You can listen to the episode here. How do you get access to cash without incurring more debt? In today's episode, we dis...
Problem
Homeowners can only access their home equity by going deeper into debt
Almost 18M Americans are 'equity-rich', owning 50% or more equity in their home. Many Americans have the majority of their wealth trapped in their home equity. Currently, the only way to access home equity is to sell the home or take out another loan and go deeper into debt.
Problem 1: Homeowners can only access their home equity by taking on more debt.
Problem 2: Investors currently do not have a way to invest in this untapped, multi-trillion dollar asset class.
Solution
Access debt-free cash from home equity. Make home equity liquid and tradable
QuantmRE is the platform that links homeowners and investors, providing homeowners with access to debt-free financing, and investors with access to investments in prime residential real estate.
We originate Home Equity Agreements – a financial tool that enables homeowners to get a cash lump sum from their home equity with no monthly payments, no interest, and no added debt. The homeowner has up to thirty years to sell their home or refinance the agreement.
What is a Home Equity Agreement?
A Home Equity Agreement allows a homeowner to sell a share of the current and potential future value of their home in exchange for cash today. A Home Equity Agreement is not a tenancy in common, not a mortgage, not a line of credit, and not a reverse mortgage. The homeowner can receive a cash lump sum of up to $500,000 with no interest and no added debt. There are no monthly payments, ever.
The Agreement can be settled by selling the home, or by refinancing or renewing the Agreement (all of which may be as long as 30 years in the future).
Homeowners who have been turned down for a loan or mortgage can still qualify for a Home Equity Agreement.
QuantmRE makes it easy for a homeowner to find out how much home equity they could access by entering their address on our online calculator:
The investor in the Home Equity Agreement ('HEA') receives the equivalent of a preferred equity position in a residential owner-occupied (or non owner-occupied) home, secured by a lien on title – an efficient and scalable way to gain exposure to potential equity appreciation in residential real estate without the cost and management of ownership. The structure of an HEA provides magnified returns with downside protection, and the investment is not directly correlated to stocks, bonds, or REITS.
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Leveraging the Algorand blockchain protocol, we are developing a blockchain-based secondary trading platform and marketplace to enable investors to buy and sell fractionalized Home Equity Agreements.
Product
A platform to make home equity accessible, investible, and tradable
In order to create liquidity and tradability for Home Equity Agreements, QuantmRE is developing a secondary trading platform and marketplace.
This platform utilizes the Algorand blockchain - a blockchain with faster processing speeds and lower gas fees than traditional blockchains like Ethereum.
The image above represents a part of the website that is currently under development and is intended for demonstration purposes only.
Each Home Equity Agreement can be tokenized and split into fractional units. These units can then be offered to investors, enabling them to buy, sell, and trade their own portfolio of investments in the equity in individual residential properties.
QuantmRE will issue each fractionalized Home Equity Agreement as an Algorand Standard Asset (ASA). The identity and ownership of each transaction is tracked and verifiable on the Algorand blockchain. With Algorand's simplified asset creation, instant financial exchange and immediate transaction finality, QuantmRE is leveraging technology at the forefront of open financial innovation.
We anticipate that the first fractionalized Home Equity Agreements will be offered on our platform during Q1 of 2022.
Invest in US residential real estate without the hassles of being a landlord
Our platform has been designed to onboard new investors, seamlessly check their identity and investor eligibility, and link their bank accounts and Algorand wallets to enable them to invest quickly and easily.
New investment opportunities will be listed in the marketplace, and can be viewed via a map, grid, or by using search tools. Investors will be able to choose which homes they wish to invest in, and how much they want to invest.
The image above represents a part of the website that is currently under development and is intended for demonstration purposes only.
When the investment is completed, funds are automatically drawn from the investor's bank account and the tokens representing the investor's interest will be seamlessly transferred to their Algorand wallet.
The market value of each Home Equity Agreement will be recalculated every month using automated valuation models (AVMs). The investor's dashboard has been designed to display configurable reports showing the current value of each investment.
If they wish to sell some or all of their holdings, investors will be able to set their own price and offer their individual fractionalized HEAs to other potential buyers on the QuantmRE platform.
Peer to Peer transactions
The technology that we are architecting and building has been designed to enable homeowners to sell their home equity direct to the crowd, who can transact with them without the costs and hassle of intermediaries.
Our goal is to enable a wide range of investors to invest in the equity in residential homes, and to create a vibrant secondary market for fractionalized Home Equity Agreements.
Note: QuantmRE's proposed secondary market and trading platform will require approval from federal and state regulators which the Company anticipates could be time and capital extensive. If the Company is not successful in obtaining the necessary approvals, the fractionalization and transferability of these Home Equity Agreements could be limited.
Traction
$6M transactions completed, $40M customer pipeline
We are generating revenues today by originating Home Equity Agreements, utilizing our effective and scalable online and offline marketing strategy.
Since we started originating Home Equity Agreements in October 2019, we have completed over 40 transactions, enabling homeowners to access more than $6M of their trapped home equity.
We have generated over $100,000 in gross origination fees this year (as at November 2021) and we have over $40M of Home Equity Agreement applications in our customer pipeline.
We have also generated a significant amount of press interest with our ground-breaking approach to home finance:
Note: Gross origination fees is the total amount of origination fees paid by the homeowner when the Home Equity Agreement is completed. QuantmRE receives a 50% share of the gross origination fees for HEAs it originates that are completed with other HEA product companies. Revenue figures quoted in this section are unaudited.
