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.
This week’s deals
March 27
Cloudvirga, developer of an automated, cloud-based intelligent Mortgage Platform (iMP), has raised $15 million in a series B funding round led by Incenter, a Blackstone Group portfolio company. The new funding will support cloudvirga as it scales its technology and expands its product offerings. “Unprecedented mortgage regulation has exacerbated an already labor-intensive lending process and inconsistent consumer experience, making our solution more viable than ever,” said Kyle Kamrooz, co-founder of cloudvirga in statement.
RESAAS Services Inc., a cloud-based social business platform for licensed real estate professionals, announced that it has signed a new agreement with the Prescott Area Association of Realtors. This agreement provides all member agents within the Prescott Area Association of Realtors with the Association Messenger, a private version of RESAAS designed specifically for smaller associations seeking to help their membership communicate more efficiently. “Our team strives to provide tools and services that give brokers and agents a simple, effective and integrated way to reach beyond their local association to build strong networks with peers across the real estate industry,” said Tom Rossiter, President at RESAAS, in a statement. “Our focus is on providing technology that makes our customers and their members more successful.”
Corcoran Consulting & Coaching announced today it is launching a new product — STEPS (Solopreneur to Entrepreneur Performance Systems) Coaching Program. “The STEPS Coaching Program is the answer to an unanswered question in the real estate industry,” says Bubba Mills, CEO and owner of Corcoran Consulting & Coaching, in a statement. “Most single real estate agents — of which there are nearly 1.2 million in the U.S. — want to know how to transition efficiently and successfully from a single agent ‘Solopreneur’ to the CEO ‘Entrepreneur’ of a profitable and growing team-based company.”
Tuesday, March 28
Rental Beast, an online real estate technology company providing a comprehensive leasing platform, recently partnered with Long & Foster Real Estate. The partnership, which kicked off in the Washington D.C., West Virginia, Virginia and Maryland markets, is now expanding to Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. “We’ve seen tremendous success in the past few months working with Rental Beast in the greater Washington, D.C., market,” said Joe Amatangelo, president of Long & Foster’s Rental division, in a statement. “Not only have our real estate agents been able to better support their rental clients with the Rental Beast system, but also consumers searching for rental properties on our website now have access to even more inventory in their desired communities.
UtahRealEstate.com signed a statewide exclusive to bring Remine to approximately 14,000 real estate professionals in Utah. “Remine is a gamechanger in the MLS space. It will provide our members with predictive analytics for prospecting, visualizations of public data in ways never before seen, and it helps take our MLS to the next level. Our integration with Remine will be unparalleled, and I can’t wait for our Realtors to be able to dig in and see the future of MLS,” says Brad Bjelke, CEO of UtahRealEstate.com.
Wednesday, March 29
Philadelphia-area based Century 21 Advantage Gold (C21 Advantage Gold) has crossed franchise lines to scoop up Re/Max Advantage. The single-office acquisition in Pennsylvania’s Buck county, where C21 Advantage Gold CEO Bill Lublin says the company needed a physical presence, makes it the company’s 10th office.
Long & Foster Real Estate has announced that its Corporate Real Estate Services division has partnered with Chinese real estate company, Homelink. Long & Foster is the No. 1 privately owned residential real estate company in the United States, and Homelink is the largest real estate company in China. Homelink has 8,000 offices in 28 cities in China with 150,000 sales associates. As part of the partnership between Long & Foster and Homelink, the two companies will provide international referral services to each another. Additionally, Long & Foster will provide a direct feed of its for-sale properties to Homelink’s website, making listings more visible to potential buyers in China. “Many Chinese buyers are eager to learn about and invest in international real estate, and the No. 1 destination they are seeking out is the United States,” said Eric Chen, Long & Foster’s director of Asia Pacific initiatives, in a statement. “This partnership with Homelink will allow us to make important connections with investors across the globe and it will also be beneficial for our agents by providing increased exposure to their listings.”
Thursday, March 30
Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates LLC today announced that it has signed an agreement with List International Realty Limited, which owns List Sotheby’s International Realty, to now represent the Sotheby’s International Realty brand in Hong Kong. The firm will be led by President and CEO, Hisashi Kitami, who also leads List Sotheby’s International Realty operations in Japan, the Philippines, Hawaii, and Singapore. “Hong Kong residents have a keen interest in luxury real estate and the territory also has a strong appeal to international buyers,” said Philip White, president and chief executive officer of Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates LLC, in a statement. “Hong Kong is a key global market, and we are proud to be represented in this important region by Hisashi Kitami and his team.”
As Hispanic homeownership rates increase for the second consecutive year, Re/Max has renewed its partnership with the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP). The news coincides with this week’s NAHREP’s Housing Policy and Hispanic Lending Conference in Washington, D.C., which featured a keynote speech by Dr. Ben Carson, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Email deals and partnerships information to press@sandbox.inman.com.
