelance food photographer, such as for food blogs, magazines, advertising materials, and more.
Bloggers hire freelance photographers to recreate recipes and take pictures of the recipes so that the professional photography can be shared on their blog.
Many food photographers are making $50,000 a year – even over $100,000 each year – working for bloggers.
You can learn more at How To Become a Food Blog Photographer And Earn Over $50,000 Each Year.
14. Social media manager
With a social media management business, you would be managing the social media accounts for a business.
You may be working directly for the business as an employee, or you may be a freelance social media manager and managing several different company’s social media platforms at once.
As a social media manager, you may be managing a company’s TikTok, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and so on. You may specialize in one platform (such as TikTok), or you may help a company in more than one area.
Social media marketing is one of the best freelance jobs because it’s a fun and fast-paced industry, and social media is a great great way to bring new customers to a business, and helping a business grow can be very rewarding.
14. Graphic designer
Graphic designers are responsible for creating logos and other visual elements that are used by a business.
This is one of the best freelance jobs if you are artistic or have a background in design. You definitely don’t need a degree to work as a graphic designer because most clients are only concerned about your ability to create the elements they need for their business.
15. Web designer
Working as a web designer is one of the best freelance jobs for people who are both creative and tech savvy.
Web design is similar to graphic design, except that you are creating visual elements that appear on websites and apps. You may be responsible for the overall visual look of a website and choose things like fonts, colors, and images.
You can make in the range of $30 to $80/hour+ working as a freelance web designer.
16. Web developer
This is one of the best paying freelance jobs, and web developers can make in the range of $40 to $100/hour.
You can work as a front-end, back-end, or full-stack developer. You may choose to work with one coding language or multiple, and because more and more people are using the internet and technology, there’s a high demand for web developers.
Years ago, you used to need a degree in computer science to work as a web developer, but now many are self taught or attend months-long coding bootcamp to learn the basics.
Common questions about the best freelance jobs
Here are answers to common questions that you may have about finding the best freelance job.
How much does a beginner freelancer earn?
The amount of money new freelancers make varies because the type of freelance work varies widely, so of course, the pay will vary widely as well.
I have listed some average incomes above, but it can range widely still. This is also because as a freelancer, you can determine your own hours, schedule, the clients and work you do, and more. So, salaries are all over the place.
What is the highest-paying freelance job?
As you gain experience and improve your skills, the above freelance jobs may all have the ability to be high paying. If you stick to one and provide high-quality work, your income potential can be high.
What freelance jobs are most in demand?
The freelance jobs above are all in demand currently, and I believe most of them will continue to grow well into the future.
Which skill is best for freelancing?
The best freelance skill depends on what type of freelance job that you want.
For example, as a virtual assistant, the most basic skills are knowing how to use a computer. Depending on your client’s needs, you may need to know how to manage social media accounts, create slideshow presentations, how to create spreadsheets, and so on.
However, as a proofreader, the basic skills you need are to be able to find spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes.
For the best freelance jobs, other important skills may include:
Good communication
Organizational skills (because you are probably working on your own and need to stay on task and on schedule)
Being reliable (the company or person is paying you to complete your tasks, after all, and to make their life easier)
What is the easiest freelance job?
The easiest freelance job will be the one that you are most interested in and already have skills related to the industry. This is because you will have a little less to learn as you start out.
Can I freelance without experience?
Yes! Everyone has to start somewhere. I started as a freelancer with absolutely no experience, and I simply learned as I went.
You can think about the skills you have and how you can translate them into finding your first freelance gigs. It’s all about marketing yourself.
Then, I recommend looking at platforms like Fiverr or Upwork. You can also reach out to business owners you know and see if you can build referrals that way.
You may find that taking courses will help you a lot if you are starting with no experience. This is because a course will teach you what you need to do, common mistakes to avoid, and anything you may not have thought of.
Below is a list of free freelance job courses and resources that you may be interested in.
Build A Voiceover Action Plan From Scratch Minicourse
Start A Facebook Advertising Business From Scratch
Start Your Virtual Bookkeeping Business
General Transcription Mini-Course
Become a Proofreader 76-Minute Webinar
Court Transcript Proofreading Mini Course
Pinterest Virtual Assistant Training Workshop
Intro to Scoping Mini-Course
5 Steps To Become a Virtual Assistant
You can also learn more at 20 Best Entry Level Work From Home Jobs.
