Latest news with #GlennKelman
Miami Herald
01-07-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Rocket Companies completes purchase of Redfin
Rocket Companies announced Tuesday that it has closed on its previously announced $1.75 billion deal for real estate brokerage Redfin, a deal that combines Redfin's home search platform with Detroit-based Rocket's mortgage lending. "I've used Redfin every day for the last 20 years. It helped me find and fall in love with my first home, completely changing how I thought about real estate," Varun Krishna, CEO of Rocket Companies said in a statement Tuesday. "The Redfin team is best-in-class at building simple, intuitive experiences - perfectly aligned with Rocket's vision for the future of homeownership." Founded in 2004, Seattle-based Redfin features more than 1 million for-sale and rental listings, draws nearly 50 million monthly visitors and operates a brokerage with more than 2,200 real estate agents nationwide. Redfin's web site Tuesday showed a revamped brand identity with the tagline "Redfin Powered by Rocket." "The gulf between the American Dream of homeownership and the reality has never been wider," Glenn Kelman, CEO of Redfin said in a statement. "The reason Rocket and Redfin came together was to bridge that gap - so the people who spend their days dreaming on can more easily use Rocket to turn those dreams into reality." Earlier this year, Rocket announced that it would acquire Redfin in an all-stock deal - one of two acquisitions expected for Rocket this year. The second is mortgage servicer Mr. Cooper Group Inc., which is expected to be an all-stock deal worth $9.4 billion. The acquisition has long-term potential, though the timing may present some short-term challenges, said Tim Nash, vice president emeritus and director of the McNair Center at Northwood University. "Currently, home sales are in a slump - the worst period in at least seven years for new and used home sales," he said. "Interest rates are high, and the economy seems to be slowing." Nash said Rocket is making a strategic play by acquiring Redfin's online tools and brand, as opposed to paying the expense to expand internally. The result could be a better experience for Rocket and Redfin consumers. "They are going to benefit from a lot of the greater online capacity, greater web presence that they'll incorporate from Redfin into Rocket," he said. "So the average customer should get more information and be better, more quickly served with a lot more information." To mark the occasion, the companies introduced Rocket Preferred Pricing. Clients who finance their home through Rocket Mortgage and purchase a home listed by a Redfin agent or with the help of a Redfin agent will have a 1% interest rate reduction for the first year or receive a lender credit at closing, up to $6,000. Rocket and Redfin officials said they plan to launch additional products for homebuyers, real estate agents and mortgage brokers in the coming months. Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Geek Wire
01-07-2025
- Business
- Geek Wire
Rocket Companies completes Redfin acquisition; new pricing program is first perk of partnership
(GeekWire File Photo) Rocket Companies completed its acquisition of Redfin on Tuesday, bringing together the nation's largest mortgage lender with the tech-enabled Seattle real estate brokerage. The $1.75 billion deal was first announced in March. The companies unveiled one of the first perks of the new partnership — a program called Rocket Preferred Pricing, which incentivizes homebuyers who use a Redfin agent to also finance through Rocket Mortgage. Buyers can choose between a 1% lower interest rate for the first year or up to $6,000 in lender credits from Rocket Mortgage. The pricing model is also available to buyers who purchase a Redfin-listed home and finance through Rocket Mortgage. Redfin said in a news release that together with Rocket it's 'building a one-stop-shop for homeownership,' with AI-powered services and plans to offer additional products for homebuyers, homeowners, real estate agents and mortgage brokers in the months ahead. Redfin's branding has been updated on its website to add 'Powered by Rocket.' Redfin, led by CEO Glenn Kelman, launched in 2004 and went public in 2017 in a deal that valued the company at $1.73 billion. Detroit-based Rocket Companies went public in 2020. In addition to mortgage lending products, Rocket also sells auto loans and other fintech offerings. Earlier this year, Rocket acquired mortgage lender Mr. Cooper Group in a $9.4 billion stock deal.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Real estate giants crack down on exclusive 'off-market' home listings in major shift for buyers
