Fuel CRE- http://www.fuelcre.com/
Assess RE-https://www.assessre.com/
Any feedback, thoughts? Appreciate it.
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Hi Brody92, just because I'm a bot doesn't mean I don't have feelings...I'm hoping these links are helpful. If not, feel free to throw monkey shit at me...
Maybe one of our professional members will share their wisdom: CRE Sparky KCRE Duley
I hope those threads give you a bit more insight.
bump- Assess just closed a seed round funding few days ago. I often think that "development" is the only route of entrepreneurship that is often spoken about here, there is a terrific opportunity out there for entrepreneurs in the proptech, capital markets or even brokerage space http://www.msrcommunications.com/propmodo-daily-assessre-gets-its-seed-…
Oh all industries embracing new technology, it seems real estate professionals are the least interested in "new" and unproven prop tech. I hope these guys generate some traction and do well, because I think there's a lot of ways underwriting could be handled better from a software perspective.
There’s also one called RedIQ (fka ResiModel) for multifamily modeling which is pretty cool.
RedIQ is pretty damn good.
I will attribute that to lukewarm feedback and confidence from the VC community. I am aware that there is fifth wall and there are real estate focussed accelerators like Meta Prop now, but those are still tiny in the grand scheme of things. I am very interested in real estate tech. Three years ago, I got to see how it is when a startup does well, I worked at a real estate startup when it was getting ready to go public, it was all sunshine and roses and we had a product that was a slam dunk compared to what the rest of the industry was offering. Now, I am also working at a startup and I get to see the flip side, it's at the very early stages, our backs are against the wall with less than 100K in the bank, will run out out of cash soon if we dont get to raise seed financing. Feedback from VC's are lukewarm at best. Most VC's dont get real estate at all. And I have a theory why. A lot of VC's have been entrepreneurs themselves and will be comfortable investing in something that they are somewhat familiar with. Example, Eric Migicovsky founded Pebble and joined Y Combinator after selling the company for $40 million. After spending a decade in the hardware space, he would be really comfortable advising companies in the hardware space. In my experience many tech entrepreneurs tackle a pain point, a problem that they themselves face in their lives or are atleast closely familiar with. They are so obsessed with the problem and so deeply connected to their mission, and, in essence, become their own first customer. I would imagine it is very hard for a Eric Migicovsky to suddenly overnight become obsessed with loan servicing or real estate appraisals. I bet that there are other problems that appear more interesting to him. So, the industry does not attract from an investor or entrepreneur perspective smart and capable people like him who could take on interesting problems and challenges in the industry. So, if appraisals or servicing needs to be improved or disrupted, the investors that would invest in such a venture and entrepreneurs who want to take on problems in real estate would have to be "home grown" and somebody that is familiar with real estate.
And speaking about appraisals, Bowery, a startup trying to make the appraisal process cheaper, more efficient raised 5M in a round led by Cushman and Wakefield and Navitas Capital, a RE focussed investment firm. CRE is still a niche that is yet to attract mainstream VC's. It has only been getting investments from RE focussed investors. More mainstream VC's get involved in the industry, there will be a lot more traction.
I wish the real estate industry was more willing to adopt new technologies. You have to remember this is the same industry where people are digging their heels in and refusing to switch from DCF (20+ Years old, and no longer supported) to their newer product which is essentially a newer, updated, and refined version of DCF.
Also most products I have seen are just knock offs of Argus minus some of the nuances that you might take for granted.
It is going to take a good SaaS with open API (Argus is terrible about this) at a much lower price. Functionality and reporting that exceeds every bit in Argus + 1 or 2 big names to adopt it.
I'll stick with Argus till then.
isn't argus (even argus enterprise) basically a desktop solution with a local sql server database?
their "on-demand" version is more or less just the same thing installed on a server somewhere and accessed via terminal server or citrix right?
i didn't see much response here. can anyone share experiences with these argus alternatives? i will share what i know and have heard...
FuelCRE (http://www.fuelcre.com) - looks like this used to be a company called LeaseLinks that was somehow bought or JV'd with a company called Hipercept to create FuelCRE. LeaseLinks went away and Hipercept is a CRE/tech consulting firm that is actually an ARGUS partner. i have not personally done a demo of this, but from those i have talked to, they say it is pretty slick-looking, but the functionality is somewhat limited.
