fvryan

We look for properties that are in high tourist and vacation destinations. With this model we think a lot more people can invest together, in some cases 500-1,000 in one property. Right now those same vacation properties are traditionally owned by one person.

We like to partner with current Airbnb operators and they also help facilitate the day to day management. There is a "Partner with Arrived" link on our header

Hey! The code is entered during checkout when you select how many shares you want. And I should have put all caps "HACKERNEWS"

For anyone interested in giving it a try, here is a signup code for $50 in shares in any of the properties: "hackernews". Thanks!

Good feedback, thank you! We've also started adding third-party valuation reports to properties and they should include more of the detailed property information. We're also working on incorporating more of the expense items. Will get it added!

It's shared across the owners of the fund. All parties receive their equal share based on amount invested. This is also true for the risk of any price declines.

Re Q1: It's not a requirement of the model and the majority of our Residents are not planning on staying in the same property for more than 3 years. We can support buying out the property they live in if they wanted though.

Re Q2: We include a fixed monthly rate for two years and a rental cap for future renewals in the lease agreement.

> Can customer choose a new house of their dream and Arrived will buy it? Or will customer just can choose from Arrived house list?

Both options are possible. We have a set of available homes and we continue to buy homes as we grow. Residents are part of the process for new homes we buy into the network.

> Does customer have to sign the contract and make initial investment before Arrived buys the house?

Our Residents go under contract once we've acquired the property, not before.

> Customer cannot buy the house in the end so how come does this platform makes customers feel like their own home? They're still paying monthly rent anyways

The model is a way to build investment exposure to real estate for individuals who want to own, but choose to rent for the flexibility to move over time. At the end of any lease term, Residents can decide to "cash out" their investment and buy a home if their lifestyle changes.

> And last but not least, how does Arrived calculate the amount of appreciation for the initial investment of customers? like how many percents?

We calculate appreciation through periodic third-party appraisals of our properties.

It depends on the initial investment size, if the initial investment is large enough then it will make up a larger portion. The projected annual returns are listed on the /invest page.

Thank you! This is exactly what we wanted as well :)

The Initial Investment and 7% of rent are two separate mechanisms that contribute to the ending investment value at the end of the term. Your initial investment will grow at an annual rate based on the performance of the fund + 7% of your rent will be contributed.

It's funny, this is what we were doing which led to the idea for the service. We were renting and investing in REITs and thought "what would a better version of this look like?"

One big difference is that we wanted to feel like an owner of the home we were living in. It carries some emotional appeal and as we got further into planning out the business found there are some tax and return benefits as well.

A few problems we ran into with REITs available to us: - You pay a premium (lower yield) for access to public market liquidity - Public REITs are quite large and not really a great hedge against single family home values (they're invested in multiple property types and residential REITs are often focused on multi-family) - Market sentiment can change the value in an instant, and as a result, share price is not always based on the value of the properties. Not as big of an issue with long-term investing, but can be a problem during periods of time you may want to access the funds (like the end of a lease).

We've researched many co-operative ownership models and some of the more common "rent to own" models that others sub-posted. The main difference with Arrived is that members, and their investment, are not tied to a single home.

> have you defined what would happen if Arrived went bankrupt?

I posted this above, but thought it might be helpful to repost here. Arrived the company and Arrived the fund (which owns the homes) are separate entities. Arrived the company is the manager of the fund, but the fund assets are protected in it's own entity. Members of the service invest as LPs in the fund and would have the option to exchange their shares based on the income and value of the homes. If all fund LPs wanted to exchange their shares, the fund may need to sell its ownership position in the portfolio of homes and each member would receive their share accordingly.

> would I buy homeowners insurance or renters insurance?

The Arrived fund carries homeowners insurance and our members carry renters insurance.

> Who has authority/responsibility for major work on the house?

Currently improvements on the house can be performed by the member with approval from Arrived. Members can submit an improvement project request and go from there. For major home maintenance items: New Roof, HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical, etc., these are the responsibility of Arrived.

That's awesome! Would love to get your take/feedback. Email is in my bio if you want to discuss and I can share more on where we're at.

Arrived the company and Arrived the fund (which owns the homes) are separate entities. Arrived the company is the manager of the fund, but the fund assets are protected in it's own entity. Members of the service invest as LPs in the fund and would have the option to exchange their shares based on the income and value of the homes. If all fund LPs wanted to exchange their shares, the fund may need to sell its ownership position in the portfolio of homes and each member would receive their share accordingly.