Two major real estate marketplaces are making big changes to what home listings can appear on their websites. Zillow and Redfin are both taking aim at listings of homes up for sale that have been publicly marketed prior to being entered into the multiple listing service (MLS), taking steps to bar them from their respective platforms. In April, Zillow unveiled new "listing access standards" for its site under which the real estate marketplace said it will not publish listings if they are "marketed directly to consumers without being listed on the MLS and made widely available where buyers search for homes" within one business day. The company has argued that a listing "marketed to any buyer should be marketed to every buyer" and that consumers "deserve fair access to listings without having to get access behind a velvet rope controlled by any one company." Home Sellers Face Harsh New Reality As Listings Hit Record $69B Value Zillow began sending out notifications of listings in large U.S. markets that don't meet them to agents starting in late May, with each one getting recorded as a violation. Read On The Fox Business App At the end of June, Zillow will bar an agent's third noncompliant listing and any listings by the agent that violate its listing access standards from its platform as well as Trulia "for the life of the listing agreement between that listing broker and seller," according to the company. Its new standards are being implemented "in phases" with a national expansion taking place over the summer. Zillow said the new policy affects all listings of for-sale homes "subject to an exclusive for-sale listing agreement between a broker and a seller." The new listing access standards "are consistent with NAR's Clear Cooperation Policy and reflects our belief in fair access for all," according to the company. The Clear Cooperation Policy mandates the sharing of listings on the MLS within one business day of public marketing. The option for sellers to delay the marketing of their homes on the MLS is slated to come into force in September, the NAR announced earlier this year. There are, however, some exemptions to Zillow's new listing access standards policy. The site will allow home listings that were "only shared among agents within the listing brokerage and the seller has signed a waiver or opt-out form" as well as "delayed marketing" and "coming soon" listings uploaded to the MLS. Additionally, listings of newly built homes marketed by their builder, rental properties and "for sale by owner" homes will not be subject to Zillow's new rule surrounding public marketing, the company said. The New Palm Beach? Jupiter, Fla, Is Drawing Luxury Homebuyers Fellow real estate marketplace Redfin is taking a similar stance. CEO Glenn Kelman said in a mid-April Redfin post that the platform "will not publish any listings that have been publicly marketed before being shared with all real estate websites via the MLS." The company is also calling for the MLS to set up a "coming-soon" designation that "precludes" search sites from displaying the amount of time a home has been on the market and their prices, according to the post. Redfin believes "all buyers should be able to see all listings," Kelman said. The real estate marketplace will start implementing its policy barring listings that were publicly marketed ahead of being shared on the MLS beginning in September, a Redfin spokesperson told FOX Business. "Delayed marketing exempt listings will be displayed on Redfin as long as they're shared in the MLS and disseminated to sites like Redfin through a Virtual Office Website (VOW) where buyers can access them," the spokesperson added. These States See The Most All-cash Home Purchases Zillow and Redfin are some of the biggest online real estate marketplaces, hosting millions of listings on their sites. Zillow Group reported that its apps and sites notched 227 million average monthly unique users during the first quarter, while Redfin said its platforms saw 46 article source: Real estate giants crack down on exclusive 'off-market' home listings in major shift for buyers Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Redfin (NASDAQ:RDFN) Posts Q1 Sales In Line With Estimates
Real estate technology company Redfin (NASDAQ:RDFN) met Wall Street's revenue expectations in Q1 CY2025, but sales fell by 2% year on year to $221 million. Its GAAP loss of $0.73 per share was 4.7% below analysts' consensus estimates. Is now the time to buy Redfin? Find out in our full research report. Redfin (RDFN) Q1 CY2025 Highlights: Revenue: $221 million vs analyst estimates of $221 million (2% year-on-year decline, in line) EPS (GAAP): -$0.73 vs analyst expectations of -$0.70 (4.7% miss) Adjusted EBITDA: -$31.96 million vs analyst estimates of -$34.93 million (-14.5% margin, 8.5% beat) Operating Margin: -38.7%, down from -30.7% in the same quarter last year Free Cash Flow was $34.64 million, up from -$49.54 million in the same quarter last year Brokerage Transactions: 9,866, down 173 year on year Market Capitalization: $1.18 billion "Redfin profits were at the high end of the guidance we gave investors in our last earnings call," said Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman. Company Overview Founded by a former medical school student, electrical engineer, and Amazon data engineer, Redfin (NASDAQ:RDFN) is a real estate