by Lillian Dickerson | Apr 23, 2025 | Industry, News Feed
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HomeServices of America veteran Chris Kelly was appointed CEO of the real estate company last week as Gino Blefari stepped down into an advisory role.
Kelly brings a wealth of experience to the position, with 25 years in the industry now, 18 of which have been spent at HomeServices.
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Kelly has the credentials, but adopts the role of CEO at a challenging time. Industry groups and organizations have split into factions over how to market and sell homes while balancing the needs of consumers and agents alike. The market has been among the most tumultuous agents have dealt with in recent years, and uncertainty over tariffs is threatening to push consumers to the sidelines of the transaction yet again.
With these industry shifts in mind, Inman recently spoke with Kelly to get his take — and to set the record straight on recent reports floating around about Compass potentially having an interest in purchasing Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices. Here’s what the CEO had to say, edited for brevity and clarity.
Inman: You’ve been with HomeServices for quite a while now. When you started at the company, did you ever dream that you would one day become CEO?
Chris Kelly: It’s funny. It’s not something that I personally started off [thinking]. My first role was in 2007 as general counsel of ReeceNichols, and I was really, really fortunate to work under the leadership of [then-CEO] Jerry Reece at the time. And I remember Jerry Reece at one point told [then-CEO of HomeServices] Ron Peltier, ‘Hey, Chris could run Reese Nichols for us someday. Heck, he could run all of HomeServices.’
It was the confidence he showed. And he said, ‘Gosh, if Jerry believes in you, then maybe that’s something you can work towards.’ And 18 years later, here we are. But I’ve just been really, really lucky to have some great mentors and some great leaders throughout HomeServices over my 18 years.
How rewarding. Do you have a particular vision in mind for the future of the company, and Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices specifically?
On the broader scale of HomeServices, there’s two things that we really want to focus on. They obviously kind of go hand-in-hand, but one of those is, we really want to make sure that we work towards creating a unified backbone across HomeServices. Our past model, everyone knows has been more of a pure holding company. Buy companies, completely leave them alone. And what we want to do is retain the local branding, the local culture, everything that makes our companies very special in their unique markets.
But we also understand, real estate has shifted. We want to make sure our agents are able to compete at a national scale as well. So we want to make sure we build a backbone to where, across HomeServices, our agents and consumers are working from a unified set of tools and technologies that allows them to better connect with themselves across the country.
And this ties into the second point, which is really leaning into what has always been in our DNA, which is the full-service brokerage model of brokerage, mortgage, title and insurance. Physically, I think we do that better than anybody else because we wholly own those different operations. If you walk into one of our real estate offices, all of those services are under one roof. But we also know that real estate has been digitized and we want to make sure that experience that we physically have always provided can also be provided in that digital world as well.
So, when I’m working with a consumer as an agent, the ability to have all of those services together in one place, from a digital standpoint, also becomes part of the HomeServices model moving forward. So those are two of the really big things we want to focus on moving forward.
Very nice. I want to ask you about something that happened a couple weeks ago — there was some talk about a potential deal [between Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices] and Compass. Was there anything behind that? Were you all actually in discussions with them?
What happens is, when you work for a company the size of Berkshire and any big conglomerate like that, I’m sure people call all the time with questions, you know, ‘Are you interested in this? Are you interested in that?’ We do that at a brokerage level as well. We have conversations with folks all the time. So, where conversations turned into stories? I’m not sure.
But the good thing is, we can say there is no contemplated, no pending transaction with Compass or any third party at this point. And we’re hopeful that these management transitions that we’re making are kind of reflective of our parent entity’s complete, full faith in us moving forward.
I see. And Gino Blefari’s stepping down didn’t have anything to do with that?
Gino, to his credit, this is something that he had thought about and he wanted to make sure that he did it at the right time for the enterprise. We really went through a pretty challenging time over the last year-and-a-half — the whole industry did. Gino, to his credit, really did understand that. It was important to him to help shepherd us through those challenging moments. And as we’ve come out on the other side and we and the broader industry are kind of turning the page on that chapter of real estate and we’re moving forward under the new rules and everything else that are now put into place, he felt this was the right time to do it.
I see. And even so, the industry is continuing to experience turmoil, particularly with the private listings conversation going on now and Zillow’s new listing standards. What do you make of all this?
