Turning Chronic Renters Into Homeowners - Efri Argaman
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Episode Description
On this episode of the On The Rise Podcast, host Jeremy Dyer talks with Efri Argaman, founder and CEO of OwnEZ, a data-driven fintech company working to democratize homeownership. An economist who became an accidental landlord after the '07–'08 crisis, Efri built OwnEZ to convert "chronic renters" — people who can afford a home but are shut out of conventional lending — into homeowners. He explains why the credit system excludes gig workers, the self-employed, and thin-credit borrowers, how OwnEZ's algorithm underwrites on more relevant data, and why he calls his fund the "sexiest non-sexy investment" — a non-correlated, mortgage-backed vehicle yielding around 9%. Plus candid advice for parents and young buyers.
Summary
OwnEZ exists to turn chronic renters into homeowners.
Efri targets a large group of people who can afford a home on paper but are locked out of conventional lending. The company's mission is to be the "ignition" that starts these families on the path to ownership and equity.
An accidental landlord sparked the idea.
After buying rentals in hard-hit markets post-2009, Efri found himself fielding daily property-manager calls instead of enjoying passive income. That experience — plus seeing capable renters shut out of buying — led him to leave his job in 2012 and launch OwnEZ in 2017.
The credit system is built for patterns many people don't fit.
Gig-economy workers, those with an ITIN instead of an SSN, thin or short credit histories, and people from cultures that don't lean on credit all struggle to access financing — even when they reliably pay rent every month.
Even the founder couldn't get a mortgage.
Because depreciation on his rental properties reduced his taxable income on his 1040, Efri was told he "didn't make enough money" to buy his own home — a vivid example of how the system misreads self-employed and investor borrowers.
Underwrite on data that actually predicts repayment.
OwnEZ's algorithm weighs relevant signals — like a borrower's track record paying rent — over things like revolving credit-card balances. Rather than a score, it predicts how much home a borrower can afford, and being declined merely for never having had a mortgage makes no sense.
Higher rates are historically normal.
Efri argues a generation got "addicted to easy money" during the near-zero-rate, pandemic era. "Money costs money," and today's rates are reasonable in historical perspective; OwnEZ keeps a gap below predatory pricing, with 30-year amortization and no prepayment penalties.
A non-correlated, mortgage-backed investment.
On the investor side, OwnEZ has historically delivered around 9% annually through a first-position, mortgage-backed vehicle that isn't correlated to the stock market — structured as a Reg D 506C fund with a third-party administrator, offering a premium over conventional mortgage-backed securities.
Advice: educate kids early, start small, take action.
Efri urges parents to teach financial responsibility young and help kids invest toward a down payment. He warns that "Instagram is not real life" — start with what you can afford, capture equity, and be brave enough to act, just as he did building his first home at 27 and bootstrapping OwnEZ with his own money.
Resources
Website: OwnEZ.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/efri-argaman/
