Teacher-Focused Homebuying Startup Lands $7.5M

A startup called Landed that helps teachers buy houses has raised $7.5 million in a Series A funding round, according to reports.

Landed helps teachers with down payment assistance, and wants to make sure that teachers don’t leave their jobs because they can’t find stable housing options.

“Our mission is to help these people build financial security and help them remain committed to their communities,” Landed co-founder Alex Lofton said. “We try to stay flexible to people’s realities. We don’t require people to buy in any particular city.”

Landed said it has helped 200 teachers so far in areas like San Francisco Bay, Seattle and Denver. The most money the company doles out is $120,000, for the Bay area, but Lofton said most people don’t take that much. There’s also no income restriction like with certain government assistance programs.

“A lot of people we work with make a bit too much money to qualify for those programs,” Lofton said.

Landed is in charge of the funds it sets up, and offers the money in exchange for a piece of the house’s appreciated value.

Lofton said he imagines the real estate market, especially in the Bay area with a number of tech company IPOs on the horizon, will become even more difficult to navigate.

“With all of these economic booms in a market that’s already really supply-constrained with housing, it will be even more challenging,” he said.

Because of that, Landed will continue to expand and diversify.

“(IPOs) will affect us but it won’t end our mission,” Lofton said. “For the community that we’re a part of, in our backyard, it does make us all here a bit nervous.”

Landed plans to use the money to move to new cities and offer services to teachers that work outside of K-12.

“I’ve followed the team at Landed for several years in their mission of providing more equitable access to homeownership to some of the most important community members – our educators and teachers,” said Initialized Capital partner Kim Mai-Cutler. “Not only is Landed attacking a profound issue affecting teacher retention in metros and school districts throughout the country, this is a promising market opportunity to build a trusted brand and institution to help essential professionals achieve their lifetime financial goals.”