It’s interesting because a lot of these discussions on how a listing was entered or what the status was — and this is probably one of the biggest changes that’s happened in real estate — you’d have these MLS committees that would come up with it. But these were really interesting local discussions. You had it locally with your MLS and what you did in Dallas might look a little different than Minneapolis or New York. And these conversations have really turned national in scale. So we’re having these broad conversations on what to do with the listing, how the listing has to be labeled across the entire country around these really disparate, sometimes very different markets.
For HomeServices, our view is that the vast, vast, vast majority of sellers and listings benefit from the widest exposure possible and in most of those markets, that means putting the property into the MLS. We also know that we have some markets and some consumers that we work with in various markets where an office exclusive makes sense for them. And in our view, when we do an office exclusive, it’s because we think it’s the right thing to do. The agent and the seller have determined that is the correct way to market the property at that local level. It’s not part of a broader national push that every property should be marketed under some type of certain system.
So we understand the need for office exclusives. We believe the vast majority of properties should have the widest exposure.
The one thing we want to make certain is that, sometimes saying the property is on-market gets conflated with being on the MLS. And the MLS is a really big, important part of the market and in some of our cities, it’s the biggest part of the market. But what we don’t want to have happen and what I think the DOJ is most interested in is, it’s not whether a property is listed exclusively or on the MLS, it’s do the rules create an artificial moat or barrier to competition?
What we want to make sure is that Clear Cooperation does not create a moat around the MLS that keeps them from innovating, keeps them from competition. We as brokerages have to compete every day with a new model that comes out and you either sharpen your tools or you fall by the wayside. MLSs are really, really good at what they do. They’re excellent data aggregators. They’re a great open marketplace. But there are other vendors out there who are trying to get in that space and might have some new way of doing something that would be really great for consumers and agents. We just want to make sure that these rules, Clear Cooperation or otherwise, don’t create these moats that prevent innovation and competition within different segments of our industry. I think that’s what the DOJ is most interested in and what they’re still looking at.
I wanted to ask too — there have been so many policy changes in the industry lately. Do you think NAR is handling all this in a helpful way?
I’ve had the opportunity to be in several meetings with Nykia Wright and her team. Three years ago, one of our agents was the president of NAR, Leslie Rouda Smith, and I was a liaison so I had a chance to be a little more intimately involved than I have typically been in the past. I do believe the association is always trying to do what’s in the best interest of its members, what’s in the best interest of consumers out there.
I know what Nykia walked into was a big task, right? I mean, there was obviously cultural reforms that had to happen while also trying to manage through litigation and then what were going to be the business changes out of that.
So having gone through that herself as a business, I admire anyone who comes out on the other side of that and she’s been very forthright and honest, I think she’s trying to do what’s best. I know she’s making changes within the association. So I think she deserves the leniency that I think we’ve given to her to get through these changes and best position NAR as a leaner association that is more focused on driving what is right for its members and for the consumer.
Any thoughts on the spring market?
We just got some data yesterday, at least within HomeServices, and we’ve noticed that our pending [sale]s are finally above what they were in 2024, so that’s an encouraging sign that we’re seeing for the first time — that kind of pending numbers eclipse.
We’re tracking closings to see if they follow that same trend line. So, the spring market certainly is in effect at this point, and it looks to be — again, it’s all relative to what we’re comparing it to — but it does seem to be, within our companies, to be a little bit stronger spring market than what we had last year.
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by Matt Carter | Apr 23, 2025 | Industry, News Feed
Economic uncertainty, rate volatility and mounting worries about the labor market are reducing the pool of potential buyers, putting a damper on the spring homebuying season.
In April, we’ll go deep on money and finance for a special theme month, by talking to leaders about where the mortgage market is heading and how technology and business strategies are evolving to suit the needs of buyers now. Inman’s Best of Finance returns for 2025, celebrating the leaders in this space. And subscribe to Mortgage Brief for weekly updates all year long.
Economic uncertainty and rate volatility continue to put a damper on the spring homebuying season, with demand for purchase mortgages dropping by a seasonally adjusted 7 percent last week compared to the week before, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday.
The MBA’s Weekly Applications Survey showed requests to refinance were down 20 percent last week when compared to the week before, but up 43 percent from a year ago.
Joel Kan
“Overall mortgage application activity declined last week, as rates increased to their highest level in two months,” MBA Deputy Chief Economist Joel Kan said in a statement. “The 30-year fixed rate rose for the second straight week to 6.9 percent, an almost 30-basis-point increase over two weeks.”
It was the second consecutive weekly decline in purchase loan applications, which dropped by a seasonally adjusted 5 percent during the week ending April 11.
