VA borrowers face obstacles in today’s housing market
In today’s HousingWire Daily episode, HousingWire HW+ Managing Editor Brena Nath joins HousingWire Managing Editor James Kleimann to discuss the hottest topics coming across HousingWire’s news desk. In this episode, Nath and Kleimann discuss some of the challenges VA borrowers often face when purchasing a home in a competitive housing market.
The pair also review the topics the HousingWire editorial team will cover in the week ahead, including compensation structures for different sectors within the mortgage and real estate industries.
For some background on the interview, here’s a snippet of one of the HW+ articles discussed in today’s conversation. Not a member yet? When you sign up, use the code “hwpluspodcast100” to get $100 off your annual membership:
Glenn Sanford cuts a modest figure. Nope, wait, eXp Realty‘s Glenn Sanford isn’t cutting any real life figure at all.
It’s annual report time, and Sanford, the CEO of eXp, is cataloging the company’s eye-popping growth onscreen as a cartoon avatar during a cloud-based earnings call that looks like Second Life or The Sims.
Since Sanford founded the company in 2008, most everything eXp (the name is because Sanford once looked in a dictionary and liked “exp” words – expert, expand, exponential…) is over the cloud. Here’s a residential real estate brokerage that owns no property, has no franchisees or branches, and leases nary an office save its Bellingham, Washington, headquarters.
Sim Sanford is small amid a huge, animated podium, and also offers small, pointed assertions. Instead of vowing exceptionalism (an “exc” word), Sanford wants eXp to fit in.
“Our model is now recognized as a totally viable and legitimate model for the entire housing market,” Sanford said on the March 11 call.
In a phone interview days later, Sanford again is low-key. He politely answers questions like a local that’s giving directions, chalking up eXp’s profitability swing to “slight tweaks” in the business model.
But eXp has actually been on a rampage.
The company reported a profit in each quarter of 2020, including April through June when the housing market was in COVID-induced panic mode. Revenue and sales volume grew 90% for the year.
HousingWire Daily examines the most compelling articles reported from the HousingWire newsroom. Each afternoon, we provide our listeners with a deeper look into the stories coming across our newsroom that are helping Move Markets Forward. Hosted by the HW team and produced by Alcynna Lloyd and Victoria Wickham.
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