Why eXp Realty chose Newrez for its next mortgage joint venture

When looking at their newly formed mortgage joint venture, Revenos Mortgage, executives at both eXp Realty and Newrez, see nothing but opportunities ahead. “When you think about our ecosystem across the entire real estate landscape and the opportunity set, Leo [Pareja] and I were talking to each other about this possible opportunity and thinking about it from a lead perspective. [With] our existing home set or how we think about our originating business, attaching to a global real estate company was really strategic for us,” Baron Silverstein, the president of Newrez, said during a session at eXp Con on Friday. “I would say it was a bit of love at first sight.” The partnership with Newrez comes roughly a month after HousingWire reported eXp’s decision to wind down Success Lending, its former mortgage joint venture with Kind Lending. According to eXp executives, the joint venture was losing money, which prompted the shuttering of the venture. “As executives of eXp, we needed to protect our tents from a financial perspective and to protect our brand. In a down market, in an up market, our corporate margins are very small in the real estate business and where we need to excel is in af...