{"id":2762,"date":"2022-01-14T21:05:32","date_gmt":"2022-01-14T21:05:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/preprod.realtrends.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/14\/ceo-matt-widdows-pushes-homesmart-toward-ipo\/"},"modified":"2025-03-13T02:39:58","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T02:39:58","slug":"ceo-matt-widdows-pushes-homesmart-toward-ipo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/preprod.realtrends.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/14\/ceo-matt-widdows-pushes-homesmart-toward-ipo\/","title":{"rendered":"CEO Matt Widdows pushes HomeSmart toward IPO"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

HomeSmart<\/strong> is a growing real estate brokerage that may go public, but the company faces questions about its business model and the compensation of founder and CEO Matt Widdows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Founded in 2000, Scottsdale, Arizona-based HomeSmart is the seventh largest brokerage in the country by transaction sides, or how many times a HomeSmart agent represented the buyer or seller in a deal, according to RealTrends<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last Friday, HomeSmart filed an \u201cS-1<\/a>\u201d with the Securities and Exchange Commission<\/strong>, a document that conveys HomeSmart\u2019s intention to sell company shares to prospective investors and the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HomeSmart has yet to give itself a valuation or declare how much money it seeks to raise in a public offering. The company generated $478 million revenue in the first nine months of 2021 \u2013 a figure that includes what income is earned by their independent contractor agents, and posted a $2.3 million net loss, according to the filing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HomeSmart, like Compass<\/a><\/strong>, Keller Williams<\/a><\/strong>, eXp<\/a><\/strong> and other brokerages, states it has unique technology to modernize real estate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHomeSmart is a revolutionary real estate enterprise powered by our proprietary end-to-end technology platform,\u201d declared the first page of the voluminous SEC filing, later elaborating: \u201cWe have been developing our software in-house over the last 20 years and have a 100% adoption rate across our agents.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s substance to HomeSmart\u2019s claim, argued Steve Murray, senior advisor at RealTrends<\/strong> and longtime real estate industry consultant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHomeSmart does have one of the most interesting tech platforms out there as it has been internally built and basically covers all aspects of a brokerage firm\u2019s operations,\u201d Murray said. \u201cThe fact that it has been used for years and built upon, and it\u2019s a totally cloud-based platform does make it both unique and useful to its own operations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And HomeSmart has grown its agent base 30% the last two years from 17,841 agents at the end of 2019 to 23,197 agents as of Sept. 30, who are spread across 47 states. HomeSmart is a flat-fee brokerage, meanings its agents pay a set transaction fee per deal instead of a commission percentage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HomeSmart\u2019s revenue soared 74% from the first nine months of 2020, when the company reported $275 million generated. But that growth came with the company veering from the black to the red. HomeSmart posted a $7.1 million profit in the first nine months of 2020, before the $2.3 million loss at 2021\u2019s three quarter mark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, $447 million of HomeSmart\u2019s revenue in the first three quarters of 2021, or 94% of its total revenue, returns to its agents as \u201ccommission and other agent-related costs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A not insignificant component of HomeSmart\u2019s finances is what is funneled to, and from, Widdows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CEO commands a $960,000 salary but has also received multi-million-dollar yearly payments from a \u201ccorporate reorganization.\u201d For example, in 2020, an unspecified HomeSmart subsidiary gave Widdows $10.1 million. Widdows, though, also made a $6.5 million \u201ccontribution\u201d back to HomeSmart the same year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, HomeSmart entered into two \u201ceight-year note payable agreements\u201d for which Widdows will get $3 million and $7 million each, plus interest. The deal is partly mitigated by a separate $2 million \u201cnote receivable agreement\u201d between HomeSmart and Widdows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Messages left with HomeSmart were not returned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe is taking out more money than he is putting in despite the company being barely profitable,\u201d said Lloyd Greif of Grief & Co.<\/strong> investment bank in Los Angeles. \u201cThat\u2019s probably not the best practice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greif, a financial adviser for decades, expressed confusion about Widdows putting in, and then taking out, money at the same time. \u201cWhy not just take out in a lesser amount?\u201d Greif said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Wayne Guay, an expert in executive compensation at the University of Pennsylvania<\/strong>, said these are perhaps not dubious dealings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe corporate reorganization may, in fact, have been executed to facilitate the company\u2019s IPO, which may have required various payments to various parties to get everything in order,\u201d Guay said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One related matter revealed in the filing: Angelique Chambers, described as living with Widdows and working as a loan officer for HomeSmart subsidiary Minute Mortgage<\/strong>, was granted in July restricted stock units worth almost $300,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greif saw the stock options to a personal acquaintance \u2013 and workplace subordinate \u2013 as ethically questionable. \u201cHe can\u2019t run the company as a personal piggy bank,\u201d Greif said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HomeSmart is a growing real estate brokerage that may go public, but the company faces questions about its business model and the compensation of founder and CEO Matt Widdows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16592,"featured_media":4822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3255],"tags":[],"coauthors":[736],"class_list":["post-2762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCEO Matt Widdows pushes HomeSmart toward IPO - RealTrends - Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"HomeSmart is a growing real estate brokerage that may go public, but the company faces questions about its business model.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/preprod.realtrends.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/14\/ceo-matt-widdows-pushes-homesmart-toward-ipo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CEO Matt Widdows pushes HomeSmart toward IPO\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"HomeSmart is a growing real estate brokerage that may go public, but the company faces questions about its business model.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/preprod.realtrends.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/14\/ceo-matt-widdows-pushes-homesmart-toward-ipo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"RealTrends - 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