company offering brokerage services through an online platform. Sales Growth A company's long-term sales performance can indicate its overall quality. Even a bad business can shine for one or two quarters, but a top-tier one grows for years. Over the last five years, Redfin grew its sales at a sluggish 3.8% compounded annual growth rate. This fell short of our benchmark for the consumer discretionary sector and is a rough starting point for our analysis. Redfin Quarterly Revenue Long-term growth is the most important, but within consumer discretionary, product cycles are short and revenue can be hit-driven due to rapidly changing trends and consumer preferences. Redfin's performance shows it grew in the past but relinquished its gains over the last two years, as its revenue fell by 26.1% annually. Redfin Year-On-Year Revenue Growth We can dig further into the company's revenue dynamics by analyzing its number of brokerage transactions and partner transactions, which clocked in at 9,866 and 2,389 in the latest quarter. Over the last two years, Redfin's brokerage transactions averaged 8.5% year-on-year declines while its partner transactions averaged 3.8% year-on-year declines. Redfin Brokerage Transactions This quarter, Redfin reported a rather uninspiring 2% year-on-year revenue decline to $221 million of revenue, in line with Wall Street's estimates. Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to remain flat over the next 12 months. Although this projection suggests its newer products and services will spur better top-line performance, it is still below the sector average.
Geek Wire
06-05-2025
- Business
- Geek Wire
Redfin CEO says employees and agents ‘over the moon' about Rocket's vision for Seattle company
This story originally appeared on Real Estate News. Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman. (Redfin Photo) Redfin on Tuesday announced its last quarterly earnings results as an independent company, with its acquisition by mortgage giant Rocket to be finalized later this summer. The Seattle-based brokerage and home search portal saw a decline in most major metrics compared to the previous quarter, including a drop in revenue and transactions, and increasing net losses stemming largely from its real estate services division and corporate overhead. The rentals and title divisions were profitable. Due to its pending acquisition, Redfin did not host an investor call, but its earnings release highlighted some recent wins. The company saw an increase in loyalty transactions, noting that 40% of sales came from loyalty customers during the first quarter — a significant amount of its total business. The brokerage also noted big gains in agent count. The number of lead agents was up 32% year-over-year, reaching 2,265 by the end of March. What Redfin had to say In a press release, Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman said the rise in lead agents was 'thanks to our new plan to pay agents entirely on commission.' That plan — Redfin Next — rolled out nationwide in October. The acquisition news, Kelman said, also gave the company a boost. 'Since the March 10th announcement of Redfin's agreement to be bought by Rocket, many Redfin employees, from agents to engineers, have been over the moon about Rocket's vision of a home-ownership platform. We can't wait to join Rocket and build the future of homeownership,' he said. Key numbers Revenue: $221 million, which was down from $244.3 million reported in the previous quarter but off by just 2% from the $225.5 million reported in the first quarter of 2024. Cash and cash equivalents: $183.5 million cash on hand at the end of the quarter, up from $124.7 million at the end of 2024. Net income/loss: Net loss of $92.5 million, which was higher than the net loss of $66.8 million reported a year ago and more than double the $36.4 net loss from Q4 2024. Adjusted EBITDA (earnings before income, taxes, depreciation and amortization): A loss of $32 million for Q1 2025 compared to a loss of $27.6 million in Q1 2024. Average number of lead agents: An average of 2,190 lead agents throughout the quarter and 2,265 lead agents at the end of March 2025, a 32% gain year-over-year. Transactions: 12,255 total transactions between brokerage and partner deals in the first quarter, which was down from 14,363 in the previous quarter but close to the 12,730 transactions from Q1 2024. Site traffic: 46 million monthly average visitors, down slightly compared to 49 million the first quarter of 2024 but an increase from the reported 43 million average monthly users in Q4 2024. Notable moves The company's pending acquisition was the big news of the quarter, but earlier in the year, Redfin also announced a rentals deal with Zillow. Per the terms of the partnership, Zillow agreed to pay Redfin $100 million to be the exclusive provider of multifamily rental listings on Redfin and its owned rental sites, and While Redfin's real estate and mortgage business reported net losses in Q1, rentals was in the black with a net profit of $3.6 million.
