While real estate agents chase leads and close deals on houses, there’s another level of deal-making that takes place within the real estate industry: mergers, acquisitions, integrations and partnerships.
We’ll be recapping every week’s noteworthy deals that didn’t make it into print (and some that did) for your perusal.
We missed you last week!
In January, the Northern Ohio Regional Multiple Listing Service (NORMLS) and the Centralized Real Estate Listing Service (CRIS) executed data content license agreements with Realtors Property Resource to license data. “This will allow the combined membership of over 10,300 Realtors to access their regional listing data within the RPR Platform,” stated an RPR blog post about the agreement.
January 16
MooveGuru announced the launch of its consumer engagement program, which emails move-relevant coupons to movers. “Through the MooveGuru program, Movers receive a campaign of emails directly from their real estate agent or other mover related service provider,” stated a press release.
This week’s deals
January 30
Nationstar Mortgage Holdings announced a subservicing agreement with New Residential Mortgage, a wholly owned subsidiary of New Residential Investment Corp. “This announcement further demonstrates Nationstar’s role as a leading subservicing provider to the residential mortgage servicing market. We look forward to welcoming over 750,000 customers to Nationstar, and believe our strategic relationship with New Residential will create meaningful value for these customers and our shareholders,” said Jay Bray, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Nationstar, in a statement.
Pacific Union International launched a partnership with smart home company Nest Labs. “Pacific Union will offer real estate professionals and clients a range of Nest’s products designed to deliver more energy efficiency, safety and security to the home,” said the company in a statement.
Centralized Showing Service (CSS), a residential real estate showing services company, announced that Benchmark Realty of Nashville, Tennessee, has selected CSS to schedule and manage home showing appointments. “CSS not only simplifies the showing appointment process but allows Realtors to manage their showing activity more effectively with easy-to-use productivity tools on Showings.com, designed to share information on the desktop and mobile devices quickly and accurately,” read a press release about the agreement.
January 31
Real estate technology company HomeASAP launched Lead Tracker, an end-to-end traffic lead generation solution. “Lead Tracker helps agents generate higher-quality website traffic and convert a greater percentage of their visitor traffic into leads, even after the visitor has left the agent’s website. To accomplish this, the company has pioneered new technologies that are designed to engage visitors and convert them into leads at the highest rate possible. If a visitor who did not convert into a lead leaves the agent’s website, Lead Tracker™ then goes to work to re-engage the visitor and convert them into a lead for up to two years, at no additional cost.
ClosingCorp, a provider of residential real estate closing cost data and technology for the mortgage and real estate services industries, announced that ValuAmerica, a provider of appraisal, title, closing and settlement services, is integrating SmartCalc, ClosingCorp’s closing costs calculator, on its website. “Using SmartCalc, ValuAmerica will be able to provide accurate, instant online quotes, including actual title and settlement rates and fees, transfer taxes and recording fees on a 24/7 basis,” read a press release about the partnership.
Lake Homes Realty is now licensed as a real estate brokerage in Maryland and Pennsylvania.
“With each state we add to our service area, the better we serve our real estate buyers, sellers and our own agents,” said Lake Homes Realty CEO Glenn S. Phillips in a statement. “We are hard at work to add brokerage operations in even more states in 2017, so this will be a very exciting year for us.”
Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate announced the addition of Maturo Realty in Vineland, New Jersey, to its franchise network. “The newly named Better Homes and Gardens Maturo Realty Group, led by broker Renee Cheesman and owner Albert Faiola, will continue to serve Cumberland County, including Vineland, Millville, Buena, Pittsgrove, Deerfield, Franklin and Bridgeton,” said the companies in a statement.
Motto Mortgage, a mortgage brokerage franchise that’s part of the Re/Max Holdings family of brands, announced that its offering of mortgage brokerage franchise opportunities is now effective in New York. “Motto Mortgage connects real estate brokerages with autonomous franchised mortgage brokerages,” said Motto Mortgage President Ward Morrison in a statement. “We’ll streamline the barriers of entry to the mortgage lending industry for New York real estate brokers, ultimately providing more mortgage options to home buyers and refinancers in the state.”
ERA Real Estate announced the affiliation of Dune Palm Realty based in La Quinta, California. “Established in 2013, the firm will now do business as ERA Dune Palm Realty. Led by David and Laura Gray, the company serves the multi-faceted Coachella Valley market consisting of year-round residents and second-home owners as well as a significant first-time homebuyer segment,” said the companies in a statement.
3-D tour company Walkthrough has raised $325,000 and plans to expand to San Francisco.
February 1
Engel & Völkers opened up two new offices in Long Beach, California. “This is a fantastic start to the new year for us,” said President/CEO of Engel & Völkers California, Mathias Bode, in a statement. “I am extremely proud of our continued success as a company and commend our incredible teams for constantly excelling in providing a first-rate real estate experience to our expanding clientele.”
ERA Real Estate announced the affiliation of New Age Real Estate based in Centennial, Colorado. “Established in 2005, the firm’s five offices and 30 independent sales associates will now do business as ERA New Age. Led by broker/owner Daren Roberts, the company serves the Greater Denver metro and surrounding Front Range region from Boulder to Colorado Springs as well as the greater Aspen area,” the companies said in a statement.
February 2
HomDNA announced that its mobile technology offering is now integrated with the LoanSphere Expedite platform from Black Knight Financial Services, a provider of integrated technology, data and analytics to the mortgage and real estate industries. “HomDNA, which delivers mobile technology and workflow solutions that span the borrower-to-homeowner experience, has integrated with Expedite to help mortgage lenders optimize the lending experience, increase borrower loyalty and extend customer value,” said the companies in a release.
IDX, LLC, a provider of Software as a Service (SaaS) tools for real estate websites, recently announced an enhanced IDX data acquisition system “designed to give Realtors access to near real-time active, pending, and sold IDX/MLS data for their professional real estate websites,” said the company in a statement.
February 3
Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Chicago announced it has acquired the assets of Organic Realty in Chicago, Illinois. “The acquisition strengthens Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage’s real estate sales operations, which include 52 offices and approximately 3,500 independent sales associates in Chicagoland, Northwest Indiana, Southeast Wisconsin and Southwest Michigan,” in a statement.
Motto Mortgage announced that its offering of mortgage brokerage franchise opportunities is now effective in California.
