Acquisition of Denver-based brokerage Trelora increases Houwzer’s footprint to 14 states spanning coast to coast, adds to management team, and expands business lines
PHILADELPHIA – (December 12, 2022) –Houwzer, now the nation’s largest one-stop-shop real estate brokerage platform, announced today it has acquired Trelora, a pioneering next-gen brokerage out of Denver, Colorado. Houwzer and Trelora are both well known for their ‘flat-fee, full service’ real estate offerings that save consumers thousands per transaction while delivering an industry-leading customer experience. The combined companies have saved consumers over $125 million in cumulative real estate commissions.
This acquisition expands Houwzer’s footprint to 14 states including Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Washington state. Houwzer currently operates in Delaware, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Given the complementary geographies, the increased coverage area now includes markets in four of the five regions throughout the country.
“This is a material inflection point for Houwzer,” said Mike Maher, Founder and CEO of Houwzer. “We see an opportunity to innovate, build, and scale a transformational enterprise serving customers during this seismic market shift. Next-gen brokerages are operating predominantly in one market or region, subscale, and without the benefit of shared learnings or insights. The Trelora acquisition provides meaningful scale and operating leverage driving powerful unit economics.” Maher will maintain his position as CEO and remain on the Board of Directors of the consolidated company.
Trelora was founded in Denver in 2011 with the thesis that the traditional brokerage model is broken and the commission structure is unfair to consumers. Since inception, Trelora has closed over 8,000 transactions, saving clients tens of millions in commissions along the way.
“We are thrilled to join forces with Houwzer,” said Rod Ward, CEO of Trelora. “Like Trelora, Houwzer is a mission-oriented brokerage that shares our commitment to elevating the future of real estate by putting the consumer first, while providing a more efficient and exceptional experience for home buyers and sellers.” Ward will be joining the consolidated company as Chief Revenue Officer, leading the newly formed Enterprise division. This B2B division will pioneer a new vertical in the category that the company describes as ‘Brokerage as a Service.’ Ward’s team will work with institutional clients in the single-family rental (SFR), iBuyer, rent-to-own (RTO), and new home construction segments. The company already has a handful of exclusive partnerships with this focus.
Colby Sambrotto also joins the management team from Trelora as Chief Marketing Officer. Sambrotto co-founded and sold ForSaleByOwner.com, one of the pioneering platforms that brought real estate into the internet age in the mid-2000s. Since then, Sambrotto founded or held senior positions at various real estate companies including USRealty.com, Home Captain, and Redefy. “I have seen the entire spectrum of service offerings ranging from DIY to flat-fee limited and flat-fee full-service offerings to traditional brokerage,” said Sambrotto. “I think that Houwzer cracked the code in bringing a truly disruptive model to the market while creating the playbook to scale.”
With the acquisition of Trelora, the consolidated company has a clear path to profitability with industry-leading metrics in agent productivity, gross profit margin, net promoter score (NPS), and attach rates for mortgage and title. Houwzer remains open to additional opportunities to accelerate national expansion and believes its model is poised for growth as the market continues to shift.
“The acquisition of Trelora is a game-changer,” said Daniel Herscovici, partner at Edison Partners and Board Director at Houwzer. “In addition to revenue and operating synergies, the shared learnings will be profound. Houwzer now has a platform at scale, allowing it to further transform the home buying and selling experience and make it easier and more affordable for consumers across a much wider audience. This acquisition brings Houwzer far closer to the goal of becoming the next-gen brokerage category leader.”
Houwzer will expand its business lines as it moves from mortgage broker to fully-delegated lender, further enhancing the depth and breadth of products offered to consumers. To accelerate the transition, Houwzer also recently acquired intellectual property from former next-gen brokerage, Reali.
About Houwzer: Houwzer is a next-generation real estate brokerage and home services company built around the customer. Its full-service, salaried agents and mortgage advisors help homeowners save when they sell and trust when they buy. Houwzer’s proprietary technology is a unified, end-to-end platform that streamlines the entire transaction with an integrated one-stop shopping experience. The company employs agents and advisors, who receive base and variable salary instead of commissions, allowing them to focus on service, not just sales. Houwzer has maintained an industry-leading Net Promoter Score of 84 and an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars from over thousands of client reviews online. Since launching in 2015, Houwzer has saved home sellers tens of millions along the East Coast and helped clients buy or sell thousands of homes worth more than $2 billion. To learn more, visit houwzer.com.
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