Norada vs. Roofstock

[Brad Eckhardt]

I’m trying to get into single family home real estate and I have been trying to get a feel for the type of cash flow involved. I have been looking at Norada real estate and Roof stock and find their cash flow numbers differ greatly. On a similar home,price, neighborhood etc.., Norada will say cash flow will be ~$400 and Roof stock will say ~$100.

Does anyone know if Norada inflates their numbers or have they been found to be accurate? Why the big difference in the two?

I want to get into real estate and want to be realistic on what kind of return is involved. Thanks for any help.

[Chris Clothier]

@Brad Eckhardt

@Curt Davis did a nice job of differentiating the two companies and mentioning that third option of speaking with a company directly.  I wanted to add that I have been a skeptic of Roofstock in the past and voiced some concerns over process and control for buyers on that platform.  However, we’ve been consulting with Roofstock for a few months now and working closely with them on developing an API and I have to give them credit for making big strides in this space.  They are still a marketplace, but are working hard on transparency, data aggregation and reporting for buyers and trying to offer a nice alternative for investors who want to go the passive route.  Especially for those who are comfortable using technology to compare and review offerings to find the right property and manager.  Which, let’s face it, is the future.

 I have spent a lot of time on the phone with them and they genuinely want to improve what they are offering for investors.  I was particularly impressed with their desire to separate opportunities for investors based on experience.  They recognize that some opportunities are better than others and price is not always the best differentiator and they learned that from their experiences operating over the last few years.  As someone who was skeptical, they impressed me enough to get off the sidelines and connect my IT team and head of our portfolio team to work with them.

One final divergence between the two particular companies is cost.  I’m not sure that either cost anything for the buyer, but there is a big difference in cost to a vendor that sells a home.  In some cases it may cost a vendor half as much to work with Roofstock as opposed to other promotional companies. That is a huge savings for home providers and allows for lower sales prices.  Those costs factor into the investment and I think technology is going to go a long way in reducing the costs for vendors, lowering the costs for buyers and helping Roofstock bring about a better experience for the investor.  They are simply too well-funded and have too many brains working on bringing about improvement and innovation.  They are going to surpass other i-options for investors and providers alike, in my opinion, if they haven’t already.