How do you make money? - We make money from fees for managing the the real estate fund and properties, currently 1% of AUM (assets under management) and 10% of rent.

What happens to the home at the end of the period? - At the end of the initial lease term, residents have the option to renew their lease, move to a new Arrived home, or move out of the platform. At that point they can either continue contributing to their account or "cash out" and use the funds they've accrued. We haven't built in an option to buy the specific home outright although it's likely an option we'd support.

What happens if the fund doesn't make enough or there's another market downturn? - Good question and we think a lot about downside protection. Typically a fund "not making enough" is based on the fund not being able to pay it's debt service payments. To protect against this and a possible market downturn right now, our fund owns the title to the homes and we aren't taking on debt. So our fund should be resilient through market changes compared to a leveraged fund.

> As it stands, I would be interested since I like the idea of being able to move from any property to another property without negotiating a new lease or contract - it means I'm not locked to any particular economic region.

^ This is one aspect of housing we think is missing and that we're trying to support. More and more people are ready to build home ownership, but still want the flexibility to move homes or cities. So they get torn between renting or buying. By building the ownership position in a real estate fund, instead of a single home, that ownership position can move with you to new homes.

Re Rent: Monthly rent is set based on the value of the home a member moves into and local rental rates for the area. It should be in-line with what you'd expect to pay in rent for a similar home outside of Arrived and is transparent to members at the outset.

Re Profits: Members participate as LPs in our real estate fund and receive a percentage of rent and appreciation which adds to their investment over their lease term. We take a long-term buy and hold position in the homes so appreciation is based on re-appraisals of the homes over time to incorporate changes in value.

And thank you for the feedback on an FAQ, we're working on it!

Hi HN, I'm Ryan, one of the co-founders of Arrived. Feel free to ask us anything about the service and I'll try to answer some of the questions that have already been posted. And of course all of your feedback is deeply appreciated!

Ditto. More than happy to listen and talk through experiences. We've certainly had our fair share. Can Skype or meet up in SF, email in profile. YC alum 3yrs into enterprise software startup.

Will these sites want Twitter to have firehose access to their data? For example Tumblr, Foursquare, Wordpress? They also offer Facebook data, but it is a managed public API connection.

Here's a graphical look: http://blog.datarank.com/recent-twitter-spam-behavior-quanti...

Appears to have started on March 31st and has affected > 100K Tweets. It also appears to run between the hours of 2PM and 10PM PST, peaking at 7PM each day.

Startups perform best when they focus on making money in one specific way. The model you choose should be based on the economics of the software, for example how much it costs to support additional users.

played through the game as well, very well done!

page views first, facts later seems to be the trend :/

really enjoyed the TC cribs bits. onward and upward!

But the best mobile social app sites now show the hand animated and interacting with the phone.

It's already happening, just not in the way sci-fi movies portray it. It's software.

You asked when will robots become barbers and cashiers? They aren't being built for that purpose because they are much more efficient at mental challenges than physical ones.

Is is appropriate to use AI and robotics for subtracting $2.34 from $10.00 and handing over the change at McDonalds? No. It is more appropriately deployed in a payments company to crunch huge amounts of data looking for fraud.

Look at LegalZoom's software and how much it has replaced the need for lawyers when dealing with legal documents.

The advantages to software deployed over the web, to physical robotics are obvious. Software can be everywhere at once and is cheap to replicate. It can be updated and patched easily. The "brain" is not susceptible to the dangers of traversing around and is kept safe and constantly backed up.

I think software is replacing the sci-fi robotics we've seen in movies. But there are still interesting companies working on modern robotics, In fact Anybots is run in the same office as YC and http://www.kivasystems.com/ is another great example.

If you are concerned about robotics replacing "people" in jobs, then rest assured barbers and cashiers are safe and sound. It is scientists, lawyers, doctors, and engineers who should be concerned.

Another interesting thing to watch is whether software can be creative and compete with designers, artists, and writers.

love mindsnacks! glad to see japanese under dev

Negative buzz was unlikely the goal of any of these ads. Depending on the brand it may matter more or less. Godaddy for instance has all the negative buzz they need.