National home search website Xome has had a tumultuous year so far after its parent company was acquired in February, but now Xome is making an acquisition of its own: Assurant Mortgage Solutions, a mortgage tech and services division under insurance giant Assurant, which Xome is purchasing for $35 million, according to a pair of announcements on Thursday.
The deal will give the Lewisville, Texas-based Xome control of all of Assurant’s Mortgage Solutions products and services geared toward lenders, mortgage brokers, investors, and property managers, including: valuations and appraisals; appraisal management software; property inspections and other field services.
Xome said it may also end up paying Assurant more for the acquisition if Mortgage Solutions achieves “certain future performance targets.” Assurant will retain its core insurance and risk management businesses.
Xome launched in 2015 under mortgage servicing company Nationstar, with the ambitious intent of going head-to-head with Zillow as a consumer-focused home search engine (“a radically better way to buy and sell a home”), but one that also offered consumers lending services from Nationstar’s mortgage division, and provided leads to real estate agents if they gave 1 percent of their commissions back to their Xome clients. It’s since modified its business model and added auctions to the platform.
Xome is also now a subsidiary of WMIH Corporation (formerly Washington Mutual), after WMIH purchased Xome’s parent Nationstar earlier this year.
Before that, Xome struggled with declining revenue as it added new clients and tried to figure out a plan to generate more closings.
“We are excited the Xome team is growing with the acquisition of Assurant Mortgage Solutions,” said Jay Bray, Chairman and CEO of WMIH Corporation, in a statement. “We’re confident that the products and expertise Assurant Mortgage Solutions brings will give our combined clients exceptional service, enhanced solutions and comprehensive end‐to‐end capabilities.”
The latest acquisition will, according to Xome, help make sure that the lion’s share of its revenue comes from third-party businesses. While the company does not expect to see changes in revenue as it spends the year integrating Assurant Mortgage Solutions into its platform, growth is expected by 2019.
“This acquisition accelerates Xome’s goals for third‐party growth and brings more value to our company, valued clients and shareholders,” Bray said.
