By Riley Kaminer
The US housing market is short as many as 7.3 million homes, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. One of the major issues is that it is very difficult to get financing to build homes, particularly for home building companies, who are responsible for constructing 75% of new US homes. There are many reasons why it is challenging to secure this capital, from the demise of regional banks to the rise of fraud, inefficiencies, and the lack of transparency in the construction supply chain.
Miami-based Rigor hopes that its new platform, Home Construction Collective, will be part of the solution. The platform enables users to fractionally invest in new home construction. The idea is that this source of funding will lessen the housing crisis by making it easier to raise the capital necessary to build new homes.
The startup has identified Orlando as its first market. “Central Florida is the recipient of 1,000 people a week,” co-founder Erich Wasserman told Refresh Miami of the company’s decision to launch there. “Asset prices continue to appreciate despite the higher interest rate environment.”
Home Construction Collective’s UX is straightforward. Once users sign up, they can choose a project that interests them. Technically, they are buying shares in an LLC that owns the new construction project. This entity is responsible for managing the construction and eventually selling the property. When the property sells, the investor gets a pro-rata share of the proceeds.
According to Wasserman, the whole process can take between 12-18 months, or potentially as few as eight months. The Home Construction Collective platform currently has completely funded one property and has two more that are actively seeking funds. Through Rigor overall, the company has built or is building 16 homes.
Wasserman co-founded Rigor in 2021 alongside CEO Isaac Lidsky, a former child actor and two-time Harvard grad who clerked for two supreme court justices. Both are native Miamians, with Wasserman having studied classical piano at the New World School of the Arts.
The infrastructure underpinning Rigor’s platform is based on the blockchain. “It’s an extraordinary gift to humanity as an infrastructure layer,” said Wasserman. “It is a layer that is revolutionizing human coordination,” he added, noting that it removes intermediaries, promotes transparency, and creates efficiencies.
So what does Wasserman say to the blockchain skeptics? “There’s value created, and there are unique characteristics of digital assets that are compelling. We don’t talk about our web hosting provider any more. We need to get beyond the deep infatuation with acronyms and with words people barely understand and talk more about the real world implications of using this technology.”
Last year, Rigor raised a $3.5 million seed round to build their platform. Looking forward, Wasserman is excited by the prospect of listing more projects from more geographies on the platform and attracting new capital. “We’ve had three inbounds from prospective project sponsors: AKA developers from around the country who would like to take advantage of the infrastructure and the unique opportunity which is attracting new capital.”
Photo at top of post: From left: Dan Halperin, CTO; Isaac Lidsky, Cofounder & CEO; Julia Wasserman, COO; Erich Wasserman, Cofounder and President of BD.
READ MORE IN REFRESH MIAMI:
- Rigor lands $3.5M seed to build blockchain-based construction lending platform
- DigiBuild raises $1.3M seed extension, inks partnership deals with major construction companies
- Togal.AI lands top prize at eMerge, enabling growth of construction planning platform
- Pro Platforms raises $4.7M to build the digital tools to bring the construction industry into the 21st century
