property investors who are saying, ‘any market, up or down, I’m going to find a way to make money.’ As the market changes, we make sure that we’re finding homeowners in need. COVID is a good example—we certainly hadn’t predicted that out of state landlords would really need help due to the eviction moratoriums.” Some of the landlords Sundae helps include those who are expe- riencing tenant turnover in their property, have property that a tenant damaged, or have a property in need of repairs like a new air conditioning system or roof. The Sundae team has found a lot of these landlords are apprehensive about those moments because of the foreclosure and evic- tion moratoriums. “You have landlords saying, ‘If my tenants stop paying, I’m going to be in a bad spot,’” Stech said. “We start- ed to see that sub-segment of our customer base needing more help than normal. We try to find sellers that need help given what’s happen- ing in the market. We cultivate this robust database of active property investors who can buy any home in any condition in any market cycle.” Sundae is also happy to play an advisory role for its customers when needed. The company recognizes that at times when homeowners are experiencing financial distress, there’s a chance a property investor might leverage their desperation to try to purchase the home at a low price. In other cases circumstanc- es might be well suited for a more traditional sales process. Sundae’s Customer Advisor team spends time with sellers up front to under- stand their circumstances and walk through all of their options even beyond Sundae to make sure they get the best outcome. “One thing that we’re always counselling sellers on is no matter
tial real estate space from Internet buyers (iBuyers) like Opendoor and Zillow to trade-in models like Knock and Nested. Housing options include rent-to-own models, sale leaseback models, and fractional home equity models such as Point and Unison. “Those are all good companies, and they serve the 87 percent of homes that sell every year in good condition to an owner occupant,” Stech said. “They are houses that are in good shape, and owners with good options for selling who now are being given even more options for how to sell. That’s really exciting to see.” That of course leaves 13 percent of the housing market that trades off-market to investors, the segment innovation has not touched. That’s where Sundae has found its foot- ing within the residential real estate market. “That’s really where Sundae stepped in. With the technology advances, and the access to data that we’ve seen proliferating in the last 10 years, someone needed to step in and make this a better experience,” Stech said. “We’re focusing on the 13 percent of homes that need love—a meaningful segment of the market made up of people in tough circum- stances who deserve a fair shake.” SUNDAE — THE REAL ESTATE COMPANY FORALL SEASONS One of Sundae’s biggest advantages is that it offers a necessary service in any environment. It doesn’t matter if home prices are accelerating quickly, there’s an acute shock like the 2008 financial crisis or an acute cyclical issue like the fourth quarter of 2018 that Stech deemed, “a weird quarter.” “I think the reality is there will always be a number of homeown- ers looking to sell a home that needs love as-is,” he said. “There are always
how urgent your circumstances, no matter how bad things have gotten or how much work your home needs, you deserve to get a fair price,” Stech said. “Every homeowner deserves a competitive and trans- parent process when selling their home. You need to get the property in front of hundreds of investors; please don’t call one or two because you’re not going to get the best price unless you expose the property to a wide range of potential buyers. “How we think about the seller side of it is, no matter what’s going on, give us a shot because there’s no obligation or fee to the seller, and no one else has the reach of potential buyers we do. This is what we do, day in and day out. We can help you.” Sundae’s tremendous growth means they’re becoming a go-to resource for investors to find a steady stream of well vetted deals. The firm focuses on making sure any property they bring to their mar- ketplace is a qualified investment opportunity that’s ready to go. For investors, it’s all about saving them time and money. Sundae eliminates the hard work and cost of finding deals and takes the burden of things like direct mail and search engine marketing off of their shoulders, allowing them to put their money to work as soon as possible. “There are parts of what (inves- tors) do that are really specialized, and they should continue working hard at that,” Stech said. “(Things like) doing new construction and reselling the home. But there are pieces of it where a platform part- ner like Sundae can really help. Let us find the properties for you, let us help you with other services like financing, and even resale broker - age and escrow, so that you can focus on the value add that you bring to the table.” •
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