May 23, 2018
Rock Holdings Inc. Subsidiary In-House Realty Acquires ForSaleByOwner.com Strengthening Its Position as the Nation’s Leader in Lending and Real Estate FinTech Services
In-House Realty, a Detroit-based subsidiary of Rock Holdings Inc., the nation’s leader in FinTech real estate services, and sister company to America’s largest mortgage lender, Quicken Loans, today announced it has purchased ForSaleByOwner.com from Tronc, Inc.
Founded in 1999, ForSaleByOwner.com is America’s leading online marketplace exclusively focused on ‘for sale by owner’ homes and has been instrumental in driving the DIY real estate sales movement. The site draws millions of visitors monthly offering home listings, tools, information, how-to’s and live customer support.
According to a recent report by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), over 90% of all existing home sales in the United States are sold with the assistance of a licensed real estate professional, while approximately 10% of consumers are successful selling their home on their own. In-House Realty sees natural synergies between the ForSaleByOwner.com platform and their existing business working hand-in-hand with its Partner Agent Network.
For more than 10 years, In-House Realty’s core business has been matching home buyers and sellers with qualified, vetted and top real estate agents in all 50 states and 3,100 counties in America. The company’s Partner Agent Network is one of the largest in the nation, with more than 25,000 agents in virtually every neighborhood throughout the country.
“We are in relentless pursuit of eliminating the complexities and stress that can sometimes accompany buying or selling a home,” said Doug Seabolt, Chief Executive Officer of In-House Realty. “In the coming months, In-House Realty will introduce a fully integrated platform that will combine home search, connecting consumers with one of our trusted Partner Agents and partnering with Quicken Loans’ Rocket Mortgage to provide the world with the clearest, simplest, and least-stressful end-to-end home-buying and home-selling experience found anywhere.”
ForSaleByOwner.com is the fourth FinTech-driven acquisition by Rock Holdings, or one of its subsidiaries, in less than 18 months. The company completed the purchase of Toronto-based OpenHouse Realty’s technology group and its proprietary technology platform in the first quarter of 2017. In addition, Rock Holdings acquired Los Angeles-based LowerMyBills and ClassesUSA, two of the nation’s leading online marketing service providers, in the third quarter of 2017.
In-House Realty is located in the heart of Detroit’s growing technology landscape, which continues to attract and support many Silicon Valley tech leaders, as well as organic startups including Microsoft, LinkedIn, Amazon, WeWork, Google, Pinterest, Snapchat, Twitter, Uber and StockX, who have all recently opened up offices in downtown Detroit.
###