Benjamin Labra, Houm: Streamlining the Real Estate industry in Latin America, Ep 148 LatamList title: Benjamin Labra, Houm: Fixing Latin America’s broken real estate industry, Ep 148

<p><span style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 24pt;">Benjamin Labra, Houm: Streamlining the Real Estate industry in Latin America, Ep 148</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Latin America’s real estate market is opaque, broken and bureaucratic. The home buying process in the region can take up to a year, and even just renting an apartment requires having another property as collateral in some countries. There are many pain points in the industry that are being unaddressed by the market.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That’s why Benjamin Labra is looking to fix the broken real estate industry in Latin America with Houm, an end-to-end solution helping property owners rent, manage and sell their properties through an online marketplace.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I sat down with Benjamin to talk about how he’s tackling some of the industry’s deepest-rooted problems and streamlining the home buying and renting process in the region. We also discuss his experience at Y Combinator and how to build and maintain company culture once you go remote.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Real estate runs in the family</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Real estate runs through Benjamin’s veins. He comes from two generations of Chilean real estate developers and was practically raised on construction sites and he always knew he wanted to do something on his own. For four years he managed his own private equity real estate firm and eventually decided to jump into tech. </span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Learn more about Benjamin’s journey into tech in this episode of</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Crossing Borders</span></em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Houm: allowing apartment rentals without a cosigner</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">One of the ways in which Houm’s solution is truly revolutionary for the real estate market is that the