December 2020 – REI INK

Analysis From ATTOM Reveals Fresh Take on Grocery Stores Impacting the U.S. Housing Market

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Trader Joe’s leads the pack for homebuyers, while ALDI wins among investors; Average home value near Trader Joe’s is $644,558, compared to $532,224 near Whole Foods and $250,850 near ALDI ATTOM Data Solutions, curator of the nation’s premier property database, released its annual 2020 Grocery Store Wars analysis, which shows how living near a Trader Joe’s, a Whole Foods or an ALDI might affect a home’s value – as a homebuyer based on home price appreciation and home equity, or as an investor looking for the best home flipping returns and home seller ROI. For this analysis, ATTOM looked at current average home values, 5-year home price appreciation from YTD 2020 vs. YTD 2015, current average home equity, home seller profits, and home flipping rates in U.S. zip codes with a least one Whole Foods store, one Trader Joe’s store and one ALDI store. For Homebuyers While homes near a Trader Joe’s realized an average 5-year home price appreciation of 35 percent, and homes near a Whole Foods saw an average appreciation of 33 percent, ALDI had a slight advantage at 41 percent. However, not only does Trader Joe’s lead the pack for homebuyers in average home value at $644,558, but it also takes the lead in home equity with homeowners earning an average of 37 percent ($255,066) equity, compared to Whole Foods at 33 percent ($191,380) and ALDI at 26 percent ($71,204). The average value for homes near a Whole Foods is $532,224, and $250,850 for homes near an ALDI. The average equity for all zip codes with these grocery stores nationwide is 29 percent. For Investors Properties near an ALDI are ripe for investors, with an average gross flipping ROI of 58 percent, compared to properties near a Whole Foods which had an average gross flipping ROI of 36 percent and Trader Joe’s at 30 percent. Although, properties near an ALDI are seeing less of an average home seller ROI than properties near a Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods, investors are still gaining with an average home seller ROI of 41 percent. The average home seller ROI for properties near a Trader Joe’s is 51 percent, and 43 precent for properties near a Whole Foods. The average home seller ROI for all zip codes with these grocery stores nationwide is 43 percent.

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The PIP Group and RCN Capital have just created the checkmate of all real estate investing moves. The partnership between passive real estate investing and leveraging hard money will change how the individual investor looks at opportunities.. Join the PIP Group’s Founder and CEO, Charles Sells, as he joins RCN Capital’s Connor Hibbs, to discuss what this partnership will do for your future investments. In this presentation you can learn: –How to fund more projects with the same amount or even less capital. –How one can leverage our 20+ years of experience for a much better rate. –The variety of different loan options. –And much more!. Join us, December 17th, at 3:00 pm EST, for a presentation that you will not soon forget — After the webinar, have your questions ready for our Q and A session. Special thank you to the National Real Estate Insurance Group and REI INK for their continued support and promotional efforts of this event. Take some time to view their website and sign up to their newsletters. Register Today For This Exciting Webinar! https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEvc-mgpzkpHdYCIPCZQkoYkvDSHKZgzrmX

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Ignite Funding, a hard money lender, announced that it was voted as the Gold Medal winner in two categories in the Las Vegas Review Journal’s annual Best of Las Vegas competition. Ignite Funding, a small local company, achieved Gold for the “Best Real Estate Investment Firm” and rose to the occasion to unseat the much larger, national company Berkshire Hathaway (the reigning winner since the category’s inception in 2017) for “Best Commercial Real Estate Broker“. “I never imagined that we would ever be able to outvote a company of that size and caliber,” says Ms. Carrie Cook, President of Ignite Funding. “Our stamina to continue to operate even with a pandemic had a greater impact than we realized.” Ignite Funding attributes its success to its ability to quickly adapt to any scenario. In March, Ignite Funding sent its employees to work from home for their protection until it could transition back to a safe office environment in May. The transitions were seamless, maintaining a semblance of “business as usual” that other companies are struggling to regain. Ignite Funding is the steadfast rock amidst the turmoil and proves that having at least one constant can yield volumes of much needed relief to its employees, investors, and borrowers. This relief has amplified the growth of confidence in the company that will continue to contribute to its success in the years to come. Ignite Funding proves that real estate lending does not stop because of an epidemic. Thousands of private investors continue to fill the gap left by traditional bank lending while earning double-digit returns collateralized by real property. To date, Ignite Funding has facilitated 1,240 real estate investments funded with $846 million in investor capital, providing 49 borrowers in 13 states with the ability to acquire and develop over 12,000 acres of land, 7,900 residential lots and 3.3 million square feet of commercial space.

