Real Estate Headlines: Modsy, CurbCall, Nerdwallet and more

A startup, Modsy, is seeking to partner with real estate agents and brokers
Uses 3-D technology to help people envision a new design and furniture layers for rooms that fir their preferences
Users snap photos of rooms and indicate preferences and then Modsy sends back virtually staged versions of images
They will also make it easy to users to purchase furniture that appear in the photos

Home sales and prices will see a healthy growth but at a slower pace than 2015
Millennials will still be a dominant force this year again as well as Gen Xers and older boomers thinking about retirement
Builders will focus on more affordable prices points
Higher mortgage rates will affect high-cost markets the most
Already unaffordable rents will go up more than home prices

CurbCall has created a technology to help brokers “Uberize” their real estate websites that lets consumers request showings just like hailing an Uber
Prospective buyers who visit websites that have embedded CurbCall’s showings on demand tool can request instant showings from listing pages on real estate websites
Differentiates between a contact form but it connects buyers with agents who are nearby and are free to handle showing requests
Agents have an app just like Uber drivers and can make themselves free or busy and get notified when a buyer wants to view a home near them

NerdWallet, a finance site, is now helping consumers choose an agent based on how good they are at selling homes, not because of word-of-mouth
OpenHouse is an agent-matching and listing search service that is partnering with NerdWallet which will link to an agent-matching tool
They match agents with consumers based on agents’ transaction history sourced from multiple listing services (MLSs), using criteria including price range, school district, and demographics

Real estate headlines on The Bulletin: Modsy, trends, CurbCall and NerdWallet