Mortgage rates on the rebound
At 6.83 percent on Tuesday, rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages were 35 basis points higher than a 2025 low of 6.48 percent registered on April 8, according to rate lock data tracked by Optimal Blue. But mortgage rates have a ways to go before retracing the 2025 high of 7.05 percent seen Jan. 14.
Mortgage rates sank to historic lows during the pandemic, with borrowers locking in rates under 3 percent during much of 2020 and 2021.
After soaring to a post-pandemic high of 7.83 percent in October 2023, rates for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages gradually descended to a 2024 low of 6.03 percent on Sept. 17 as investors anticipated the Fed would start cutting rates.
Forecasters at Pantheon Macroeconomics say tariffs imposed by the Trump administration are lifting manufacturers’ costs, but disinflation in the service sector is likely to prompt the Federal Reserve to resume cutting short-term interest rates in June.
“The bond market sell-off since April 2 has pushed up typical yields on mortgage-backed securities by about 35 basis points, which is already feeding through to rates offered to prospective homebuyers,” Pantheon economists said Wednesday in their latest U.S. Economic Monitor. “Meanwhile, mounting worries about the labor market, evident in the recent consumer surveys, will reduce the pool of potential homebuyers further, especially if the jobs market weakens over the next few months.”
Pantheon forecasters expect the Fed to cut rates three times this year, by a total of 75 basis points.
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by Craig C. Rowe | Apr 23, 2025 | Industry, News Feed
Miami Association of Realtors has hired Infinityy, a software company that builds out graphically enriched and interactive browser-based AI “Rooms” for presenting properties in either the residential, multifamily or commercial real estate environments.
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The Miami Association of Realtors has hired a software company that specializes in artificial intelligence-based marketing to assist its members in gaining exposure and capturing leads for their sellers’ homes, Inman has learned.
The company, Infinityy, uses existing listing assets to build out graphically enriched and interactive browser-based “Rooms” for presenting properties in either the residential, multifamily or commercial real estate environments.
The onboard AI is designed to converse with website visitors, earn their interest and turn over their information to the appropriate agent.
Infinityy can build out its presentations using 3D tours, video walk-throughs, imagery, and floor plans and be active 24/7 to answer questions in the hope of capturing new business.
“Every Miami Realtor now has access to a free, AI-powered Infinityy tour — unlocking the ability to reach buyers earlier, faster and more effectively than ever before,” said Teresa King Kinney, the association’s CEO. “Infinityy’s award-winning technology isn’t just saving our members time — it can elevate their service, driving more sales, and giving them a powerful edge in today’s competitive market.”
The company’s website explains an Infinityy Room as an interactive virtual environment for an individual property, which could be a freestanding home, vacant apartment or office space.
“Your Infinityy Room is uniquely your own, allowing all parties to communicate together in real-time, all while sharing the same experience in the same space, even while miles apart. Invite anyone you choose to share your Infinityy Room experience with and simplify the decision-making process, together,” the company states.
Infinityy Rooms can be shared on their own or embedded into websites and landing pages. It supports video conferencing so an agent and prospect can jointly tour and discuss the assets and content within the experience. Agents can be alerted when a Room is being toured to interject or request a call, and, when not available, the AI agent can assume the role.
The software also provides visitor and engagement statistics, nice tools to have when discussing marketing updates with sellers and stakeholders.
Miami Association of Realtors is one of three organizations attempting to untangle from the web of Remine, a long-troubled software company that was swallowed by a group of MLSs in an attempt to turn around its technology on behalf of their collective memberships. Joining Miami was Austin Board of Realtors’ Unlock MLS, First MLS and Heartland MLS. The groups were incorporated under MLS Technology Holdings in 2021.
Miami will make a formal announcement of its latest technology partnership and presentation on Friday, April 25 at the South Florida Real Estate Summit.
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by Matt Carter | Apr 23, 2025 | Industry, News Feed
Nation’s largest loan servicer turned an $88 million Q1 profit and remains on track to be acquired by Rocket in Q4, a deal that’s prompted UWM to cut ties to Mr. Cooper.
In April, we’ll go deep on money and finance for a special theme month, by talking to leaders about where the mortgage market is heading and how technology and business strategies are evolving to suit the needs of buyers now. Inman’s Best of Finance returns for 2025, celebrating the leaders in this space. And subscribe to Mortgage Brief for weekly updates all year long.
Loan servicing giant Mr. Cooper saw the pool of loans it collects payments on shrink for the first time in two years during the first quarter — a trend that could continue into Q2 following a decision by the nation’s largest lender to pull its business.
