Real Estate & Mortgage Have Changed Forever

Happy Memorial Day! Before anything else, take a moment today to honor the men and women who gave everything for this country. Their sacrifice is the reason we get to do what we do.

Nick and I aren't slowing down this weekend. This week we went deep on two stories that every agent, lender, and homebuyer needs to understand right now. The real estate and mortgage industry is undergoing a permanent transformation and Congress just passed one of the most significant housing bills in years!

The markets don't take holidays, and neither do we. Let's goooo!

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Read time: ~5 minutes

Rates ended FLAT compared to last week, and volatility was HIGH. Rates are in the mid 6% range for most loan types without paying discount points. Paying discount points can get you in the low 6's.

Real Estate & Mortgage Have Changed Forever

The real estate industry isn't evolving, it's being taken over. And I can tell you firsthand, the companies doing the taking aren't playing by the old rules.

The old model as we know it was pretty simple. Buyers and sellers chose a real estate brokerage based on reputation. Lenders competed on rates. Everyone had their lane. Those days are 100% over. Today, the company that reaches the consumer first wins everything that follows: your mortgage, your title, your insurance, your agent, your closing. The entire transaction.

And the biggest players are spending BILLIONS to make sure they're the first face you see.

Rocket Mortgage + Redfin + Mr. Cooper

In my opinion, this is the boldest move in the history of our industry. Rocket acquired Redfin and Mr. Cooper in deals totaling nearly $16 billion, creating something we have never seen before. One company now controls the moment you find a home, the loan you sign, and everything in between.

And the Redfin agents and Rocket loan officers we know personally are already reaping the benefits. Additional incentives for clients, warmer leads, a built-in referral pipeline, and the entire transaction living inside one ecosystem from search to close. Building something like this from scratch would take most companies a decade. Rocket did it overnight with a checkbook.

Lower Mortgage + Movoto

Lower Mortgage ran the same play. They acquired Movoto, one of the nation's largest real estate portals with over 150 million annual visits, with one simple objective. Get in front of the consumer during the home search, connect them with an agent, and walk them all the way through financing and closing.

The message from the industry is getting pretty hard to ignore. The battleground is no longer rates or commissions. It never really was. It's always been about who gets to the consumer first. 

Better Mortgage / Neo Home Loans + Credit Karma + Coinbase

Better Mortgage took a different approach entirely, and honestly it's a pretty damn smart one. Instead of spending billions acquiring a portal, they went straight to where consumers already are.

Their recent partnership with Credit Karma plugged them into an audience of 149 million members, many of whom are actively exploring financial products and thinking about mortgages. They didn't have to find those people. They were already there.

Then they partnered with Coinbase, giving crypto holders the ability to leverage Bitcoin toward a home purchase without having to sell their assets first. That alone opens the door to a completely new category of buyer that traditional lenders aren't even talking to yet. 

Better/Neo are embedding themselves into ecosystems where the consumer already lives, already trusts, and already spends time. Different strategy, same destination.

Google

Google may ultimately become the biggest wildcard of all. The company has quietly begun displaying MLS listings in select markets. And unlike traditional portals, Google already owns the top of the consumer funnel. Most buyers search Google long before they ever open Zillow or Redfin.

Google doesn't need to win real estate. They just need to show up. And every portal should be concerned.

Zillow: The OG Consumer-First Platform

Let's be clear about something. Zillow didn't react to this war. They started it.

While everyone else is scrambling to spend billions just to catch up, Zillow has been running this playbook for years. They currently have 250 million monthly users. And now, they are the only real estate app living inside ChatGPT.

Zillow built the funnel everyone else is trying to buy.

What This Means for 🫵

As much as I would love to tell you these mergers won't affect us, I also still believe that the Cleveland Cavaliers will win a championship. The reality is staring all of us directly in the face, and it is a lot bigger than any of us would like to admit.

Every one of these moves points to the same conclusion: the companies that control the first consumer interaction will increasingly control the entire transaction. The traditional model of disconnected brokerages, lenders, title companies, and real estate portals is rapidly being replaced by vertically integrated platforms competing for complete consumer ownership.

And if you own or operate a real estate brokerage, mortgage company, or title company, this shift directly impacts the future existence of your business as we know it.

The question industry leaders should be asking is no longer, “Should we be paying attention to this?” The real question is, “What are we doing about it?”

Because your employees are starting to ask the questions behind your back..."What are you doing to get me in front of the consumer first?"

The companies mentioned in this article have already answered that question with billions of dollars in acquisitions, partnerships, and technology investments designed to secure the consumer relationship before anyone else can.

This is not simply another housing cycle or temporary market trend. It is a structural transformation of the real estate and mortgage industry.

And it is happening right before our eyes.

Congress Just Passed One of the Biggest Housing Bills in Years

I'll be honest with you. Big housing legislation gets talked about in Washington all the time and rarely goes anywhere. This one feels different.

This week the House passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act 396 to 13. At a time when agreeing on lunch is nearly impossible, that kind of bipartisan support is genuinely rare. And the reason both sides came together is pretty simple. America is running out of homes, and everyone knows it.

The bill tackles the problem head on. It cuts federal red tape that slows down construction, expands financing options for manufactured and rural housing, improves access to credit, and boosts awareness of VA loan benefits for eligible buyers. These go after the actual barriers keeping people out of homeownership.

The bill heads back to the Senate, and there's already friction over how the House handled restrictions on institutional investors.

NAR says we're short nearly 5 million homes nationally. The median age of a first-time homebuyer has hit 40. Forty. That number alone should stop you in your tracks. A decade ago that number was 31.

We need this one to pass. More supply means more transactions, more buyers who can actually get to the closing table, and more opportunity across the board for everyone in this industry.

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Don’t hesitate to reach out if you need anything at all. Have a wonderful week!