The idea is a good one: create a level playing field and improving the experience for consumers and realtors in the home buying process. Anyone who has been through the process knows home buying and selling can be complicated and time-consuming. Who wouldn’t want it to be easier?
So what’s the catch? In all honesty, that was my first thought when I heard about Ribbon, a company that is buying homes directly from homeowners. Unlike direct buyers like Open-door and Offerpad which focus on buying homes from sellers, Ribbon is buying homes for buyers.
So what’s the catch? The company promises certainty, a fair price, and speed. They work with homebuyers and their real estate agents to provide a guaranteed all-cash offer regardless of where the buyer is in the mortgage process.
According to their website, the team behind Ribbon are technologists, financial innovators, and real estate experts. They come from companies such as LendingClub, Twitter, Spotify, and Invitation Homes.
So what’s the catch. I would soon have a first-hand opinion about this Carolina and NYC-based company.
You know the phenomenon of hearing about something interesting for the first time then you keep hearing about it? That’s what happened to me with Ribbon.
Ribbon was brought to my attention during a company forum. I took note because my real estate firm 5 Points Realty really adheres to not wasting the agent’s time with reps from companies trying to get our business. So when they opened our meeting up to a Ribbon Rep, I was listening.
Then I ran into a real estate broker showing one of my listings. She mentioned she would be submitting an offer and it would be from Ribbon.
- She asked, “have you heard of Ribbon?”
- I replied, “Yes just learned about Ribbon. How do you like them?”
- She answered. “They are great! This will be my third transaction through them”
- I replied, ”huh, interesting.”
- A couple of days later I had another agent mention Ribbon.
The spell was cast, Ribbon’s name was evoked 3 times.
I started to explore Ribbon for clients that seemed to be a perfect fit for this service. Ribbon fulfills a much-needed need here in the Charlotte Market. In a nutshell. Ribbon buys for cash a house for the buyer that needs to sell their house.
The company secured financing from top tier venture capital firms who shared their mission to fix the real estate transaction for people. Some of the investors are Greylock, NFX, Bain Capital Ventures, and NYCA – the people behind brands like Trulia, Airbnb, LinkedIn, and Docusign.
So Ribbon creates a competitive market value cash offer, buys the house, rents it back to the buyer until their house sells. Once their house sells, they buy the house they are renting from Ribbon, from Ribbon.
Sounds Great, right? Well, I would like to share my first-hand experience with Ribbon…. in another blog… stay tuned…
