Colorado-based zavvie, a software technology company serving real estate brokerages with customized buying and selling solutions, is expanding its power-buying services, including Cash Offer and buy-before-you-sell Modern Bridge, to the mortgage industry.
Company leaders say that by empowering more buyers – including first-time buyers – with the ability to pay cash for a home, zavvie helps loan officers and real estate agents close more deals.
“The mortgage marketplace today is ripe for innovation and solutions that can help loan officers make more deals happen for their clients and real estate agent partners,” Lane Hornung, co-founder and CEO of zavvie, said in a release.
Targeting loan officers and lenders nationwide, zavvie now has Power Buyer partnerships with 30 mortgage lenders. Most lenders zavvie is working with today are either a subsidiary of or a joint venture with its brokerage clients. However, zavvie is not limiting its expansion into the mortgage business to brokerage-affiliated lenders: five of its Power Buyer partners are direct-to-mortgage companies, leaders said.
Following a successful beta launch last fall and a recent raise of over $2 million in a VC mezzanine round, zavvie’s reach in the mortgage industry now extends to nine new states, with plans to cover 14 states by the end of 2023. The program has closed over 500 transactions since the pilot program began.
Hornung notes the adoption of cash offers by loan officers have significantly outpaced real estate agent adoption. Industry research shows that about one-third of all home sales are cash offers.
The move to expand its services to the mortgage industry allows zavvie to grow its market reach while also benefiting brokerages, which are already experiencing a 10-to-15 percent increase in their mortgage capture business from working with zavvie.
“Lenders are attracted immediately to zavvie’s Power Buyer program because historically, cash offers are over four times more likely to be accepted than financed offers, and they close faster, making sellers and their agents happier,” Hornung explained.