Saw this company “UpandUp” had just raised a few hundred million in equity and debt from prominent VCs: https://upandup.co/founders-letter
Essentially as a renter, instead of a security deposit, you put two months worth of rent into a “wallet” that earns you some share of rental profits with the landlord (the startup) with the idea being that you can share in the upside of being a landlord as a renter https://upandup.co/faqs
But here’s the catch…now that you get to play landlord as a renter you also share all the repair and maintenance costs with the company! If you need repairs then your “wallet” will be deducted some portion of the costs on their terms.
And what happens to the wallet once you want to exit your lease? Well you can transfer it to another of their properties or cash out…but only for up to 90% of the value.
Is this the state of real estate and fintech innovation is this country now? This just sounds like a massive grift to push maintenance costs onto to renter while charging full rent prices under the guise of “sharing upside” when you could’ve just put extra savings into the S&P and not take on any of the repair liability as a renter.