Curbed's Jeff Andrews takes a look a new Charlotte, N.C.-based startup that's represents both home buyers and sellers and provides a guaranteed offer to facilitate all-cash home transactions, in exchange for a 1.95% fee. Dubbed Ribbon, the company is backed by venture capital firms NFX, Bain Capital, Greylock, and NYCA.
“We’re taking that single value proposition that a lot of these institutions and iBuyers have, which is access to capital, and we’re democratizing that capital for the benefit of consumers instead of using it for corporate profits,” said Ribbon CEO Shaival Shah. “Cash discounts that consumers earn from our program flow directly back to the consumer. Based on our early deal volume, customers are seeing an average of 5 percent savings to the purchase price by using Ribbon.”
It’s no wonder then that when armed with an all-cash offer on a home, the offer is 97% more likely to be accepted, according to Redfin. Cash offers remove much of the time and uncertainty associated with obtaining a mortgage for the transaction, allowing sellers to move in short order and on coordinated timelines.
With one economist calling this spring “the most competitive housing market in recorded history,” all-cash offers have become a trump card for the wealthy in home-bidding wars that have erupted all over the country. But Ribbon, a startup that launched last week, wants to give the cash-offer advantage to everyone.
