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Byron Lazine and Nicole White are two agents in Connecticut who give us their thoughts on the week’s news every Friday in “The Real Word,” a weekly video column on Inman. This week
This week, Lazine and White discuss Brad Inman’s take on the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, Plunk’s impact on the real estate industry and Elon Musk’s future Texas fiefdom.
Topic No. 1: Inman says SVB sped up the pace of innovation
This week, Brad Inman wrote about his personal experience with Silicon Valley Bank and how, in his view, they sped up innovation for start-ups and entrepreneurs in the tech industry. While Lazine and White recognize the positive role that SVB played in the industry, they believe that the problem was the high-risk practices the bank engaged in.
Lazine questions how large entities with vast resources didn’t have a better sense of SVP’s practices and didn’t have their finances better distributed. He and White then reviewed the importance of regional banks to offer buyers multiple options for their mortgage needs.
Topic No. 2: Plunk shakes up the real estate industry
Plunk, the world’s first, and currently only, real-time AI property valuation platform, is partnering with other tech companies to provide real-time, comprehensive home projects to identify renovation options with the greatest ROI. They’re tracking more than 104 million properties.
White said that this speaks to the ongoing appraisal industry problems and said that tools like this might turn out to be disruptors in that segment. This could potentially be a good tool for investors and real estate agents who want to work with investors.
Topic No. 3: Elon Musk is building a Texas fiefdom
Just east of Austin, Texas, Musk is planning to build a town featuring new streets, recreational facilities, a school and subsidized housing for Tesla Inc., SpaceX and the Boring Co. employees. Lazine and White said this isn’t unusual since many corporate and financial leaders have created or developed communities. What’s interesting, however, is that Musk plans to subsidize housing which is a boon for employee retention, especially with the crisis in housing affordability.
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