The iBuyer also revealed Tuesday that it bought 3,609 homes in the first three months of 2025. That number represents a 4 percent year-over-year increase.
Real estate technology company Offerpad and distressed property marketplace Auction.com have entered into a strategic partnership with the goal to modernize how residential properties are bought, sold and renovated across the country.
As part of the agreement, Offerpad’s Renovate division will serve as a preferred provider of property renovation services for Auction.com buyers — a group that includes both institutional investors and local community developers.
The companies said the collaboration will simplify efforts to turn acquired properties into move-in ready homes while expanding the reach of both platforms.
“This partnership brings together two companies with a shared commitment to improving communities through smart real estate solutions,” said Brian Bair, chairman and CEO of Offerpad. “Renovate was built from the ground up to deliver quality work with speed and care, and working with Auction.com allows us to bring that expertise to more homes and more partners across the country.”
“We’re excited to partner with Offerpad to bring together two of the leading real estate marketplaces,” Auction.com President Ali Haralson added. “This partnership strengthens our ability to serve sellers and buyers at scale — from local community developers to institutional investors — while helping neighborhoods thrive.”
In addition to the renovation partnership, Offerpad will utilize Auction.com’s SmartSale platform to increase exposure for properties listed on its platform, potentially boosting competitive offer activity.
SmartSale, launched in January, is designed to blend traditional property listing methods with Auction.com’s online marketplace.
Offerpad launched its Renovate division after years of handling repairs and upgrades on its own home inventory. It has since grown into a standalone business-to-business platform.
In the first quarter of 2025, the company completed more than 200 renovation projects, generating $5.3 million in revenue — its highest total to date. Nearly half of that volume came from institutional clients, with strong activity reported in Texas, Georgia, Colorado, Tennessee, and Kansas.
The companies said the collaboration reflects a broader effort to make real estate transactions more transparent, efficient and inclusive, while accelerating community revitalization by improving the condition and availability of homes.
The company reported having 81,904 agents at the end of the first quarter amid an ongoing slide in headcount. It also reported its agents sold 2 percent fewer homes in the quarter compared to a year ago.
Despite a year-over-year decline in Q1, CEO Glenn Kelman voiced confidence in a statement on Tuesday as Redfin continued to finalize its $1.75 billion all-stock merger with Rocket Companies.
Retirement is a well-known source of anxiety for individuals, businesses and governments alike. Shoring up dedicated retirement funds with good investments could be key to bolstering public- and private-sector retirement programs, but when it comes to cryptocurrency, one state’s leader does not believe these investments are appropriate.
Arizona‘s S.B. 1025, would have allowed “the state treasurer, the Arizona State Retirement System and the Public Safety Personnel Retirement System (public funds) to invest up to 10% of the public monies under its control in virtual currency holdings,” according to text of the bill reviewed by HousingWire‘s Reverse Mortgage Daily (RMD).
The bill defines “virtual currency” as “a digital representation of value that functions as a medium of exchange, a unit of account and a store of value other than a representation of the U.S. dollar or a foreign currency,” according to the state Senate’s research office.
The bill passed both houses of the Arizona Legislature before being sent to the desk of Gov. Katie Hobbs (D), but she ultimately found the bill too risky.
“Today, I vetoed Senate Bill 1025,” Hobbs wrote last week in a letter to Warren Petersen, president of the state Senate. “The Arizona State Retirement System is one of the strongest in the nation because it makes sound and informed investments. Arizonans’ retirement funds are not the place for the state to try untested investments like virtual currency.”
The bill was sponsored by two Republican lawmakers, Sen. Wendy Rogers and Rep. Jeff Weninger. The decision was blasted by cryptocurrency advocates, some of whom claimed that shortfalls in the state’s pension system could have benefited from involvement in cryptocurrency.
In March, President Donald Trump ordered the creation of a strategic Bitcoin reserve and U.S. digital asset stockpile. But the use of cryptocurrency is seen as risky by some.
Reports emerged earlier this year suggesting that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was considering the deployment of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology to track agency grants. Democrats slammed the idea even as HUD said that the “department has no plans for blockchain or stablecoin.”
Prior to the inauguration of President Donald Trump, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report late last year in which it explained that “GAO’s analysis of investment returns indicates crypto assets have uniquely high volatility — a measure of their riskiness to participants — and their returns can come with considerable risk.”
After last week’s National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA) Western Regional Meeting in Irvine, California, attendees were generally in high spirits from spending time with their industry colleagues.
But a common topic of discussion among attendees who spoke on-site with HousingWire’s Reverse Mortgage Daily (RMD) was about the session that started the day.