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Geospatial Analytics®, a real estate software development company, announced the release of a new set of analytical solutions. The suite of products consists of Analytic Calculators™, Analytic Widgets™, Analytic Predictors™, and Analytic Pods™, which are an integral component of the Geospatial Analytics® industry-leading real estate management SaaS suite of solutions. A data analytics solution, Analytic Calculators™ enables users to answer important business calculations. Analytic Widgets™ enables users to access data from various sources and perform search functions with it. Analytic Pods™ allow users to daisy chain calculators and widgets together to solve problems. All solutions can be accessed by a mobile device, tablet, or computer. For instance, a technician comes to replace a store’s ceiling tiles. The floor plan is irregular, but he selects from floorplans in an Analytic Calculator™, puts in the measurements, and the calculator determines the material amount needed. He then uses an Analytic Widget™ to determine what stores have the tiles, the costs, and the distance to each store. Accessing an Analytics Calculator™, assembled within an Analytic Pod™, he determines which store to visit using these calculations for the optimal financial decision. Management can use Analytic Predictors™ to aggregate the results from technicians, allowing for workforce and resource planning and forecasting of future demand. “Analytics has historically been the domain of Data Scientists and the C-Suite, providing invaluable insight at the enterprise level,” said Cynthia Timm, president of Geospatial Analytics. “Operational processes and front-line workers have not been able to leverage the significant advantages of analytics in everyday tasks. These tasks are performed literally tens of thousands of times per day throughout the industry, wasting millions of dollars due to inefficiencies. Management now can have access to all that information to make strategic decisions regarding operations. By democratizing analytics, Geospatial Analytics® is revolutionizing the use of analytics in business environments and transforming the industry.”

