RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Real estate startup Knock is now assisting home buyers and sellers in the Triangle after announcing their intentions to expand into the Triangle as the company’s third market earlier this year. Knock also operates in Atlanta and Charlotte.

Knock

“We’re incredibly excited to bring consumers convenience, certainty and cost savings through our revolutionary new approach,” says Sean Black, co-Founder and CEO of Knock. “Our Home Trade-In program is life-changing for people who are buying and selling at the same time. We manage the entire complex process for them, help them unlock the equity in their existing home in order to make a successful offer on their dream home, and so much more.”

Knock’s strategy:  It purchases customers’ new homes on their behalf, moves them in, and then sells their existing homes for them on the open market with the goal of making real estate transactions more simple – and more certain.

The firm has already begun working with several home buyers and sellers in the Triangle, said Black, which he believes is one of the hottest real estate markets in the country with home prices up 11 percent year-over-year across the region.

Knock launched in Charlotte in February, and has already worked with more than 400 home buyers and sellers, said Black. They’ve hired staff in each location, including three in the Triangle, and plan to continue to hire home preparation specialists and local real estate market experts (Knock calls them “Licensed Local Experts” rather than the more traditional “agent”) in the Triangle.

“I’m thrilled to be joining Knock because I believe the company will truly help people get their dream home in the Triangle’s difficult market,” said Madeline Stephens, a Knock Licensed Local Expert who operates in Raleigh.

Real Estate Market is Hot and Getting Hotter

If Raleigh wins the bid to bring Amazon HQ2 to the region, home prices and rental prices are expected to increase, a recent report found. The same outcome may occur with the additional of a new Apple facility in the region, the report found, and rental prices and home prices would almost surely expand if both projects come to fruition.

“Given the low vacant property rate, an influx of thousands of new workers would put upward pressure on both rents and home prices in the market,” said Daren Blomquist, senior vice president for real estate analysis firm ATTOM Data Solutions.

The Triangle housing market already is hot with the average selling price of a home surging more than 5 percent year-over-year to $302,566 across the 16 counties included in the Triangle Multiple Listing Service.

“It is likely that, as with other economic development and new companies entering the region, the selection of Amazon for HQ2 or Apple’s growth in the Triangle would contribute to the increase in home prices the area is already seeing,” Knock’s Black forecast.

Sean Black

But Black isn’t convinced this increase would occur overnight, and thus may not be as severe as some analysts are predicting. Black anticipates that companies like Apple and Amazon will select the Triangle due to the quality of talent that already exists in the market, and that it will be in the best interest of these companies to hire from the talent pool that already lives in the area.

Additionally, Black expects an influx of new construction that would add supply to the market and offset the demand due to a rising population, which may also elect to rent in the Triangle rather than purchase homes.

But that’s not to say that the Triangle real estate market isn’t hot, said Black. In fact, the market appears to be gaining traction and heating up.

“Economic development is driving rapid population growth,” said Black.

For instance, the Raleigh-Cary metro service area saw an 18 percent population increase from 2010 to 2017. As an average of 40 people move into Wake County each day, with 78 percent of these new residents moving from out of state, the real estate market is experiencing a rapid increase in demand.

“Many of these new entries are coming from markets like New York or San Francisco with higher home prices and salaries, and who already have the cash in hand from the sale of their old home,” said Black. “Combine that with all the investors interested in the area, and home buyers are competing with a lot of demand where’s there’s very little inventory.”

There are also students graduating from the Triangle’s universities that are choosing to stay in the area due to all the job growth, said Black, many of whom may be looking to purchase a home instead of rent.