NRMLA co-chairs Mike Kent of Liberty Reverse Mortgage and Jim Cory of Guild Mortgage led an advocacy update, giving attendees a look at the work that goes on behind the scenes to lobby for the reverse mortgage industry in Washington, D.C.
After the update, Cory went deeper into a plan designed to get more eyeballs on the reverse mortgage product from those in the forward mortgage world and adjacent industries — which amounts to an effort to expand the industry’s distribution efforts.
Cory detailed how he and Kent began devising a plan late last year. This consists of “a multiyear, long-term, permanent program where we want to raise awareness of reverse mortgages among related industries, associations and groups,” Cory said at the event.
This will be focused on trying to drive awareness in areas that NRMLA believes can make the biggest difference, with reverse mortgages for purchase cited as a key example. When asked about it on-site, industry participants in attendance were encouraged by the action plan.
“There’s hesitation [around reverse mortgages], because it seems outside the mainstream and that gives people discomfort,” said Ashley Smith, senior vice president of brand and communications at Finance of America (FOA).
“The more we can normalize it and make it mainstream, the better it is going to be for this industry, this category and Finance of America,” she added. “Part of our growth strategy is to make home equity for retirement mainstream, so this is something that we truly believe in and think is important for the industry right now.”
Mark Klein of Citywide Home Mortgage in Westlake Village, California, said that increasing distribution — which would also add competition into the industry — is a necessary step for growth.
“Expanding competition is important,” Klein said. “It helps push growth and product development, and clearly we need a few more products, so I think that would help.”
Reverse mortgages remain a source of much misconception, he added, which demonstrates the need for expanded education.
“What amazes me is how misunderstood this product really is,” Klein said. “I think, as a group, we need to educate the financial and senior communities about what it can really do.”
His colleague, Pattye Zeto, agreed.
“[Expanded distribution] only benefits the client and us,” Zeto said. “That’s because you come up with more competitive products and prices — for us and for them. I think competition is very good and really needed.”
Christina Harmes Hika of Reverse Loan Solutions in San Diego described her own positive reactions to Cory’s statements.
“Hearing Jim Cory talk about some of the changes that they’re bringing, and some of the things that I personally feel, is really important,” she said. “We’ve got to get visibility and to know that the association is really taking that to heart — and taking steps to make that a thing is really encouraging.”
Harmes Hika said she has always been an advocate for bringing more people into the industry’s fold. She has witnessed what it’s like for forward loan officers to understand that reverse mortgages are unique tools in the broader mortgage ecosystem.
“I think just bigger awareness across the board helps all of us,” she said. “I’ve always seen that, so getting some of the bigger players back in the space, I think, would probably be good for everybody — at the end of the day be good for American seniors.”
Executives put a positive spin on prospects for growth, with loan origination volume up 17 percent from a year ago to $32.4 billion and revenue up 5 percent to $613.4 million.
Despite the buzz around being acquired by Rocket Companies, the first quarter of 2025 was a rough one for Redfin.
In a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday, Redfin announced that it recorded $221.0 million in revenue in Q1 2025, down 2% annually, while its net loss for the quarter came in at $92.5 million, up from a net loss of $66.8 million in Q1 2024.
These decreases came as Redfin’s market share dropped to 0.75% of all U.S. existing home sale transactions from 0.77% a year ago. Additionally, the listing portal’s web traffic was also down on an annual basis, dropping to 46 million monthly average visitors in Q1 2025, down from 49 million a year ago.
Despite these negatives, there were some bright spots in Redfin’s earning’s release, one of which was agent count, which was up 32% annually to an average lead agent count of 2,190 in Q1 2025. At the end of March 2025, Redfin reported that this number was up to 2,265 lead agents.
Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman attributed the increase in lead agent count to Redfin’s new agent payment plan, which pays agents entirely on commission.
Redfin’s mortgage operation was another bright spot, as the attach rate rose to 29%, up from 28% a year prior. However, Redfin’s mortgage arm did just $887 million in mortgage origination volume, down from $969 million a year ago and $1.035 billion in Q4 2024, as the number of mortgages originated dropped to 2,111, down from 2,365 a year ago and 2,434 a quarter ago.
It remains unclear as to what will happen to Bay Equity Home Loans post-Rocket acquisition, but in a statement a Rocket spokesperson said the company is “excited for the highly skilled loan officers at Bay Equity Home Loans” who will join the firm after the acquisition closes.
The majority of Redfin’s revenue for the quarter was generated by its real estate services sector, which pulled in $126.278 million in revenue, followed by rentals at $52.288 million, mortgage at $29.318 million and title at $8.637 million. On a year-over-year basis, revenue for all segments except title was down.
