RealSure - the new ibuyer house flipper on the street

Housing market disruptor banks on help from Blackstone

Realogy Holdings Corp. and Home Partners of America, a single-family landlord that Blackstone acquired this year, are expanding a joint venture that competes with Zillow Group Inc., Opendoor Technologies Inc. and other companies seeking to simplify the process of selling a home.

The venture, RealSure, named former Walmart Inc. executive Katie Finnegan as its first chief executive officer, signaling plans to accelerate growth. Realogy, the owner of Corcoran Group, Sotheby’s International Realty and others, teamed up with Home Partners to launch RealSure in late 2019 in an effort to keep up with a growing field of iBuyers—companies that use technology to make it easier for regular people to sell their homes.

The iBuyers practice a new spin on home-flipping that uses price-estimating software to generate rapid offers. When owners accept, they acquire the property, make light repairs, and put the home back on the market.

RealSure does that too, but offers sellers the option of listing the home with a traditional agent for 45 days. The idea is to assure sellers that they’re not leaving money on the table by taking the instant bid. The program is also designed to make sure agents earn a commission, whether RealSure buys the house or the seller chooses the traditional route. (With the guidance of a participating local real estate agent, list your home for 45 days to see if you can get an even stronger offer.)

There’s a potential downside, too. If RealSure makes offers to set a low bar for Realogy’s agents to beat, sellers may seek richer deals from other online companies.

Home Partners of America has capital and pricing expertise to help meet that challenge, according to Finnegan. The company, which provides renters a path to becoming buyers, also contributes expertise on renovations. Blackstone agreed in June to buy Home Partners in a deal that valued it at $6 billion.

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