Digital mortgage lender Better.com is exiting the actual property enterprise.
The struggling fintech startup laid off its actual property group on June 7, a number of sources confirmed to TechCrunch. The corporate is alleged to be shifting from an in-house agent mannequin to a partnership agent mannequin.
One one that was impacted by the transfer advised TechCrunch that the brokers had obtained “little to no severance…after getting a greater than 50% wage minimize in November with the intention to ‘guarantee’ our jobs to return.”
TechCrunch reached out to Higher.com, which declined to touch upon the document. It isn’t clear how many individuals had been impacted.
The information will not be stunning contemplating that rumors of Higher.com’s plans to exit the actual property enterprise have swirled for a while because the housing market has skilled a serious slowdown pushed by rising mortgage rates of interest. As early as April of 2022, TechCrunch reported that it was suspected that every one of Better Real Estate could possibly be scrapped. The unit was at one time the “child” of the corporate, sources mentioned, and the place a giant chunk of funding {dollars} had been going to go towards in 2022.
Higher had been vocal about its need to construct out its buy expertise and transfer past digital lending to assist folks discover and buy houses — therefore altering its identify from Higher Mortgage to only Higher. It was additionally working to broaden value-added choices like title and home-owner’s insurance coverage as a part of its product suite.
“They wished to the touch each a part of house possession,” a supply near the corporate who most popular to stay nameless advised TechCrunch on the time. “The corporate invested sources in constructing out client experiences and agent-facing instruments for the Higher Actual Property enterprise, together with its first native cell app, not all of which got here to fruition, given the trajectory of the enterprise.”
Higher Actual Property aimed to be aggressive with the likes of Zillow and Redfin, and the corporate had reportedly adopted the identical salaried-agent mannequin.
Higher.com has been making headlines for its layoffs since it first gained notoriety by laying off about 900 employees over Zoom on December 1, 2021. It has since been shedding smaller teams very systematically, say sources. Final August, TechCrunch additionally reported the truth that Higher.com had conducted its fourth round of layoffs for the reason that earlier December.
The corporate is not exactly known for its tactful approach to letting employees go. In lower than a nine-month interval, it let go of 1000’s of staff, noticed numerous senior executives step down and delayed a SPAC that it nonetheless claims to be working towards.
In March, TechCrunch reported Higher.com’s SPAC deal with Aurora Acquisition Corp. bought a new lease on life, extending its timeframe to shut the transaction via the top of Q3 2023.
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