Less than a year after Philadelphia-based real estate startup Houwzer made its first acquisition, the company has created a new parent company to house its expanding operations, rebranded two segments of business and launched a new product.
Houwzer announced this week the creation of Newfound, an umbrella company for Houwzer and Trelora, the competitor it acquired in December. The addition of Colorado-based Trelora expanded Houwzer's reach, giving it a presence in the western and southeastern regions of the United States. By creating parent company Newfound, Trelora will be able to maintain its branding alongside Houwzer.
Houwzer was launched in 2015 by CEO Mike Maher, who will hold the same role at Newfound. Former Trelora CEO Rod Ward will be president of the new parent.
Both companies share an overlap in business models, which deviate from the traditional real estate industry structure. Houwzer, a tech-based residential brokerage, pays its agents a salary, charges a flat $5,000 listing fee for selling a home and has a 2.5% commission fee for buyers. Trelora operates in much the same way.
In addition to the new parent company, Houwzer announced it is also rebranding its mortgage and title businesses to Newfound Mortgage and Newfound Title, respectively, and launched a new do-it-yourself listing platform, Homerise. Like Houwzer and Trelora, Homerise will operate as a subsidiary of Newfound.
The new Homerise product gives homeowners the ability to be their own agents rather than hiring one. The national, fee-based product has several tiers. The essentials package costs $95 and provides owners with a "for sale" sign, a listing on the local MLS site, as well as postings on consumer-facing real estate listing platforms like Zillow and Redfin. It also gives sellers access to two apps: ShowingTime, which provides sellers with listing management tools and market statistics, and Live Tours, which providers virtual tours of homes. At $495, advanced packages include "open house" signs along with a package for professional photos. A $595 premium package includes a featured listing on Homerise and email marketing.
Colby Sambratto, former Houwzer chief marketing officer and founder of For Sale By Owner, will helm Homerise.
Ensuring connectivity across Newfound brands, the company also implemented a new software known as Dash, that provides timelines and communication avenues for homebuyers, sellers and their agents.
Since launching, Houwzer has experienced sustained growth. It raised a $118 million Series B last year, comprising a $100 million warehouse line of credit and $18 million in equity, bringing its total equity funding to $35 million. Its growth ranked Houwzer as the No. 23 fastest-growing company in the region on the Business Journal's annual Soaring 76 list, having seen revenue rocket from $4.9 million in 2019 to $11.3 million in 2021.
More growth and acquisitions could be on the horizon for the newly formed Newfound.
"We are optimistic and entertaining additional acquisition opportunities," Maher said in a December interview with the Business Journal. "There have been some initial inbound already. We're exploring it, but we expect and we hope that there's more opportunities like this that we can find across the country."