How do I become a freelancer?
There are many other ways to start freelancing, and below is an idea of how to get started. Remember, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. But here’s what I recommend:
Ask friends who already have freelance jobs if they recommend what they do. Chances are that you probably know someone who is freelancing, especially in today’s world. If that is the case, see if they know of have any recommendations to get started.
Creating a quick website of your own that details your work experience. Having a website of your own allows companies and employers to find you, and you can also display a sample portfolio so that potential clients can learn more about you. You’ll most likely have to share your website with others so that it can be seen, but this can be an easy way to get the word out there that you have experience in a certain field. Plus, it’s not hard to create. You can learn how to make a website of your own here.
Start an online business of your own. You can start your own freelance business and work remotely as an independent contractor. There are lots of different types of freelance work online, such as writing, editing, graphic design, transcription, web development, virtual assistance, bookkeeping, and more.
Find freelance jobs on a freelance website (more on this below).
Which freelancing website is best?
There are many different freelancing websites that may list freelance jobs that you can apply for. Some of the below also may allow you to post your services so that people and companies can find you.
Fiverr – For freelance jobs, Fiverr.com can be a place to start looking at entry-level freelance jobs.
FlexJobs – FlexJobs has many freelance jobs from virtual assisting, proofreading, writing, bookkeeping, data entry, transcription, and more
Upwork – With Upwork, you can find freelance jobs online for beginners.
Freelance Writers Den – This website has a job board where you can find freelance writing jobs. They post new writing job listings twice a week.
ProBlogger Job Board – This is a job board where you can find various positions, such as (and mainly) freelance writing jobs.
Freelance Writing – This website started in 1997 and they have a job board which lists freelance writing jobs, including those in journalism, copywriting, blogging, and more.
Scribendi – Scribendi is a website that provides editing and proofreading services, which means that they are pretty much always looking for proofreaders.
Freelancer – Freelancer.com posts freelance jobs, similar to how UpWork does.
Scribbr – Scribbr.com is always looking for proofreaders and editors, and they have an application process that tests your language and editing skills. Once you pass that, you will be able to fill out the Scribbr application, join the Scribbr Academy, and more.
Craigslist – By searching available jobs and gigs, you may find local freelance jobs. Local businesses need freelancers too!
Intuit – Intuit (Quickbooks) hires Quickbooks Live Bookkeepers to help small businesses manage their finances. The jobs they offer are typically around 20 to 40 hours each week.
The Best Freelance Jobs – Summary
I hope you enjoyed today’s article on the best freelance jobs.
As you can see, there are many different freelance gigs that you may want to try out. Plus, the list definitely does not end here. There are many, many different types of freelance jobs that exist out there and many people all over the world are freelancers!
After all, there are so many great benefits of being a freelancer. Flexibility, being your own boss, the potential to earn a high pay, and more may be why you want to pursue a freelance job.
The best freelance jobs that we discussed today include:
Virtual assistant
Bookkeeper
Freelance writer
Book reviewer
Transcriptionist
Proofreader
Consultant
Translator
Voice over actor
Facebook ads manager
Scopist
Food photographer
Social media manager
Graphic designer
Web designer
Web developer
Remember, as a freelancer, even if you work from home, you still have a job! So I wanted to share some tips so that you can start a successful freelancing career:
Set working hours for yourself. This means having a start time, lunch break, end time, and so on. You can still have a flexible schedule, but you may want to have at least some kind of idea of what your hours are.
Have a dedicated work area. This may mean a separate office, a desk in your bedroom, or something else. You will want a place where you can keep your work-life organized.
Try to cut out distractions. Working from home can be hard due to the amount of distractions that you may have. Do what you can to cut down on distractions, such as noise, social media, TV, and so on, so that you can have a productive work day and produce high-quality work.
You can learn more at 15 Of My Best Working From Home Tips So You Can Succeed.
The real estate investing landscape has changed dramatically since the big bust of 2008. Confidence is still not what it once was, and for smaller investors, the risks seem to outweigh rewards. However, an article I read from Forbes back in the summer of 2017 shined a light onto diversified investments into commercial as “the way.” With this in mind, news from an innovative social platform for real estate investments called “iintoo” led me to request an interview with the company’s Managing Director, Shoshana Winter.
Here is the gist of our Q & A session.
Phil Butler: Can you outline briefly an ideal/characteristic iintoo deal or investment?
