If you are like a lot of people, you may vacillate between a desire to invest passively in real estate and doubts about how effective it really is. After all, real estate remains one of the strongest investment opportunities, yet nothing is ever guaranteed and the barrier to entry remains high. If you are on the fence, then you will be interested to learn about Techvestor, co-founded by COO Sabrina Guler and CEO Sief Khafagi, two people who get it: they understand that there simply must be a better way to know where to invest and when. They used their engineering skills to create Techvestor’s institutional grade, proprietary rental platform, which analyzes over 18MM data points monthly and identifies the best investments (and those to avoid). If you are still doubtful, then consider this: Techvestor has a multimillion-dollar portfolio with 120+ properties and underwrites over 100K properties each month. It is all because Guler and Khafagi are committed to taking the mystery out of investing in STRs.
The Beginning: How Techvestor Began Its Rise to the Top of STRs
Guler and Khafagi are both problem-solvers and ex-techies who enjoy taking an idea from conception all the way to full-blown success. Prior to Techvestor, Guler was at Apple, where as its Engineering Project Manager, she used her experience and instincts to grow the Airpods line into a multi-billion dollar revenue stream. At Facebook, Khafagi earned the respect of his peers by scaling its second-largest engineering organization and identifying top talent.
Guler shares that while she enjoyed her job at Apple, she had other aspirations as well. “I had started investing in single-family homes and transforming them into short-term rental properties for Airbnb,” she says. “It became such a lucrative hobby that I began looking into the implications to pursuing this full-time.”
She says that as she invested and began to see significant returns, she had friends and colleagues who were interested in investing but held back due to the many complexities of the process. “There is a lot involved,” she admits. “You need to find potentially successful properties in high-demand locations, and go through renovation, design and actually operate profitably. It’s not easy. There are many steps to overcome prior to enjoying a truly passive income.”
Guler and Khafagi came up with the concept of a company that would simplify the process and help people jump over those hurdles.
The Technology: How Techvestor Streamlines the Real Estate Investment Process
Guler says that the key to Techvestor’s success lies in two factors: its team and its software platform. “We got really specific and designed a 16-point strategy for analyzing the potential of both a property and its location,” Khafagi states.
Guler and Khafagi also gave Techvestor another advantage: it’s 100% vertically integrated, handling everything from acquisition to design to management.
Techvestor’s software was designed to pinpoint the right properties to be added to the company’s portfolio. Khafagi explains that its technology means they know what to buy, where to buy it, how to best finance it, how to operate it, if the property is in a sustainable market, and what realistic growth looks like. Of course, humans make the final decisions.
The Success: Techvestor Grows into an Industry Giant
With over $60MM and 120+ properties across 10+ markets, Techvestor is accomplishing the goals that Guler and Khafagi have set for it. Next, they’re setting their targets on building a $100MM+ portfolio and eventually, a $1B portfolio.
The Opportunity: Short-Term Rentals and Passive Income
Guler says that one of the biggest advantages of Techvestor is how easily individuals can invest passively in STRs.
“Before we designed our platform, there were so many barriers to investing in this asset class, but we have eliminated them,” she explains. “That means STRs are wide open for anyone. When you remember how many people are staying in short-term rentals for vacations or even work and how early we are to STR investments, then you see how exciting these times really are for all investors.”
