Amidst Pandemic-Driven Urban Exodus, Welcome Homes Launches First Fully Digital Home Buying Experience, Bolstered by a $5.35M Seed Round
Seed round syndicates nineteen investors with Global Founders Capital leading, underscoring the market need for fully online home buying solution as relocations surge
Oct 20, 2020, 10:00 ET
NEW YORK, Oct. 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Welcome Homes announces its official launch as the first fully-online home building, customization and purchasing experience of its kind, with $5.35M in seed financing led by Global Founders Capital. Welcome Homes will use the capital infusion to expand into new markets, while also bolstering its product, sales and marketing initiatives to streamline the home-buying and customization process, cutting by 50% the time it takes to build and move into a dream home, to six months.
Buying a home is considered by many Americans, about 40%, as the most stressful event in modern life with the complexity of finding the right location, managing construction companies, and all the necessary legal and financial protocols. Over the last few months this has only been exacerbated as city dwellers flee urban areas into neighboring suburbs due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its shelter-in-place orders. Welcome Homes aims to alleviate the stressors of building a home by allowing buyers to decide on their next nest from the comfort of their home. Then Welcome Homes handles the rest from breaking ground to managing the project and delivering it on time.
U.S. mortgage rates have also hit a record low with low interest rates contributing to a surge in home buying.
"People are desperately seeking new homes, but there hasn't been a solution in the market that puts this within reach, so they're settling for existing inventory on the market," said Welcome Homes CEO and Founder, Alec Hartman. "We believe we can dramatically change new home purchasing – customers can get a turnkey, newly built home with us for nearly the same price of the existing home next door, and they can do this all online."
Welcome Homes is entirely self-serve and removes the in-person obstacle of attending open houses and engaging with realtors face-to-face. Instead, the experience is replaced with an entirely online process that can deliver a custom new home without ever having to see it in-person. Within the platform, the users get the opportunity to tailor a home to their preferences from scratch – choosing everything from the plot of land to the moldings to the counter finishes. Whatsmore, typical new residential construction takes at least eight to 12 months to complete, yet Welcome Homes is able to deliver its modern, luxury offering within six.
"We believe the team at Welcome Homes is in the best position to create a game changing product at scale in a legacy real estate industry that is ready for change," said Don Stalter, Partner at Global Founders Capital. "Welcome Homes is solving a clear problem by making it easier and more accessible for anyone to build a new home."
Welcome Homes' executive team has proven experience in scaling successful companies, previously founding DigitalOcean, Inc., a unicorn cloud infrastructure provider. In addition to Global Founders Capital, Welcome Homes' seed round featured participation from 8VC, Adapt Ventures, Elefund, V1 VC, Kokopelli Capital, One Way Ventures, Founders First Capital Partners, AAVCF3, Arkin Holdings, Josh Buckley, Foundamental, Soma Capital, Gaingels, Fission Ventures and Tuesday Capital. Angels involved in the round include Jon Lonsdale, Qasar Younis and Lior Prosor.
Homes are now available for purchase in the Tri-State area, including Westchester County, NY, Greenwich, CT, and Morris and Bergen Counties, NJ. According to a study by Miller Samuel Real Estate Appraisers & Consultants, home sales in Manhattan dropped by 56 percent compared to last year, while they increased by 44 percent in suburban counties located around the city. The increase was 112 percent in Westchester. Other bustling real estate markets, such as Austin, TX and Miami, FL, are soon to come.
For more details or to purchase your own home, please visit www.welcomehomes.com. First 25 buyers will receive $10,000 in upgrade credits to build their dream home online.
About Welcome Homes
Welcome Homes is a first-of-its-kind, online only residential real estate platform that aims to turn home buyers into home builders by creating a more seamless and price transparent home buying process. The platform enables users to buy and move into a brand-new, modern home within six months. Welcome Homes offers homes priced less than existing homes in the same market and will completely streamline the entire process from land selection to customization to financing and construction. Currently available in the Tri-State area, including Westchester County, NY, Greenwich, CT, and Bergen and Morris Counties, NJ. Welcome Homes will soon be in areas around the U.S. For more information, visit www.welcomehomes.com.
Contact Information:
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