Shoshana Winter: Iintoo is designed to remove every possible barrier to entry for investors who are interested in exploring alternative asset classes to help diversify their portfolios, but don’t want to take the time to develop the expertise necessary to choose the right deal. The ideal investment for iintoo is, therefore, one that makes it through a long and rigorous vetting process which is designed to weed out less opportune deals. Our platform leverages AI as well as the expertise of our team to identify those deals that meet the core standards in our methodology: commercial-grade, income-generating (value-add capital improvement projects for senior living, student housing and multi-family, etc.), in B and C geographies, and in short exists (no later than 36 months). These criteria have historically demonstrated positive returns for investors, even through economic downturns.
Our goal is to deliver double digit returns on each investment and to do so in short timelines so investors can either roll their returns into another deal or be able to use that yield to fund home improvement projects, vacations or special occasions like a wedding. This vetting process has resulted in iintoo offering only 53 projects to investors out of the 4000 plus deals they’ve seen over the past 4 years. This strategy has returned a 16.78% average annual yield across the 11 exits completed. iintoo’s vetting of these projects does not end with the offering – our team of analysts and business development professionals stay involved in every step of the project ensuring that the developers they are working with stay on time and budget according to the business plan of each project. iintoo will be in contact with the sponsor, do site visits and deliver quarterly reports to its investors to provide complete transparency on progress through the life of the project.
Phil Butler: What’s the benefit that iintoo provides to investors looking to capitalize on the CRE market?
Shoshana Winter: Iintoo provides easy, direct access to curated, premium commercial grade real estate deals designed to drive maximum yield in short time frames. That means that many investors can enjoy these yields in a very immediate way. For example, if they want to see their retirement funds deliver higher returns than traditional products (IRA’s), they can invest a portion of their retirement fund in iintoo through the use of a custodial trust that we make available to them, which allows them to invest without the tax penalties of withdrawing their retirement funds early. iintoo takes a lot of the guesswork out of the process by only offering deals that are designed to deliver the highest potential yields. This means that investors do not need to be real estate experts to make these investments. In addition, iintoo offers investors the industry’s only Equity Protection Investment Community (Epiic) platform which protects them against a loss of value of real estate projects. Epiic adds a two-layer protection benefit for investors who are seeking the safety of principal protection for their initial investment.
Phil Butler: How does iintoo help investors limit risk?
Shoshana Winter: Iintoo does everything it can throughout the process to ensure the best possible investor experience. Though no investment is risk free, iintoo’s methodology is based on a proven model, a highly rigorous criteria-driven vetting process, hands-on management of the investment, and equity principal protection. (See above)
Phil Butler: I’ve taken note of the fact iintoo does not offer investments for those interested in the luxury market. How can your platform/service be helpful to these investors?
Shoshana Winter: Iintoo’s model is based on over 30 years of historical performance of commercial grade real estate investments across multiple geographies. The reasoning for focussing on B and C grade geographies and commercial grade projects (vs. hotels and retail) is they have proven to deliver better yields even through economic downturns. iintoo is looking to capitalize on what is delivering returns vs. other criteria; our analysts and business development team continue to evaluate deals across the spectrum and if new opportunities present themselves that serve our goal of maximum potential returns than we might expand our offerings to include those kinds of deals. But, the guiding principle is always about insuring the most positive outcome for our investors.
I asked the iintoo executive about her company’s successes/profits for investors, which she expressed in terms of a 16.78% average annual yield for our 11 exits. According to Ms. Winter, by using the iintoo platform, accredited investors can now access commercial-grade real estate opportunities without the normal barriers to entry smaller investors usually face. iintoo specializes in grouping investors from all over the country into bigger, multi-million dollar positions and investing that in commercial grade real estate like hotels, student housing, storage facilities, as well as multifamily complexes.
Phil Butler is a former engineer, contractor, and telecommunications professional who is editor of several influential online media outlets including part owner of Pamil Visions with wife Mihaela. Phil began his digital ramblings via several of the world’s most noted tech blogs, at the advent of blogging as a form of journalistic license. Phil is currently top interviewer, and journalist at Realty Biz News.
One of the activities that take place within the GEM is practice investment pitches. One entrepreneur takes the hot seat and gives a 5-10 minute pitch to 5-9 other entrepreneurs from the community. Everyone on the call (we use Google Meet) then spends 20-40 minutes asking questions and providing constructive feedback. The sole goal is to help the “hot seat” entrepreneur refine and improve his/her pitch going forward.