While net income was down 57 percent from Q4, to $88 million, Mr. Cooper executives said first quarter results released Wednesday demonstrate the company’s ability to deliver “consistent, recurring and predictable results.”
Mr. Cooper remains on track to be acquired by Rocket Companies during the fourth quarter, a deal that the companies claim will create the industry’s leading integrated homeownership platform, Mr. Cooper Chairman and CEO Jay Bray said.
Jay Bray
“By pooling our talent, data and technology, we are going to totally reimagine the homeownership journey from start to finish, and harness the transformative power of AI to bring our customers a truly amazing experience for our investors,” Bray said on a call with investment analysts.
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Mr. Cooper is the nation’s largest mortgage loan servicer, collecting monthly payments from 6.5 million homeowners on behalf of lenders and investors in mortgage-backed securities, a business that generated $214 million in pre-tax income in Q1.
But Mr. Cooper’s pending $9.4 billion acquisition by Rocket Companies has ruffled the feathers of United Wholesale Mortgage, which famously won’t do business with mortgage brokers who work with rival Rocket Mortgage.
Bray is slated to become president and CEO of Rocket Mortgage when the deal closes, reporting to Rocket Companies CEO Varun Krishna. Rocket also has its sights set on acquiring real estate brokerage Redfin for $1.75 billion, a deal it says could save consumers $20,000 per transaction by unifying home search, buying, selling, mortgage, title and loan servicing.
UWM — which surpassed Rocket Mortgage as the nation’s largest mortgage lender in 2022 — pulled its subservicing contract with Mr. Cooper this month, and will no longer sell mortgage servicing rights to the Dallas-based loan servicer, UWM confirmed to Inman.
At the end of last year, UWM owned the servicing rights on 692,908 mortgages totalling $225.8 billion, a business that generated $636.7 million in income last year. It’s not clear how many of those borrowers were subserviced by Mr. Cooper.
Aided by the $1.3 billion acquisition of Flagstar Bank’s servicing business last fall, Mr. Cooper ended the year with a $1.556 trillion mortgage servicing rights portfolio, up 57 percent from a year ago. That included $736 billion in owned mortgage servicing rights (owned MSRs) and $820 billion in subservicing Mr. Cooper performs for others.
Mr. Cooper’s $1.5T mortgage servicing portfolio
Even before UWM cut ties with Mr. Cooper, the loan servicer saw its subservicing portfolio shrink by $40 billion during the first quarter of 2024, to $780 billion.
Mr. Cooper President Mike Weinbach said the shrinkage was due to expected transfers of $60 billion in subservicing business that Mr. Cooper acquired from Flagstar to other servicers.
Mike Weinbach
“Outside of these de-boardings, our subservicing portfolio grew organically by 2 percent quarter over quarter,” Weinbach said on Wednesday’s earnings call. “We’re growing with our clients, which includes some of the strongest originators and investors in the industry.”
He said Mr. Cooper is in “advanced discussions with potential new clients and optimistic about winning new books of business.”
Mr. Cooper’s owned MSR portfolio also shrank by $2 billion during Q1, to $734 billion.
All told, Mr. Cooper was collecting payments on $1.514 trillion in loans as of March 31, down 3 percent from Q4 but up 33 percent from a year ago.
Mortgage originations down 10% from Q4 2024
Mortgage servicers are also in a good position to offer refinancing to borrowers, and Mr. Cooper funded 32,296 loans in the first quarter totaling $8.3 billion, down 10 percent from Q4 but up 186 percent from a year ago.
Most of the company’s mortgage originations ($6.4 billion) came through Mr. Cooper’s correspondent channel, which Weinbach said has benefited from “a number of investments and operational enhancements over the last 18 months.”
In the direct-to-consumer channel, Weinbach said Mr. Cooper enjoyed “very strong momentum” with cash-out refinancing, which made up 46 percent of the $1.9 billion in volume, and second liens, which accounted for another 21 percent of direct loans.
“During the quarter, we helped over 9,000 customers access equity in their homes, and helped nearly 2,000 customers reduce their monthly payments or purchase a new home,” Weinbach said.
Mr. Cooper sold its wholesale and non-delegated correspondent mortgage business to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida-based A&D Mortgage LLC, on April 1.
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by Craig C. Rowe | Apr 23, 2025 | Industry, News Feed
Marketing software company Rechat has rolled out a significant update to its list of product features, a solution to the complicated process of running online display ads.
