On a mission to make trading-in your home as easy as trading-in your car, Knock announced the expansion of its revolutionary Home Trade-in platform to Phoenix, the company’s first market in the Western half of the U.S. and its sixth market to date.
“We’re excited about this significant milestone in Knock’s expansion, and about the real difference we believe we will make for home buyers and sellers in this competitive market,” said Sean Black, co-founder and CEO of Knock. “In Phoenix, options have been limited to traditional methods, which leave sellers who are also buying with uncertainty, stress and inconvenience, and new home flipper-like companies that trap them into giving up a significant portion of their equity. The Knock Home Trade-in solves for all this and more.”
71% of home sellers are also buying their next home at the same time. Launched by founding team members of Trulia like Black, Knock buys the seller’s new home on their behalf with its cash, helping them win bidding wars and getting a 3 to 5 percent discount, so they can move in before Knock represents them in the sale of their previous home on the open market where it is exposed to competition. Knock’s data science and technology-driven platform, combined with the insights and guidance of its team of local real estate experts native to Phoenix, make for an advanced, full-service solution.
“Knock is going to change the game not only for buyers and sellers, but also the overall Metro Phoenix real estate industry,” said Angel Johnson, who recently joined Knock as a Phoenix Licensed Local Expert, or Knock agent. “There’s hasn’t been anything like this out here where you have an entire team helping you throughout the process the way Knock does.”
Johnson, who has been practicing real estate in the Phoenix area for over 15 years, is one of several full-time local real estate experts Knock hired ahead of the launch. The company is continuing to hire for its Phoenix team, as well as multiply the two dozen local agents and contractors it has already recruited in Phoenix to join its proprietary network.
While many national reports speculate the housing market is cooling, Phoenix is still very much a sellers’ market, with home prices up 6.1 percent year over year and demand exceeding supply. It will continue to be competitive: Phoenix added 76,900 jobs in December alone, and Arizona is the fourth fastest growing U.S. state, with people from northern states and California attracted to its booming economy, lower cost of living and wide variety of nature and outdoor activities.
At the same time, signs are pointing toward buyers increasingly being deterred by overvalued home prices: In January closed sales were down 12.6 percent year over year, and listings under contract were down 15 percent. In 2018, 66 percent of listings that did sell did so for less than their original asking price, according to the latest National Knock Deals Forecast. Knock can help local buyers compete with out-of-state non-contingent offers, getting them into a new home faster and effectively freeing up more inventory. Knock can also provide support to customers in its other markets of Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham, Dallas and Fort Worth, who are looking to sell there and buy in Phoenix as its population continues to grow.
