[Note from editor: The “Mastermind Showcase” highlights companies and news from members of the GEM. Today’s showcase: Avail.] Avail enables DIY landlords to easily manage their properties. Their product streamlines online rental listings, applications, lease templates, rental payments, maintenance requests, and tenant vetting. Scales with landlords…

In our latest real estate tech entrepreneur interview, we’re speaking with Naman Trivedi from WattBuy. Who are you and what do you do? My name is Naman Trivedi and I’m the CEO of WattBuy. I founded the company to help millions of Americans choose cheaper,…

Wednesday (May 13th) at 1:30 pst, Geek Estate is conducting a virtual discussion on the future of homeownership — facilitated by David Steckel from Setter. It is a discussion, not a webinar…. so limited to 15-20 participants. If you are a founder/operator working on a…

In our latest real estate tech entrepreneur interview, we’re speaking with Sean Harper from Kin. Without further ado… What do you do? Kin insures houses and condos. We are a technology company backed by top venture capitalists and insurance companies. While most insurers run on…

The purpose of Geek Estate’s mastermind community is two fold: Curate the world’s most innovative and diverse community of real estate creatives, doers, and pioneers. Make our members wildly successful in their careers building real estate companies. This week’s Geek Estate Mastermind newsletter (#32), I wrote about Hello…

Lemonade raised $120 million this week. When I saw they are doing peer to peer insurance, it caught my attention because home owners / renters insurance are both antiquated products in need of modernization. I poked around their website, and found this: How is Lemonade’s…

It’s pretty easy to figure out why NAR put out the ad above. Follow the money. Realtors don’t get paid when people rent. They only earn a commission when buyers buy homes. It’s not optimal, but I’m a renter. Always have been. Am I annoyed I’m not…

Let’s be clear. Amazon Key is a big, big deal — for many reasons. It hit Product Hunt today, and the comments touched on a couple major points worth noting. It’s a brilliant — yet extremely obvious –move given their massive Alexa/Echo investment into the smart home…

I think the new Echo Plus is a game changer for the Smart Home (a topic I’ve been writing about). I don’t have any “connected devices” in my home, so it’s hard for me to comment on how easy setup is. That said, in theory,…

When talking about Amazon and their strengths and weaknesses for coming out on top for the looming (massive) smart home opportunity — you have to include both Echo (hardware) and Alexa (software) in the equation. While they are intertwined now, that’s not going to remain the case. The…