Assess+RE (http://www.assessre.com) - this company was started by a guy who used to write Excel models as a consultant and was also a professor at Columbia. he was also an investment analyst at a firm for a while. i have also not done a demo if this product, but would like to hear from anyone who has used it how they like it.
TechnoSun (http://www.technosun.com) - i think this product was built by a real estate developer, but i'm not sure what the platform looks like. looks like it is mostly for developers.
RedIQ (http://www.rediq.io) - this tool is for multifamily. as i understand it, their big value add is being able to upload a scanned rent roll and management report from a few of the main property management systems, which reduces the data entry workload. they have an excel add-in and a basic online tool.
GetREFM (http://www.getrefm.com) - this is a one-man show that creates some excel models. later, he created a product called "Valuate" that is likely meant to absorb his excel model library in one way or another. i recently saw that the Valuate product has been adopted by the National Association of Realtors for their commercial members.
Yardi Investment Management (https://www.yardi.com/products/yardi-investment-management/) - this is yardi's homegrown alternative to ARGUS. i have not used it but did a demo many years ago. at the time, it was pretty clunky. the screen shots i have seen are also pretty archaic, but i'm seeing this stuff a few steps removed. it would be interesting to hear what it feels like to use in real-life.
MRI Investment Management (https://www.mrisoftware.com/products/investment-management/) - this is the old cougar software. MRI bought them a while back. lots of big companies used cougar and it was expensive. i'm not even sure i'd say this is a replacement for ARGUS, b/c everyone who used cougar also had ARGUS. it was more of a fund management tool in those days and added some neat bells and whistles, but it may have evolved since then.
i will add some more to this list at a later date, but this is a start...
Hey Mike. I put a comment on this thread a while back, but it may not have been approved due to the fact that I work for VAL. Worth looking into, VAL is THE alternative to ARGUS. That is not coming from my marketing dept, but from the mouths of execs at most of, if not all, top CRE institutions. Look into it! I guarantee its worth your time.
Lol seen a few of THE argus alternatives now and yours hasn't been one of them
Techno Sun is great. Really like the platform, and if it means anything, 100x cheaper than argus and perfect for MF. The lead guy who created the software called my firm when a developer sent over a model exported from tehcnosun to walked us through assumptions, and good chance we'll get on it now as senior guys really liked it
There's also Lucro http://getlucro.com.. Cool functionality but currently limited to only residential models (single, multi, student).. Did a trial several months ago for a condo development and it was great for modeling the deal but haven't seen any commercial models added yet.
Drop Model is a newer company in the SFR-rental and fix and flip analysis space. They just released their first product recently https://dropmodel.com/
PropertyMetrics is a good alternative to Argus. It is competitively priced and they release new features every week.
Good stuff, makes work so much more efficient.
Bump- as a general update to real estate tech. Realty Shares, one of the top 4 real estate crowdfunding sites that had raised more than $50 MM is shutting down as they could not raise more capital. This is a huge news in the real estate crowdfunding community. My biggest takeaways are:
While Realty Shares has a good product and was one of the more successful companies in the space, the high minimum investment amounts combined with the SEC only allowing accredited investors to invest meant that they could not scale as quickly as they would have liked. While in theory you might think that its not a capital intensive business as they are essentially a middleman helping investors raise capital, but user acquisition combined with diligent underwriting to ensure that only good products are introduced to the platform is expensive.
True RE online crowdfunding might as well be dead as Fundrise who was the pioneer in the space does not even engage anymore in true RE crowdfunding. Most companies in the space are rolling out private reits and invest their own capital into investments as opposed to help investors raise capital. Private reits are a completely different business and their biggest disadvantage is the lack of liquidity and track record compared to their competitors in the public reit space. It also looks like Crowdstreet's most valuable part of their business is not their ability to raise capital on behalf of investors via crowdfunding but their white label investment management technology solution for developers and operators. That does not really instill any confidence in crowdfunding.
I was wrong when I thought the industry has sorta matured and the top 4 companies were clear favorites to stay in the space for the long term. But Realty Shares shutting down is absolutely shocking as it shows that the industry is still in its infancy stage. I was gung-ho on working in real estate tech and especially crowdfunding few months ago, but for now, I think I should be extremely content about my stable bank gig...
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