Customers
Customers and case studies
Home Equity Agreements provide liquidity to homeowners who are ‘house rich and cash poor’ and align the interests of both the homeowner and the investor.
Our homeowner customers fall into three main categories:
There is significant demand for liquidity from equity-rich homeowners. For most U.S. homeowners, home equity is their largest asset, and for many the amount of home equity they have exceeds any investment or retirement savings.
Selling the home and moving, or taking on adding additional debt financing (such as a mortgage or a HELOC) is not always an available or desirable option for many homeowners.
Business model
Multiple revenue streams, highly scalable product
We generate origination fees based on the amount of cash a homeowner accesses when they complete a Home Equity Agreement.
We also receive additional fees for Agreements that we originate directly.
Revenues from the secondary trading platform and marketplace
QuantmRE’s proposed secondary trading platform and marketplace has been designed to generate revenues from the following potential activities:
- Annual membership fees
- Technology fees to buy, sell, and trade units in fractionalized Home Equity Agreements
- Portfolio modeling
- Real-time real estate transaction data
Note: QuantmRE's proposed secondary market and trading platform will require approval from federal and state regulators which the Company anticipates could be time and capital extensive. If the Company is not successful in obtaining the necessary approvals, the fractionalization and transferability of these Home Equity Agreements could be limited.
Market
Tapping into a rapidly growing $23T market
Almost 18M homeowners in the US are 'equity rich'—meaning that they have 50% or more of equity trapped in their home. Total home equity hit a record $23T in the US in 2020.
Leveraging direct-to-consumer marketing and existing channel partnerships, we plan to achieve $50M in Home Equity Agreement originations during 2022.
For investors, our blockchain-based secondary trading platform and marketplace is designed to enable investors to buy and sell personalized portfolios of this multi-trillion dollar, previously untapped asset class.
Our marketing strategy uses a combined approach of direct to consumer, via digital and social media advertising, and a channel partner network.
Our social media advertising strategy provides an efficient, scalable method of new customer acquisition.
Part of the proceeds from this Offering will be used to increase our digital marketing ad spend, which we anticipate will drive significantly more customer traffic.
Competition
Our offering is unique and our team is seasoned and experienced
Our team is comprised of pioneers in the shared equity space. We are actively originating Home Equity Agreements (HEAs), and have already enabled homeowners to access millions of dollars of their home equity.
At the moment, there are a limited number of companies competing in the HEA market, including Unison, Point, HomeTap, Noah and Unlock. None of these companies allow retail investors to invest and trade in HEAs.
We also compete with companies like Lofty.ai, Fundrise, RealtyMogul and other online platforms that offer real estate investments.
We are different to all of the other Home Equity Agreement companies for the following reasons:
- QuantmRE’s marketplace is designed to provide retail investors with the ability to invest in fractionalized Home Equity Agreements.
- Leveraging the Algorand protocol, QuantmRE's proposed trading platform will provide secondary market trading for fractionalized Home Equity Agreements.
- QuantmRE is not tied to specific capital sources—this means we have more flexibility when underwriting Home Equity Agreements.
Note: QuantmRE's proposed secondary trading platform and marketplace will require approval from federal and state regulators which the Company anticipates could be time and capital extensive. If the Company is not successful in obtaining the necessary approvals, the fractionalization and transferability of these Home Equity Agreements could be limited.
Vision and strategy
Our vision is to become the largest blockchain-based platform to trade home equity
Our goal is to enable the equity in residential homes to become liquid and tradable.
We intend to open our secondary trading platform and marketplace to all of the companies that operate in the Home Equity Agreement space.
We plan to expand the number of states where we offer Home Equity Agreements, to deliver an increasingly diverse range of investment opportunities, and to enable homeowners to access capital directly from investors without the need for intermediaries.
Our vision is to deliver the platform that makes home equity accessible, investible and tradable on a global scale.
Funding
Backed by Algorand, angel investors, venture fund, and the crowd
QuantmRE has raised almost $2.2M in capital to date from a range of investors.
In March 2021, Algorand invested in QuantmRE.
"We are excited to see Algorand's global decentralized platform being leveraged by innovative thinkers like QuantmRE,” said W. Sean Ford, COO of Algorand. “In pursuing their vision of the world’s largest blockchain-based capital markets system for tokenizing and trading residential home equity on our protocol, they join a rapidly growing ecosystem of companies that are reshaping and expanding access to previously illiquid and closed-off markets.”
In October 2020, QuantmRE closed its first successful round on Republic, welcoming 633 new investors.
Founders
You can bet on our team to innovate, execute and scale QuantmRE. Our team is comprised of pioneers in the shared equity space who have helped homeowners access millions of dollars of equity in their homes, giving them the freedom to turn their equity into cash and take back control of their finances.
Matthew is the founder and full-time chief executive officer of QuantmRE. A serial entrepreneur, he is the founder of Crowdventure.com and co-founder of two real estate funds. He spent a number of years working alongside Richard Branson and the Virgin corporate finance team in London, UK, where he was appointed a director and Trustee of Virgin’s London Air Ambulance.
Matthew went to Westminster School in London, UK and studied Law at Birmingham University before pursuing a career in finance and stockbroking, specializing in the South East Asian markets. In 1997 he chose an entrepreneurial path and founded Europe’s first internet billing application service provider. Since then he has founded and led companies in the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States in the finance, telecommunications, technology and real estate sectors.
Matthew is the author of 'Head First—A Roadmap for Entrepreneurs', host of the 'Hooked on Startups' podcast, and holds a private helicopter pilot's license.