Renters have an agenda, and it created a new spot in the homebuying ecosystem

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Are you a renter or homeowner? 🤔

“I’m a renter today. But I hope to be a homeowner someday. Does that count?”

Sound familiar? It should. This is the response you’ll get from the 100 million people renting in the United States who aspire to buy their own homes in the future. In other words, almost every renter is somewhere in their journey to homeownership.

While everyone’s path is unique, there is a mutual aspiration to graduate from renter to first-time homebuyer.

Buying your first house consists of a few big things:

1. saving up the most money you’ve ever saved (down payment + closing costs + lots of incidentals)
2. spending that money on the biggest purchase of your life (cue the anxiety)
3. owning real estate for the first time (you are your own landlord now)

I understand that not all renters are ready to buy a home - even if they can afford it. Today let’s focus on those who want to buy as soon as possible instead of paying off someone else’s mortgage.

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The stages of a first-time homebuyer

As a renter, your exposure to the real estate industry is limited to interactions with your landlord or property manager. Their goal is to ensure you have a peaceful experience while renting at their property and to resolve any issues in a timely fashion — mainly so you pay rent on time and renew your lease when the time comes.

Is your landlord prodding you to buy a house instead of renewing your lease? Probably not, since they’ll have an empty rental costing them money until a new tenant is placed. (a sincere nod to any property managers and landlords that offer homebuying resources to their renters 🙌)

Fast forward 12 months, you’re an active homebuyer. You’ve got your down payment saved, a credit score in the 700s, and ready to submit for pre-approval on a mortgage. At this point, the traditional real estate industry is best-in-class: quick responses, technology-enabled, and insanely optimized. You’ll have professional loan officers and real estate agents one phone call or text away, or fancy apps to automate the homebuying transaction. Wow, did I just buy a house through an app?!

But what if you’re in between a renter and active homebuyer?

Let’s call you a future homebuyer. If you’re more than 6 months away from buying a house, you fall into this void where it may be difficult getting attention from the traditional real estate professionals since they have other customers closer to the big closing day. In most cases, it’s up to you to get answers:

• ask Google if you’re on track to buy a home (without knowing your personal financial situation)
• ping your neighbor, the newly licensed agent, with some one-off questions about down payments and closing costs
• text your old school buddy about what a “good” credit score and loan rate is these days

This process can work and gets the job done for the 2.5M first-time homebuyers every year. But can the real estate industry team up to make this process smoother, less stressful, and provide first-time homebuyers more confidence throughout the process? Yes, the answer is yes.

And if we do this, can we provide even more renters a shot at becoming a homeowner one day? Yes, the answer is yes. Now you’re getting it!

Gravy enters the chat...

This is where my startup, Gravy, comes in. We built a platform with one purpose: empower renters to buy their first home sooner. We help renters navigate the path to homeownership and ensure they get a great deal on their first house when they are ready to buy it.

Our spot in the real estate ecosystem is catered toward the future homebuyer persona I described, meaning we want to bridge the gap between renting and homebuying. The journey to homeownership has historically been long and lonely, but not anymore. We like to think of ourselves as a neutral homebuying assistant- you can even ask a Gravy Home Advisor questions for free at any time, no strings attached.

Sounds cool, but how do you actually help?

Gravy is a free app for renters to save up a down payment, earn rewards toward their future house, learn about the homebuying process, track credit score, and eventually connect with mortgage lenders and agents who offer exclusive discounts to Gravy homebuyers.

Are we going to make homeownership more accessible for every renter overnight, by ourselves? Of course not, but we’ve got to start somewhere. Learn more about Gravy, or download the app

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Do you have ideas on ways a platform like Gravy can improve the homebuying ecosystem? Let's connect