Offerpad, a pioneering iBuyer that expanded its services last year to include a “Flex” listing service provided by in-house real estate agents, is now in the mortgage brokerage business.
Offerpad has shuttered a joint venture it formed in 2017 with loanDepot, and is now operating as a licensed mortgage broker in Alabama, Arizona and Colorado. According to the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System (NMLS) Consumer Access portal, Offerpad’s new mortgage brokerage business, Offerpad Mortgage LLC, was formed in December 2020 and has four sponsored mortgage loan originators.
The company’s joint venture with loanDepot, Offerpad Home Loans, had branch offices in Chandler, Arizona, and Dallas, and was licensed in six states: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas. Those licenses were voluntarily surrendered in October 2020, according to NMLS Consumer Access.
In its most recent annual report to investors, loanDepot said net earnings from joint ventures fell 19 percent in 2020, to $10.4 million, following the sale and wind down of two joint ventures in 2019. But loanDepot has announced three new joint ventures with homebuilders since December, and another with Farm Bureau Bank this month.
Offerpad did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But the company’s mortgage website, OfferpadHomeLoans.com, says Offerpad Mortgage is “rapidly expanding across the country” and will soon be available in additional states.
In a May 28 prospectus for investors in the company’s planned public offering, Offerpad said it intended to provide “additional value-added services in the future, including in-house mortgage solutions that we have historically offered through Offerpad Home Loans, our online based mortgage lender, which is currently transitioning to a more traditional brokerage model.”
The company said its “primary goal” is to be able to offer multiple services tied to real estate transactions, “which may in the future include stand-alone remodel services, energy efficiency solutions, smart home technology, insurance, moving services and home warranty services, all with the goal of becoming a singular solution for real estate transactions.”
Offerpad announced in March its plans to go public by merging with a special acquisition company (SPAC) created by former Zillow CEO and co-founder Spencer Rascoff.
Last week, the company announced plans to enter four new markets by the end of the year: Columbus, Ohio; Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri; and Columbia, South Carolina, which the company said will enable it to provide its services in nearly 1,500 cities and towns nationwide.
As Offerpad’s business model evolves to include mortgage lending, it will face competition from others seeking to provide “end-to-end” services.
Lower, a home finance platform that launched in 2018 as an AI-powered “smart mortgage lending” provider, now provides bundled real estate brokerage services and insurance through a family of companies. The Columbus, Ohio-based company is on a hiring spree after announcing a $100 million Series A funding raise last week.
Also this month, Seattle-based Flyhomes, a pioneer of the end-to-end homebuyer model, announced $150 million in Series C funding that it will use to expand beyond its current markets of Seattle, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego, Portland and Boston.
