Acquisition is an "inflection point" for the mortgage/real estate brokerage, says CEO
Real estate brokerage Houwzer has acquired its competitor Trelora as the company continues to expand its footprint amid a cooling housing market.
Aligned with Houwzer’s national expansion plans, the deal will enable Houwzer to move from being a mortgage broker to a fully delegated lender – extending its business line to include more products and services. To accelerate this transition, the company recently acquired intellectual property from Reali.
Houwzer said it stays open to more opportunities and believes its model is poised for growth despite market shifts.
“This is a material inflection point for Houwzer,” said Houwzer CEO Mike Maher, who will maintain his position and remain on the board of the combined company. “We see an opportunity to innovate, build, and scale a transformational enterprise serving customers during this seismic market shift. Next-gen brokerages are operating predominantly in one market or region, subscale, and without the benefit of shared learnings or insights. The Trelora acquisition provides meaningful scale and operating leverage driving powerful unit economics.”
Trelora CEO Rod Ward commented: “We are thrilled to join forces with Houwzer. Like Trelora, Houwzer is a mission-oriented brokerage that shares our commitment to elevating the future of real estate by putting the consumer first while providing a more efficient and exceptional experience for home buyers and sellers.”
Ward will serve as the chief revenue officer of the consolidated company. He will oversee the newly formed B2B enterprise division, which will offer “brokerage as a service” to institutional clients in the single-family rental (SFR), iBuyer, rent-to-own (RTO), and new home construction segments.
“The acquisition of Trelora is a game-changer,” said Daniel Herscovici, board director at Houwzer. “In addition to revenue and operating synergies, the shared learnings will be profound. Houwzer now has a platform at scale, allowing it to further transform the home buying and selling experience and make it easier and more affordable for consumers across a much wider audience. This acquisition brings Houwzer far closer to the goal of becoming the next-gen brokerage category leader.”
“I have seen the entire spectrum of service offerings ranging from DIY to flat-fee limited and flat-fee full-service offerings to traditional brokerage,” said Colby Sambrotto, chief marketing officer of the new company. “I think that Houwzer cracked the code in bringing a truly disruptive model to the market while creating the playbook to scale.”
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