In this Weekly Radar, we cover:

• Compass merged with Christie’s and @properties in a $444M deal, consolidating two luxury brokerages.
• 75 & Sunny outlined VC funding milestones to guide founders' 2025 fundraising efforts.
• Greystar’s modular apartments are intended to cut costs and time but lack design innovation.
• EasyKnock shut down amid lawsuits, highlighting customer acquisition challenges in home equity models.
• According to StatisticUrban, Toronto and NYC are the top cities regarding high-rise construction North America.
• The GEM Proptech Index was down 2.05% last week.

As always, links surrounded by the ❇️ emoji indicate exclusive GEM Diamond content. If you would like to have access to all links, please consider GEM Diamond membership.

Geek Estate Blog Recap:

A Successful Partnership: @properties Christie’s International Real Estate and Courted

[This article was originally posted on Courted.io] In the competitive world of real estate that we operate in, staying ahead of the curve is essential. That’s why @properties Christie’s International Real Estate turned to Courted to enhance their recruiting and retention processes. Kevin Van Eck,…

GeekEstate BlogGeek Estate Team

Unified CRM, Marketing, and Transaction Management for Real Estate Professionals

[Note from editor: The “Mastermind Showcase” highlights companies and news from members of GEM Diamond. Today’s showcase: Rechat] Rechat is an AI-powered brokerage solution that centralizes CRM, marketing automation, and transaction management capabilities. For marketing, agents create and distribute content across various client communication channels,…

GeekEstate BlogGeek Estate Team

PropTech’s Collective Job Board

The Foundation for Innovation in Real Estate launched a job board, with almost 4,000 open jobs already included from more than 100 companies. The goal is to “catalyze stewardship and sustainable innovation in real estate and construction tech...[with] a job board that serves the ENTIRE industry.” Like Matt Knight, I get those same inquiries from people interested in…

GeekEstate BlogDrew Meyers

REACH Canada 2025 Cohort Announced

REACH operates a variety of accelerator programs around the globe, created and operated by Second Century Ventures and backed by NAR. The REACH Canada program offers education, mentorship and exposure for technology companies working to scale their businesses across Canada and expand into adjacent markets,…

GeekEstate BlogGeek Estate Team

A Unified Approach to Data Integration and Operational Efficiency

[Note from editor: The “Mastermind Showcase” highlights companies and news from members of GEM Diamond. Today’s showcase: PremiseHQ] Premise HQ offers an AI-powered platform that consolidates data from multiple sources, such as documents, forms, and IoT devices, into one unified system to provide actionable insights…

GeekEstate BlogGeek Estate Team

Transmission Recap:

Previously, we brought you GEM's latest Biz Intel: Proptech Earnings Radar for Q3 2024. Before that, Rivers Pearce argued that the evolution driven by AI from “point and click” to “describe and done” is poised to finally unjam the current residential real estate tech adoption impasse.

REAL ESTATE

LUXURY BROKERAGE UNION
By: Drew Meyers

Compass is acquiring Christie’s International Real Estate and @properties in a merger valued at $444 million, according to Inman. The deal is said to be $150 in cash, $294 million in equity, and a $50 million "collar" that would "protect shareholders depending on the price of Compass stock a year after the closing." Subject to approval, it means the number 1 and number 8 brokerages by sales volume would be under the same umbrella.

While I don't buy any of Compass' CCP mumbo-jumbo, Christie’s International Real Estate (and @properties) is without doubt a nice strategic fit for Compass. One luxury powerhouse joining another luxury powerhouse.  Both Compass and @properties were leveraging pocket listings back in 2018, it's no real surprise to see their leaders get along. Can the combined entity overcome common sense to rid the industry of CCP? I sincerely hope not, but the chances such an occurrence will happen have risen.

STARTUPS

VC FUNDRAISING MILESTONES
By: Drew Meyers

How much revenue and headcount do you need to raise a Pre-seed or Seed round? Or, a Series A? To give founders a framework of where they fit in the fundraising stack, the team at 75 & Sunny put together a slide that lays out funding type/size and the corresponding approximate valuation, revenue, and headcount.