Next up: Brian Mommsen from Resident, an experiential dining company that hosts bespoke, culinary events in underutilized residential spaces. They provide an amenity to accelerate lease-up, increase tenant retention, and create an additional revenue stream through a profit share.
My thoughts on the company can be found here.
The pitch is this Thursday, on May 21st at 1:30 pst / 4:30 est.
While this is NOT a public event, we have a couple open spots for participation if there are real estate owners, developers, landlords, or owners of family investment offices interested and willing to spend 45 minutes helping out.
Interested? Please send a link to your website and/or Linkedin to drew at geekestatelabs dot com.
In this week’s founder interview, we’re bringing you Len Dugow from DASH.
Without further ado…
Who are you and what do you do?
I am the founder and CEO of DASH. I’ve had a 30-plus-year career leading branding and marketing campaigns for some of the nation’s most prominent luxury residential real estate developers and brokerage firms. With the launch of DASH, I am now focused on giving agents access to the most comprehensive database of new development inventory to help them focus on what they do best – sell real estate.
What problem does your product/service solve?
DASH is an online platform created exclusively for licensed residential agents. It gives them access to verified and current development marketing materials, data and insights in a single user-friendly platform for a low monthly fee. It provides a universally desired solution to the universally acknowledged problem of property discovery and identifying accurate developer content, giving our subscribers a competitive advantage by dramatically reducing research and discovery time, allowing them to realize greater sales at a faster pace.
We are looking to become the “go-to source” for new development updates and information. DASH provides perfectly formatted marketing materials (photos, renderings, floorplans, brochures, graphics) that can be efficiently accessed and shared anywhere, anytime, under the agents’ personal branding.
Our platform breaks down the barriers and silos that currently disconnect developers from brokerage firms and agents. We’ve created a user-friendly platform that helps sales teams work more efficiently and effectively than ever before.
What are you most excited about right now?
I’m really excited to finally go to market. DASH has been in development for three years now, and it has been a true collaboration with our network of top real estate developers, brokerages and agents. It’s great to see it all come together.
What’s next for you?
We launched the platform’s pilot market in the South Florida tri-county area. Our plans now are to expand into the nation’s top 10 markets within the next 30 months.
What’s a cause you’re passionate about and why?
The most underserved residential category is workforce housing. Local governments and developers need to join forces to figure out how to provide an easy path for all stakeholders. Continuing to kick the can down the road will ultimately create a greater divide that can only lead to further chaos and deterioration of our urban landscape.
Thanks to Len for sharing his story. If you’d like to connect, find him on LinkedIn.
We’re constantly looking for great real estate tech entrepreneurs to feature. If that’s you, please read this post — then drop us a line ([email protected]).
After trying and failing twice before, a coalition of housing advocates led by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation have collected enough signatures to place a measure on the 2024 ballot asking voters to repeal a major restriction on rent control, in effect allowing more cities and counties across the state to cap rents on more types of homes.
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber’s office announced Wednesday that the initiative has qualified for the November 2024 ballot after its proponents submitted more than 800,000 signatures and enough were certified as valid.
In a news conference Thursday, backers of the Justice for Renters Initiative said the changes would give Californians living on the edge an ability to hold on to their housing as wages lag behind increases in rent across the state. Supporters said that many people are one rent increase away from homelessness and that the initiative would give cities and counties more tools to prevent tenants from being displaced.
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“Many of our members are the working poor,” said Ada Briceno, co-president of Unite Here Local 11, who noted that her union members are on the picket lines right now for the same reasons that the ballot initiative is necessary.
“They live paycheck to paycheck. They’re couch surfing. They’re living in their cars and struggling to pay rent,” she said. “Many of them have been pushed out of their communities and now have long hours of commute.”
Some of the initiative’s supporters include the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles and the California Nurses Assn., along with Housing Is a Human Right, the housing advocacy division of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
If the initiative succeeds, it would repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, a state law that prohibits rent control from being placed by cities and counties on single-family homes and apartments built after 1995, among other prohibitions. The measure would also specify that the “state may not limit the right of cities and counties to maintain, enact, or expand rent control. However, the state still could set some minimum protections for renters, like the current statewide limit on rent increases,” according to a summary from the Legislative Analyst’s Office.
