FLIPT, a new Seattle-based real estate portal, wants to make it easy for real estate investors to evaluate the moneymaking potential of single-family homes in markets around the U.S.
For each property in its database, populated by listings from a handful of aggregators, FLIPT uses an algorithm with data from county records and other sources to develop scores on a 0-100 scale in four categories: “Fix & Flip,” “Buy & Hold,” “Rent Out” and “FLIPT score.”
The higher the score, the more promising the investment potential for a property.
Screen shot of a search results page on FLIPT.
The “Fix & Flip” score rates a property on its short-term investment outlook by assessing its age, foreclosure status and condition, among other factors.
“Buy & Hold” rates a property’s longer-term investment potential using, in part, the home’s estimated rate of appreciation.
“Rent Out” scores how lucrative a property would be as a rental based on location, number of bedrooms and other factors.
The “FLIPT Score” rates a home’s overall investment prospects.
Key elements to the scores include location, employment, jobs, school ratings, home value growth or decline in the region, and any repairs the home may need, FLIPT CEO Andrey Nokhrin said.
FLIPT is an offshoot of BuildersCloud, a Bellevue, Washington-based startup that helps builders manage projects digitally. BuildersCloud — where Nokhrin also serves as CEO — raised $1.1 million last August.
At launch, FLIPT tallies scores and tabulates data only on for-sale listings, but it plans to include data on off-market homes as well, to give homeowners insight into when a good time to sell, renovate or rent out their home might be, Nokhrin said.
A portion of FLIPT’s scoring algorithms are made up of something FLIPT calls “Computer Vision,” which estimates the home’s condition by analyzing listing photos and other data, Nokhrin said.
FLIPT wants to simplify the plethora of real estate information now available to sellers and investors alike, Nokhrin said.
The scores are a step in that direction, he said. Zillow, Trulia, realtor.com and a host of other portals have built sites with rich data, but there’s no quick-and-easy way to make sense of it.
A listing on Zillow, for example, currently features a home value estimate, a rent estimate, an estimate of the home’s value up to a year ahead, the home’s price and sale history (including a translation into price per square foot), tax history, monthly mortgage payment estimate, property tax estimate (where applicable), and a summary of the home’s value relative to the median home value in the ZIP code.
The FLIPT page for the same home shows how the startup aims to simplify the data and also where it falls short at the moment.
Currently, FLIPT property pages estimate a price for the home based on the site’s algorithms, an image of the home, its location on a map, its basic info like size, age, make-up, a range of list prices (low, suggested and high), and a one-year value forecast. Soon a chart will be available that compares the home’s appreciation outlook with similar homes in other areas.
Nokhrin says the site will also soon give users a glimpse at some of the raw data behind a home’s scores when they click on them.
Sample FLIPT agent ad.
Like Zillow and Trulia, the site will generate revenue by selling ads to agents by ZIP code on a subscription basis. “FLIPT Pro” agent advertisers can use a simple tool to build a display ad that includes an image they upload, their phone number, brokerage, name, location and title.
The pricing for one of five slots in a ZIP code depends on its demand and size. The regular price for a slot in Seattle’s 98053 ZIP code is $90 per month, for example.
FLIPT currently has two iOS mobile apps: one for agents, which helps pros calculate properties’ ROI on the go, and another for consumers, which surfaces the top home investment opportunities in a market.
Editor’s note: FLIPT’s website has been taken offline to address issues that led it to crash frequently over the past few days, FLIPT CEO Andrey Nokhrin told Inman News. It should be up again in the next couple of weeks, he said.
