Everyone knows that real estate investing is the way to go, but for many the thought is daunting! It seems easier to just hand over your hard earned dollars to your investment broker and let them pick the products that will payoff down the road. But, according to a recent CNBC report, you can now do the same thing with real estate investing – from the comfort of your own home thanks to a company called HomeUnion.
“Irvine, California-based HomeUnion was founded in 2009, during the height of the foreclosure crisis, as something of a middleman for individual real estate investors looking to become landlords. It helped smaller investors to compete with big institutional firms that were scooping up distressed properties across the nation by the thousands and creating a whole new asset class of single-family rentals.”
But HomeUnion isn’t just a middleman. Their all encompassing model is whats contributing to their increasing popularity. A surge that just might send them public soon!
“HomeUnion does the legwork from start to finish. Operating in 11 local markets, it locates properties, renovates them to a company standard, finds renters, manages the property and, perhaps most importantly, advises the clients. All, of course, for a fee. It also has a lending arm, selling the loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which allow individuals to qualify for up to 10 investor loans. Ganguly, the CEO, likens the company to any other investment firm.”
What kind of people are taking advantage of this technological gateway into real estate investing? Make way for the Millennials (and others) like Tyler Laprade who are on the go, but have done their research in carefully choosing a company to invest their interests.
“Twenty four year old Laprade couldn’t invest in his pricey backyard because the cost of getting in was too high compared to the returns. He wanted to purchase homes in the $50,000 to $100,000 range, which are few and far between in the New York City area. So he turned to a company called HomeUnion for help. ‘I’m a young, working professional. I don’t have time to fly all over the country looking at hundreds of houses, seeing which has the best cash flow,’ he said. “HomeUnion takes the stress out of it for me.”
Laprade now owns investment property in Ohio and Alabama, citing that you can’t always rely on the markets, but that rental incomes that are the same each month allow him to receive steady monthly income from those investments.
You’re probably thinking it sounds too good to be true, right? As always, the same risks apply as if you were purchasing on your own; no pay tenants, unplanned repairs and more. But with HomeUnion and other companies like them, with proper research, retail investing for the average joe just got a whole lot friendlier and a lot less daunting.
