Real estate tech startup Haus lands $7.1M seed funding to bring flexibility and affordability to home ownership

Haus, a real estate tech startup providing an entirely new way to navigate the real estate process and make home ownership more affordable, has raised $7.1 million in seed funding to make buying a home more affordable. Haus is new co-investment platform for home ownership. The company’s approach is unique to the real estate market, offering buyers more flexibility to buy and sell equity in their home in real time and 30 percent lower monthly payments on average.

In addition to this new co-investing model, the company is announcing funding and the addition of key investors and an advisor. New funding totals $4.125M in seed investment and $3M in debt capital for a total of $7.125M raised. Haus was founded at Expa by Garrett Camp, Co-Founder of Uber and serial entrepreneur. New investors participating in this round include Montage Ventures, RIT Capital Partners, Tim Ferriss, and several others. Additionally, Jesse Lucas, Uber’s first Head of Finance, is an advisor to the company.

Founded in 2016 by Garrett Camp, the San Francisco, California-based Haus is a real estate technology platform that equips homeowners with the tools, information and access to experts to help them sell their home on their own. Haus is part of an Expa Studio company, a global network of entrepreneurs helping each other build companies with offices in San Francisco, New York, and Vancouver.

Haus’s approach is unique to the real estate market, offering buyers more flexibility to buy and sell equity in their home in real time and 30 percent lower monthly payments on average. Rather than borrowing money from a lender, consumers can purchase a home in partnership with Haus. With this new co-investing model, monthly payments are 30% lower than traditional mortgages on average.

In a recent national survey, 68 percent of millennials said they regret purchasing a home, citing higher than expected fees upon purchase and hidden costs associated with owning a home. While at the same time the percentage of millennials owning a home is the lowest when compared to any previous generation, despite them being the largest group of home buyers. The burden of owning a home has reached a breaking point, and Haus is on a mission to change the system so that consumers do not have to borrow money from banks or take unfavorable loans.

“Millennials are being boxed out of the housing market with many being forced to delay buying a home because of a combination of personal student loan debt and skyrocketing costs associated with home ownership,” said Haus CEO Jonathan McNulty. “As a homeowner, I’ve experienced surprise fees and steep costs causing me to rethink the paradigm entirely. The gap in home ownership is only growing wider and new options are needed before we reach a point of no return.”

In less than a year since joining Haus as CEO, McNulty has broadened the company’s business, which started with free home selling, to a new co-investment model for home ownership. With this new approach, monthly payments are 30 percent lower than the traditional mortgage on average. For the first time, homeowners also have the flexibility to buy and sell equity in their largest asset in real time through Haus.

Since Haus is a co-investor and not a lender, you’re not borrowing money from a bank and taking on debt. Instead, Haus partners with home owners to share in the equity of the home. If the home value appreciates, as its partner, Haus benefits from the financial upside. While at the same time, if the home value depreciates, Haus helps shoulder the financial burden.

“The current real estate model has been broken for a long time,” said Matt Murphy, Partner at Montage Ventures, who led the Haus seed financing round. “Homeownership rates for people ages 25 to 34 is much lower than it should be. We are excited to partner with Haus to bring much needed relief to current homeowners and prospective buyers alike.”