Leveraging the Power of Comprehensive Real Estate

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ServiceLink’s Full Suite of Services Optimizes Investor Opportunity By: Carole VanSickle Ellis Success in real estate investing has long been summed up in the simple mantra, “Buy low and sell high”. For high-volume investors, however, things can get complicated, especially when it comes to managing multiple properties and deals in various stages of the investment life cycle. Returns are made, grown, and lost in the intricate layers of efficiency and continuity that make up portfolio management, and no one knows that better than investors in the single-family rental space. ServiceLink, a leader in services and technology for all phases of the mortgage lending and management life cycle, has made it a company mission to provide the integration of primary and ancillary services to real estate investors who need it most. “Our strength is that we provide a number of integrated services that single-threaded providers cannot match,” said Miriam Moore, ServiceLink’s division president of default services. With eight in ten of the nation’s largest lenders relying on ServiceLink to navigate the home lending lifecycle from originations through default, Moore’s team specializes in providing comprehensive solutions tailored to meet the needs of its clients. “Single-family rental lenders and investors are not typically looking for a one-size-fits-all solution, and we make it a point to sit down and talk about pain points and expectations with every client and follow up on these conversations regularly,” she said. Despite ServiceLink’s massive scale and the large-scale operations of many of its clients, the company has a surprisingly personal feel to it. This is due in large part to a company-wide dedication to innovation, something Eva Tapia, ServiceLink’s senior vice president of its auction division, sums up when she describes the company’s history. “For more than 50 years, ServiceLink has invested significantly in default innovation—bringing solutions that span the entire default lifecycle,” Tapia said. “Thanks to our nationwide real estate marketplace that provides a variety of properties in various stages of default ready for disposition, we have a unique opportunity to provide services to end consumers and mortgage servicers alike.” Tapia cited marketing and educational materials as key tools in the ServiceLink process that enable clients to access opportunities in all phases of the real estate transaction. A Many-Layered Provider with Ambitious Goals ServiceLink describes itself simply: a provider of services and solutions that enable virtually every aspect of the home-lending lifecycle—from originations to default. Within that deceptively simple description, however, lie nearly a dozen different facets of a company dedicated to investor and client success. Many of those facets have to do with valuations, title and origination services, the company’s founding sector. However, as ServiceLink added relevant, ancillary services over the years, it became a leader in default services, including loan modifications, foreclosure services, auctions, and property preservation, and in technology platforms. The company’s EXOS Technology provides a transparent platform that enables clients to monitor and manage everything from appraisal management to independent vendors in the ServiceLink network to title decisions and even asset viability throughout a property’s life cycle. “Our goal is always to help our servicers and clients preserve, protect and execute on repair strategies to market their assets,” said Tim Guertin, senior vice president of ServiceLink’s field services division. Guertin heads up one of the most individualized sectors at ServiceLink. His division heads up the process of monitoring, maintaining, evaluating, and reevaluating properties to obtain the best outcomes possible for clients’ property preservation goals. “We do hundreds of thousands of inspections a month, and we help clients ensure that those properties are disposed of in a strategic, productive way,” Guertin added. “Our nationwide network of contractors and inspectors are constantly monitoring assets to ascertain whether they are occupied and, if they are vacant, to make sure they are maintained within client expectations and/or investor requirements.” This dedication to preserving value in client properties did not diminish in 2020. In fact, the company got even more creative as COVID-19 drove competition in real estate through the roof. Tapia recalled an instance in which ServiceLink was able to leverage its negotiating experience to the mutual benefit of two real estate investors. When an auction buyer purchased an asset and, shortly thereafter, discovered a competing banking client was also interested in the asset and had a personal connection to the property, Tapia’s team swiftly realized they could help create a mutually beneficial conclusion. “Since the auction buyer was a real estate investor with plans to flip the asset anyway, the team worked to connect the two parties and settle on a price for the banking client to purchase the asset with a concurrent closing,” she explained. “Once the concurrent closings were finalized, the auction buyer had made a profit; the banking client was able to get the asset to which they had a connection; and, the servicer was able to satisfy the needs of their banking client.” Kristy Folino, managing director of valuations, chimed in. “I love that we are able to sit down and talk with clients until we have carved out a new process or found a new product that works well for the problem they are trying to solve.” Folino, like her colleagues, emphasized the scalability of ServiceLink as a linchpin in the company’s ability to solve problems and keep clients competitive and profitable in volatile times. “We are a national solution provider with a real passion for solving problems for our clients—and we understand and accommodate the urgency that comes with so many transactions,” she said. In a year when getting a traditional appraisal product can take longer than what is typical, many SFR lenders have turned to hybrid valuation products like ServiceLink’s Desktop Valuation with Inspection (DVI). The speed of the product is invaluable. Folino recalled several incidents in the latter half of 2020 when single-family rental (SFR) customers needed quick turn times on appraisals in order to save closings. “Because we have staff appraisers that complete our DVI product, we can turn these hybrid appraisal products very quickly—sometimes in

