HomeVestors buys BlueSquIDX, a platform tied to $500M in home purchases

What's the deal? HomeVestorsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, the "We Buy Ugly Houses" franchise, has acquired BlueSquIDXDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a software platform that has facilitated more than $500 million in single-family home purchases. It marks the Dallas-based company's first-ever acquisition. Terms were not disclosed.

What does BlueSquIDX do? Founded by Steve Peterson, the platform taps MLS (Multiple Listing Service) data and applies machine learning to spot properties that are flippable or that investors would want to buy. It then lets buyers evaluate and make offers with a single click.

Why now? HomeVestors franchisees have largely ignored on-market listings because searching MLS is slow and clunky. Only 3% of homes its franchisees bought were listed on MLS in the prior 90 days, even though 30% of flipped homes were listed in the same window, according to chief growth officer Brandon Gebers.

What changes for franchisees? BlueSquIDX cuts the evaluation and contracting time per property to about five minutes, Gebers said. During a pilot, the process of landing a deal fell from what might have been 100 hours to roughly four.

Peterson is staying on to lead training and keep customising the platform for HomeVestors' more than 750 independently owned franchises across 47 states.

What's the endgame? HomeVestors, which has bought more than 160,000 houses since 1996, wants franchisees to expand beyond off-market deals. "It fundamentally changes how franchisees operate — those with access will have deals pushed to them every day," said chief executive officer Josh Waltzer.

The signal: The largest professional house-buying franchise in the US is betting that software, not just scale, is the next edge in house-flipping. By automating MLS sourcing, HomeVestors is pushing a manual, time-intensive craft toward a click-to-offer model.

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