Cities including Los Angeles and San Francisco, among others, already have limits in place for whether rent can be raised on a yearly basis, if at all. The state has also passed regulations in recent years that limit rent hikes to either 5% plus yearly inflation or 10%, whichever is lower.
In recent years, smaller municipalities have also begun instituting their own rent control ordinances.
In 2018 and 2020, the same groups backed efforts to pass similar ballot measures. In both instances, nearly all of the funding for the initiative came from the Los Angeles nonprofit AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which put about $60 million into the losing efforts. Both efforts to repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act lost by nearly 20 percentage points in 2018 and 2020 after $100-million-plus campaigns in which landlord groups outspent supporters of the initiative by more than 2 to 1.
One of the biggest opponents of the last two efforts was the California Apartment Assn., which is gearing up to oppose this latest proposition as well.
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If this measure passes, “landlords lose any hope of ever charging fair market value for their investment,” Tom Bannon, the association’s chief executive, said this year when supporters began collecting signatures. “There is little incentive to keep the unit on the market, let alone invest in improvements.”
Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and others said this time will be different because the situation is so much more dire.
“Renter protection legislation goes to Sacramento to die, and we have no hope of getting it through the Legislature,” he said. “The main reason why we have a better chance now is that the situation has gotten so extreme. Rates of homelessness are going up. Where are people going to live? The population of California is shrinking, and the California dream is dying.”
Around the time of the first ballot initiative, the foundation — best known as a behemoth in the healthcare industry, with more than $2 billion in annual revenue earned largely from its chain of pharmacies and clinics — began purchasing single-room-occupancy hotels and other apartment complexes in Skid Row and other parts of Los Angeles. Its goal has been to provide homes to low-income residents more quickly, cheaply and humanely than private developers, public agencies and other nonprofits.
Some of these buildings, The Times found, have been plagued by problems, including substandard conditions and faulty elevators, which led several residents to sue. The foundation settled a lawsuit about an elevator at one building for more than $800,000, but other class-action lawsuits alleging overall uninhabitable conditions at two buildings remain pending.
After a year’s worth of warnings about a recession, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday that the central bank’s staff no longer forecasts a nationwide economic downturn. It’s welcome news for the economy to achieve a soft landing, a scenario in which inflation falls, unemployment remains relatively low and a recession is avoided.
Housing activity, however, will be limited as the impact of tighter policy continues to reverberate through the economy, housing experts and economists projected following the Fed’s decision to raise interest rates by 25 basis points on Wednesday.
Mortgage rates are expected to remain elevated until inflation moves to a level more consistent with the Fed’s mandate. High mortgage rates have triggered a rate lock-in effect across the country – disincentivizing homeowners to move and finance their new home with higher rates.
“High mortgage rates triggered by the Fed’s policy have caused more sellers to sit on the sidelines given the large differential between the rate they enjoy on their current home compared to the possible interest rate on any home they may purchase today,” said Marty Green, principal at Polunsky Beitel Green, a law firm for residential mortgage lenders.
Data from Redfin showed that about 92% of homeowners have a rate below 6% and a record 60% of mortgage holders have lived in their home for four years or less – further contributing to the supply shortage.
“Higher mortgage rates change the trade-up calculation for existing homeowners and are keeping as many as 1 in 7 out of the market because they don’t want to give up their existing low rate,” Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com noted.
Existing home sales dropped to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.16 million in June from the previous month. Year-over-year, sales dipped 18.90% from 5.13 million in June 2022.
Hale expects the number of home homes for sale to decline this year, and continue to be a damper on home sales.
“A large swath of outstanding mortgages has below-market rates, and this has led to a restriction in the supply of existing homes for sale,” Ruben Gonzalez, chief economist at Keller Williams,said.
During his press conference with reporters, Powell acknowledged that the housing market has cooled due to high rates, but also said it “has a ways to go” before home prices fall.
Powell also said more supply was coming. Though housing starts boomed in May and fell slightly to a seasonally adjusted 1.43 million units last month, supply is mostly coming from multifamily rental construction. Permitting data suggests future multifamily supply is slowing and developers of such projects are highly sensitive to high interest rates.
For now, first-time homebuyers are the most impacted group as higher mortgage rates cut into their purchasing power.
High rates have made affordability exceedingly challenging, and low inventory in return increased competition, especially at lower price points.