Investor Profile – Trent McMurtrey

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Trent McMurtrey’s journey to becoming an independently owned and operated HomeVestors® Business Owner in 2017 has been uniquely interesting. Trent is a military veteran having spent twelve years in the military. He initially spent six years in the Marine Corps as an enlisted soldier. After his stint in the Corps, Trent did several things, but like a lot of veterans, he began to miss the uniform and the camaraderie which the military offers. After getting his bachelor’s degree in Human Relations/Psychology he attended the Army’s Officer Candidate School and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the US Army Infantry branch. However, he thought he could better utilize his degree in Human Relations/Psychology and transferred to the Chaplains Corps. In addition to his military background, Trent has always had an entrepreneurial spirit. He has owned various businesses since the age of 25. One of these businesses was Academic Opportunities in America, which is an international education company. He owned and operated that company from 2012 until 2020 and even operated it in Shanghai, China for two years. The only reason he closed the doors on the business was because of the “Virus.” Due to the decreasing number of international students, the business model was no longer sustainable. Prior to the virus, Trent had forecasted another five-to-ten years of positive revenue, but the virus had other plans for Trent. The Beginnings Fortunately for Trent, he had a good friend who was a HomeVestors franchisee. After being convinced about the potential and opportunities, Trent bought his franchise in 2017 and received his initial training (SST) in 2018. Having obtained his Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree in 2017 from the Michael J. Coles College of Business at Kennesaw State University, Trent and his wife, Faith, were ready to hit the ground running…and that they did. Faith McMurtrey was instrumental in the early successes of the real estate business due to her experience as a real estate agent. An entrepreneur at heart, she is also the Co-Owner of Elite Total Wellness. Faith helps people, families, employees, companies, dreamers, or anyone else who feels “stuck”. She can guide people using their own strengths and weaknesses and by honing in on their individual skills and ambitions to help get them through their hurdles or obstacles. Faith has even coached top companies like Coke by working with their employees to achieve their goals and quotas. In the first year of business, the McMurtrey franchise, Southern Willow Properties, LLC, bought and sold sixty homes. Trent recalls he made a nice profit on his very first deal as a HomeVestors Business Owner. That very first deal eliminated any skepticism he may have had. As Trent describes it, “I had absolutely zero experience in buying homes “as-is”, quickly for an all cash deal.” Now that he has owned his franchise for a while, Trent is no longer in denial about buying homes “as-is”, quickly for cash in accordance with their current condition. There are many reasons that people get into the real estate business and just as many reasons for buying a HomeVestors franchise. Trent and Faith had two reasons; build a passive income stream and build a personal real estate portfolio. Since starting in 2018, they have acquired twenty single-family rental properties in the Atlanta area. Trent saw a clear pathway to success from day one and gives a lot of credit to the military credo of mission accomplishment and the leadership skills he acquired while serving his country. Additionally, he credits his degree in Human Relations/Psychology when working with people and his finance knowledge acquired while working toward his MBA. But he mostly attributes his success to John Holman, the HomeVestors Development Agent in Atlanta, and many other HomeVestors franchisees in his network. Success and Regrets Hard work and success have many rewards! Trent and Faith can retire right now with the money they have made and the portfolio they have accumulated. That revenue can supplement social security, retirement funds, or pension payments. However, their immediate goal is simple…building their personal portfolio to forty single-family rental properties. As Trent puts it, “If my family has a medical emergency or I want to send one of my children to college, all I have to do is sell one of my houses.” HomeVestors formed the Atlanta Advertising Council of which Trent is the President in Atlanta. There are about 170 markets nationwide, and HomeVestors welcomes feedback from “the field”. This feedback allows HomeVestors to adjust their training and marketing programs. Owning a real estate business is life changing and naturally comes with regrets. Trent’s regret is he wished he would have gotten involved with HomeVestors before the iBuyers entered the market. During the COVID crisis, Southern Willow Properties continued to grow and prosper while the iBuyers left the game…now they are coming back. Trent’s advice to anybody is to get involved with HomeVestors now! “There are enough deals to go around for everybody and the passive income generated by our portfolio is fantastic!” Trent also pointed out that he is immensely proud that the Military Times named HomeVestors a “Best for Vets” franchise. What exactly does it mean to be a HomeVestors® business owner? When you become a HomeVestors business owner, you can get immediate access to motivated seller leads, funding for your purchases, one-on-one coaching with your local Development Agent, proprietary software for analyzing properties and deals, and access to a nationwide network of coaches and peers. Your house-buying business is yours and you run it as your own independent venture. Compare this system to a 2-day real estate guru workshop! Trent, Faith, and their three children (Travis, 10; Micah, 6; Maci, 2) currently reside in Cartersville, GA. If you wish to contact Trent, he can be reached at Trent.Mcmurtrey@homevestors.com.