Bigger. Better. Bolder. Inman Connect is heading to San Diego. Join thousands of real estate pros, connect with the power of the Inman Community, and gain insights from hundreds of leading minds shaping the industry. If you’re ready to grow your business and invest in yourself, this is where you need to be. Go BIG in San Diego!
Marketing software company Rechat has rolled out a significant update to its list of product features, a solution to the complicated process of running online display ads, according to an April 23 statement sent to Inman.
Rechat Digital Ads will give users the ability to create and manage sophisticated retargeting campaigns for lead capture, nurture and conversion. It adds value to email campaigns, landing pages and other digital marketing efforts. Meta platforms are built especially to capitalize on such technology, a long-proven system for real estate agents given the browsing habits of buyers and sellers.
“Rechat Digital Ads represents a major leap forward in real estate marketing,” said Shayan Hamidi, CEO of Rechat, in the press release. “By integrating ad campaigns directly within our platform, we’re enabling agents to effortlessly promote their listings, strengthen their brand, and generate high-quality leads — all in one place.”
While retargeting is hardly new to the industry, there is additional benefit to having it integrated with an existing software package, allowing for better data collection, performance valuation and creative control. It also prevents agents from having to hire and manage third-party vendors in the digital ad space.
Inman reviewed Rechat in 2023, citing as a highlight its ability to intuitively consolidate tools and tactics that typically require multiple partnerships working together to achieve marketing success.
“Rechat does a lot of what a lot of other apps do separately. It can consolidate a tech stack for tech-savvy brokers wanting to provide a single-point solution for lead nurture, brand-building, sales support and lightweight deal management,” the review stated.
Rechat flattens the ad creation process for marketing staff, as well as agents, by repurposing existing marketing assets for campaign use. The process is largely automated and can be strategized in minutes, according to the company. Budgets and geographic targets are made easy to manage.
“Agents can connect and manage their Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns without leaving the platform. Campaigns are fully customizable, with adjustable duration, budget, audience radius, and messaging to align with marketing goals,” the press release stated.
Rechat is part of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World’spreferred partner program. The application is also fully mobile to give agents and their teams the ability to adjust marketing efforts as soon as response data and creative feedback determines a better direction, among other benefits.
Rechat Digital Ads compliments a range of other digital marketing systems and business tools, such as a personal CRM, a CMA builder, website creation and management, social media and video content creation, and a robust email marketing campaign platform.
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by Lillian Dickerson | Apr 23, 2025 | Industry, News Feed
The surge in sales was a welcome positive sign during a tenuous period for the U.S. economy. However, high prices and high mortgage rates continue to curb homebuyers, new HUD data shows.
Bigger. Better. Bolder. Inman Connect is heading to San Diego. Join thousands of real estate pros, connect with the Inman Community and gain insights from hundreds of leading minds shaping the industry. If you’re ready to grow your business and invest in yourself, this is where you need to be. Go BIG in San Diego!
Sales of newly built single-family homes continued their upwards trajectory in March, as buyers got their first taste of the spring market, the U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development announced in a report released Wednesday.
The report findings were a welcome positive sign for the U.S. economy, which has been on shaky ground since the Trump administration unleashed a global trade war in recent weeks, but also a reminder that next month’s report may reflect less positively as the country continues to respond to new tariffs.
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New-home sales rose 6 percent on an annual basis in March 2025 for a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 724,000, well-exceeding analysts expectations of a rate of about 680,000. They were also up 7.4 percent month over month from the February 2025 rate of 674,000.
The median sales price of new homes sold during March 2025 was $403,600, down 7.5 percent year over year. The average sales price of new homes sold was $497,700, down 4.7 percent year over year.
By the end of March 2025, the seasonally adjusted estimate of new homes for sale was 503,000, up 0.6 percent from February 2025 and up 7.9 percent from March 2024. That figure represents 8.3 months supply at the current sales rate.
The South drove the growth of new-home sales between February 2025 and March 2025, increasing by 13.6 percent. Meanwhile, the Northeast took the greatest hit in sales of newly built homes, declining by 22.2 percent month over month.
Despite beating expectations, new-home sales are still being curbed by high home prices and mortgage rates, Robert Frick, corporate economist with Navy Federal Credit Union said in a statement sent to Inman.
“March sales were a nice recovery from the dip in January and February, probably due to the frigid weather across much of the country,” Frick said. “But sales remain stuck in a post-COVID range of about 630 to 730, a level that reflects high prices and high mortgage rates.”
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