Charlie Young, the former president and chief executive officer of Coldwell Banker, is joining the board of directors at real estate company Houwzer.
Young joins industry veteran Austin Allison, co-founder and CEO of Pacaso (and previously Dotloop, which sold to Zillow), which recently raised its Series B round achieving venerable unicorn status. Rounding out the board is pet-insurance veteran Natasha Ashton (former co-founder of PetPlan) and Michael Kopelman, general partner and FinTech lead at Edison Partners, the Princeton-based growth equity firm that led Houwzer’s Series A funding round just over a year ago.
“There’s been a lot of attention paid to the iBuyer model, but not enough focus on next-gen brokerage models like Houwzer,” said Young. “Houwzer truly offers the consumer all the benefits you get from a technology company but coupled with experienced, well-trained, full-service real estate agents. With increased commission compression and growing scrutiny of the 1099 independent contractor model, Houwzer’s flat-fee, salaried agent model is the future of real estate brokerage.”
A veteran of both the mortgage and real estate industries, Young joined Coldwell Banker in 2004, first as SVP, Marketing and was ultimately promoted to president and CEO in 2016. Young stepped down from his role in 2020, but continues to be a prominent voice in the industry.
“We’re incredibly lucky to have someone like Charlie join our Board,” said CEO Mike Maher in a statement. “His depth of industry knowledge and experience is unmatched, and he brings a ton of strategic insights to the business. He also knows the complexity, uniqueness, infrequency and emotion inherent in this transaction and why real estate agents will remain a critical component of the winning models over the long-term.”
Houwzer said it is re-imagining the real estate industry by creating significant consumer savings with its flat $5,000 listing fee, providing agents a base salary with benefits, leveraging new technology to streamline the transaction, and bringing mortgage and title in-house. This approach allows agents to prioritize client goals rather than commissions, according to Houwzer.
“I’ve never seen agent productivity numbers this high—and especially at the level of customer service they’re delivering,” said Young. “Their mortgage and title attach rates are also the best I’ve seen over my career and across the industry.”
According to the company, home sellers save an average of $15,000 when working with Houwzer’s full-service listing agents. The company just hit $1B in cumulative sales volume.
“Traditional brokerages put the agent first, but there’s no real connection to the customer,” said Young. “Other models attempt to put the customer first, but intentionally cut out the real estate agent. Houwzer puts both the agent and the customer first. It’s the first model I’ve seen that elegantly restructures the relationship between the broker, the agent and the customer—so everyone wins. I’m truly excited to work with this emerging brand that has the chance to fundamentally change the way people buy and sell homes.”
Source: Houwzer.com
