Introducing A Year Of Lyft
In the past several years, Lyft and other ride-sharing companies have transformed what it’s like to live in cities around the world. From meeting up with friends, going to the airport, to commuting to work, ride-sharing has become a daily part of our lives, and even more so for the millennial generation. This transformation has been amplified in cities like Seattle, San Francisco, and Boston, where a large influx of technology employment has brought many residents who are young, tech-savvy, and prefer the ease and cost effective ways of ride sharing rather than bearing the cost of a car and driving themselves.
With the changing dynamics, these cities have seen increasing housing prices due to a simple economic concept: supply has remained flat while demand skyrocketed. Today, millennials are the #1 segment of home buyers in the US, and in these cities, a large contributor to the growth in demand has been the growth in population of well-paid tech industry workers. As a result, we often see 5, 10, and as much as 32 bids on houses in the markets.
Facing what is sometimes the seemingly impossible task of finding a home in these cities, we’ve had many clients frustrated by their limited options, which is compounded by general lack of public transit availability and their life-style choice to not own a car.
As we move forward, we believe these ride-sharing networks will be transformational as autonomous car networks become the norm. Lyft’s investments in autonomous driving will transform cities, and we believe will have a significant impact on real estate and the investments people are making today, in the next 5 years. In our estimation, today’s generation of home buyers will get to and from the properties they are buying today as a member of an autonomous car network.
That’s why today, we are announcing a new partnership with Lyft!
Should buyers have to buy a car or limit their property search only to areas that are walkable? No! Similarly, if buyers want to tour a home, should they have to find a time and place that both they and their real estate agent can meet to drive together to tour a home? Of course, not! Should buyers search for and analyze properties with the viewpoint where transportation is going and not where it is today? Yes!
On FlyHomes, buyers can now take free Lyft rides on home tours and earn Lyft credits when they buy their home! Lyft credits earned by buyers will be worth up to 50% of the commission FlyHomes earns as the buyers’ brokerage from the seller. So for example, for a $600,000 home purchase in Seattle, home buyers can earn up to $9,000 of Lyft credits, which is ironically equivalent to the average annual cost of car ownership in the U.S.. Lyft credits must be used within a year if $5K or fewer, within 18 months if $5–7.5K, and within 24 months if more than $7.5K of credits.
Cities are meant to be accommodating for all and we’re excited to play our part in making that possible for all home buyers with our new partnership, while also giving them a leg up in their home buying process and the option of earning Lyft credits with one of their biggest decisions in life!