Unfortunately, Redfin’s real estate services sector also posted the largest net loss at $51.673 million. The mortgage sector also posted a net loss of $2.286 million, while the rentals sector recorded at $3.588 million net profit and the title sector saw a $974,000 net profit for the quarter.
In light of Redfin’s acquisition by Rocket for $1.75 billion, the firm did not host a Q1 2025 earnings call with investors and analysts.
In a prepared statement, Kelman said that since the announcement of the acquisition, “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,” Kelman said.
Prior to the announcement of Rocket’s acquisition, Redfin’s future appeared murky, especially after reporting a net loss of $164.8 million in 2024, $34 million higher than the net loss recorded in 2023.
Analysts, including Ryan Tomasello at Keefe, Brunette & Woods and John Campbell of Stephens, attributed some of Redfin’s woes to its previous agent compensation plan, in which agents were salaried. This forced Redfin to bear the costs of maintaining these agents even when transactions were down and it limited the pool of potential recruits and experienced agents did not like the compensation plan.
The acquisition by Rocket, which is releasing its Q1 2025 earnings on Thursday, is expected to close during the second or third quarter of 2025.
Post-merger, Rocket shareholders will own 95% of the combined company on a fully diluted basis, with Redfin shareholders holding 5%. Kelman will remain with the company, reporting directly to Rocket CEO Varun Krishna.
The Trump administration released an outline of its 2026 federal budget proposal on Friday, and it calls for steep cuts to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
The cuts total $32.9 billion, and they include the elimination of three programs in their entirety. The document — compiled by Russell Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) — is not a line-item budget request, but it signals even deeper cuts than those proposed during President Donald Trump’s first term.
The most dramatic is a $26.7 billion cut to a combination of rental assistance programs — including Section 8 housing vouchers — public housing, and housing assistance for the elderly and disabled.
It also proposes the elimination of popular Community Development Block Grants (CDBGs), the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, Pathways to Removing Obstacles (PRO) Housing and Native Hawaiian Block Grants. Five other programs or grants are subject to consolidation or substantial funding cuts.
Experts on the federal budget are hardly surprised. During Trump’s first term, he requested the elimination of CDBG, HOME, the Public-Housing Capital Fund, Self-Sufficiency Programs and Native Hawaiian Block Grants, among other substantial cuts.
But the enacted budgets in each year of Trump’s first term not only preserved these and other programs, but in many cases increased funding.
The presidential budget request opens the negotiating process with Congress on any given fiscal year’s budget. The House and the Senate have to approve it, and then it goes to the president’s desk for signature.
Because Trump’s budget proposals included such massive cuts, the enacted budgets during his first term bore little resemblance to his original requests.
That’s because some of the proposed cuts are politically unpalatable. CDBGs are used by practically every jurisdiction in the U.S., and they can be used for a wide variety of projects. Trump’s previous attempts to eliminate the program were not seriously entertained by Congress.
In an interview last week with HousingWire, David Dworkin, the president and CEO of the National Housing Conference, said he expects a similar response to Trump’s proposal for 2026.
“The good news is that the housing budget is likely dead on arrival,” Dworkin said. “The depth of the cuts would create both a massive homelessness crisis and a real estate crisis where owners of apartment buildings that rely on Housing Choice Vouchers would be going bankrupt at a breathtaking pace.”
The numbers and language in the outlined proposal are vague and ambiguous. In some cases, it’s hard to flesh out exactly what the line-item budget request will look like — particularly for cuts to rental assistance and public housing.
According to Vought, they’re part of an effort to transform “dysfunctional rental assistance programs into a state-based formula grant.” He claims this would incentivize states and the private sector to provide affordable housing. He notes that the budget includes $25 million in housing grants for youth aging out of foster care.
The elimination of HUD’s Self-Sufficiency Programs is similarly intended to pass the buck to state and local governments. The Surplus Lead Hazard Reduction and Healthy Homes programs would have their funding paused until current reserves are depleted.
Some of the proposed cuts, which have limited details, are attempts to consolidate funding between two similar programs housed in separate agencies. For example, while Trump wants to eliminate HUD grants for Native Hawaiians, he wants to fold the same grants into an unspecified program that also serves this group.
Sean Varin and Paul Marsh have been promoted to senior roles at Fathom Holdings and Fathom Holdings’ subsidiary, Encompass Lending Group. The duo will be responsible for stoking growth opportunities at both companies.
JKDS is a licensed New York State real estate brokerage firm. #10351200205