The combined impact of higher rates and higher home prices has driven the cost of financing the typical listed home up more than $250 or 12.4% from a year ago; and up more than $1,100 or 96.5% from June 2020, nearly doubling the cost in three years, Hale noted.
It’s not just the buyers that are getting sidelined.
Renters are expected to get hit with higher rental rates, according to Justin Barry, partner at Morris, Manning & Martin.
While the Fed is attempting to stave off inflation by raising interest rates, it could actually have the opposite effect on rents, according to Barry.
“With each round of rate hikes, the Fed puts increasing pressure on multifamily properties with floating-rate loans or maturing fixed-rate loans. Many owners are attempting to pass along the increased financial burdens to tenants by increasing rental rates, provided that demand in a particular submarket supports higher rental rates,” Barry said.
With affordability challenges to persist, demand for new housing construction will follow.
“The onus is on homebuilders, as well as municipal, state and federal authorities, to take steps that will increase construction activity of owner-occupied single-family and multifamily housing to ease the affordability burden on would-be homeowners,” Kyle Enright, president of lending at Achieve, said.
Last hike of the year? The housing industry hopes so
While Powell emphasized any future policy decisions would be made on a meeting-by-meeting basis and that in the current environment, there is expectation that the central bank will pause its rate hike for this year.
“The Fed sounded surprised that we have disinflation factors without a hit to the labor market, which is positive because they might believe now they don’t need a job loss recession to help inflation data improve,” Logan Mohtashami, lead analyst at HousingWire said.
During a press conference with reporters on Wednesday, Powell said the Fed has “seen the beginnings of disinflation without any real costs in the labor market.”
Although inflation dropped to 3% in June, it is still above the Fed’s goal of 2%. Hiring still remains strong and the unemployment rate is hovering at very low levels.
If jobless claims get better, they might hike one more time, but they’re sounding more confident than they’re restrictive now, Mohtashami said.
“It could be the last one for a while,” Melissa Cohn, regional vice president of William Raveis Mortgage, said.
Although the Fed previously signaled it was looking at one or two more increases this year, “we’re starting to see other weaknesses in the economy” and that may put the Fed on a pause after this month’s rate hike, Cohn noted.
Goldman Sachs projected that the FOMC will ultimately remain on hold at the September meeting as the committee leadership has advocated for a “careful pace” of tightening.
“If the Fed isn’t careful, this critical industry may once again slow to crawl in the fall and winter,” Green said.
New home sales among the “50 Top-Selling Master-Planned Communities” increased by 7% in the first half of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022, according to a study by RCLCO Real Estate Consulting.
Master-planned communities have been gaining steam since their invention in the 1960s. Usually built by one developer, they are large, custom-built residential communities that include a number of recreational amenities for residents.
In the sales ranking, The Villages, a retirement community located in Central Florida, was the top-selling community in the country, with an estimated 1,960 sales in the first six months of 2023. It was the same exact number of sales as recorded at this time in 2022.
Florida’s Lakewood Ranch claimed the second spot with 1,227 sales, a 20% increase over last year at this time. Sunterra, located just outside Houston in Katy, Texas, came in third with 669 sales, 49% increase in sales since last year.
D.R. Horton, the country’s largest national homebuilder, appeared on the list four times. All of its communities were in Texas. Land Tejas, owned by Starwood Capital Group, appeared on the list three times and was the developer behind Sunterra.
Houston was the top-performing metropolitan area with 14 communities in the Top 50, representing over 5,000 sales, or almost 26% of all sales among ranked MPCs. The state of Florida represented about 42% of sales among ranked communities, followed by Texas at nearly 38%.
This uptick in MPC sales represents a turnaround, pointing to the strength of the new home sales market. Recently, homebuilders have been feeling very confident and permit demand for future construction rose to a 12-month high in June on the weakness of the existing home sales market and low inventory.
Most MPC developers remain optimistic about the second half of 2023, according to RCLCO. In spite of elevated interest rates and a looming recession, developers remain confident that MPCs will preserve their strong appeal for consumers. However, while some builders have pulled back on incentives, about 60% are still using incentives to stimulate new home sales.
RCLCO has conducted a national survey identifying the top-selling master-planned communities (MPCs) since 1994. Each year, the consulting firm reports the annual sales among the Top-50 communities at the end of the year, and publishes its mid-year update in July.