RealtyTrac
RealtyTrac is a real estate information company and an online marketplace for foreclosed and defaulted properties in the United States. It was founded in 1993 and is based in Irvine, California. It publishes a monthly U.S. Foreclosure Market Report.[1][2][3]
In November 2011 Renovo Capital LLC, a private equity firm, bought a majority stake in the company and formed a new company, Renwood RealtyTrac LLC. James Saccacio was replaced as CEO by Brandon Moore(CEO), previously an a senior executive at One Technologies, with Saccacio staying as a spokesman and board member.[1][4]
In August 2012, CEO Brandon Moore was replaced by acting President and COO James Moyle, who joined RealtyTrac during the acquisition of Homefacts[5] in April 2012, where he served as CEO.
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Operation [edit]
The site has over 1 million "distressed" properties in its database at any time. In 2008 they had 150 data collectors, who collected data directly from notices posted on courthouse noticeboards or from county recorder offices.[6][7] The site charges a monthly fee for access to their listings. The company provides data to MSN Real Estate, Yahoo! Real Estate and The Wall Street Journal[8] and from 2005 they press release monthly figures on foreclosures that they say are a good indicator of real estate appreciation or depreciation.[2][9] Government agencies and Wall Street analysts also use the data, which are given free to government bodies.[9]
History [edit]
Beginnings [edit]
The roots of RealtyTrac can be traced back to 1993 when Derek and Kimberly White [10] would deliver foreclosure information from the back of their motorcycle to the neighborhoods around their home in Arizona. Their business took off and they opened an office in Phoenix. The next year, in 1994, they moved to Santa Barbara, Ca where they met Michael Keane, a brilliant programmer, and with his help they brought foreclosure data to the web.
Derek White teamed up with 20 year Hughes Aircraft Research Engineer Ronald Schwarzrock and they founded Realtytrac Information Systems LLC, with Michael Keane as the lead programmer. Realtytrac Information Systems LLC was originally incorporated on Thursday, February 9, 1995 in the State of CA by Derek White and Ronald Schwarzrock, represented by Heaton & Doescher, Ltd. of Carson City, NV, as their registered agent. (Ref: CorporationWiki.com/Nevada/Carson-City/realtytrac-information-systems-llc/45853594.aspx) In those early days the toll-free number for RealtyTrac (877)888-TRAC rang to Ronald Schwarzrock's home in Lake Forest, Ca..
In 1998 Ronald Schwarzrock left Hughes Aircraft and he and Derek White opened the office in Westlake Village, Ca., around the corner from Realtor.com. All total they raised nearly $1.8 million from 78 investors which allowed RealtyTrac LLC to expand to their new office and build a robust system with new servers, new web presence, merchant services and the ability to handle large amounts of data. At its new home, RealtyTrac gained National attention after Derek White, Ronald Schwarzrock and Bob Marmorstein took RealtyTrac LLC to the Inman Real Estate Connect in San Francisco where they secured pivotal relationships with Yahoo and other major companies in this new space during the early days of the internet. RealtyTrac was even featured on CNBC'S Power Lunch
During the early days of RealtyTrac, foreclosure information was limited to California[9] In 1998 the company had records on 180,000 Californian properties.,[6] as data was obtained from smaller companies that transcribed property records from typically only one county or municipality. In 1998 the company had records on 180,000 Californian properties. With the new hardware and software in place, Derek White and Ronald Schwarzrock struck a deal with Mike Ela, then President of Dataquick, for foreclosure data from all 50 states which took them national overnight. With complete foreclosure data that included notice of default (NOD), notice of trustee sale (NTS) and bank-owned (REO) information on more than a million properties from Florida to Hawaii and Alaska and all points in-between RealtyTrac secured its place in history as the leader and pioneer in online foreclosure information with a strong business-to-business (B2B) operation and broad-based business-to-consumer (B2C) applications.
In January 2000, then Vice President at Comerica Bank, Matthew Mara (a golfing buddy of Mr. Schwarzrock) arranged a meeting between RealtyTrac LLC and First Security Van Kasper of Newport Beach Ca., a brokerage and investment-banking company. They had just taken Homeseekers Public (NASDAQ: HMSK), and were extremely excited to partner with RealtyTrac and saw it as a perfect complement to Homeseekers and were ready to raise up to $20 million to fund RealtyTrac's growth. Unfortunately in less than 30 days was the infamous dot-com crash which dried up any hope for funding. Realtytrac, in a bind, went to Matthew Mara and he setup a meeting with Rich Toubman's financial services firm, Global Vantage LTD, located in Newport Beach. One of the attendees that sat in on the meeting was James Saccacio who obtained much needed capital for RealtyTrac and replaced Derek White as the CEO. Mr. Saccacio [2] relocated RealtyTrac to its current location in Irvine, Ca.
Great Recession 2007 - 2009 [edit]
In 2007 the Colorado Division and Housing and the Mortgage Bankers Association, among others, complained that by counting the three stages of foreclosure separately the company was overstating foreclosure levels and the company changed their counting methods to only count properties once in their figures.[9] During this period comparisons in data over time were complicated by changes in methodologies and in the increase in the number of counties that data was gathered from.[11]
2011 purchase [edit]
Renovo Capital LLC, a private equity firm, bought a majority stake in the company in November 2011 and formed a new company, Renwood RealtyTrac LLC. Saccacio was replaced as CEO by Brandon Moore, previously an a senior executive at One Technologies, with Saccacio staying as a spokesman and board member.[1][4]
Reception [edit]
In 2007, the site was rated as the third largest real estate site by MediaMatrix.[12] The New York banking superintendent said that "RealtyTrac is now setting the standard by which this information gets reported".[9] VP of Marketing Rick Sharga was awarded a Stevie Award in 2007 as Best Marketing Executive.[8]
In response to the suggestion that people regard the company as "grave dancers", Saccacio responded that "We provide a potential solution to people with a problem. By democratizing the data, we help people in a bad situation."[2] As of 2012, the company maintained an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau.
References [edit]
- ^ a b c Panchuk, Kerri (28 November 2011). "Big investor moves into RealtyTrac, CEO replaced". HousingWire.
- ^ a b c d Croghan, Lore (23 January 2006). "Inside Trac On Housing". New York Daily News.
- ^ "Renwood RealtyTrac LLC". Bloomberg Businessweek.
- ^ a b Brambila, Andrea V. (28 November 2011). "Renovo takes majority stake in RealtyTrac". Inman News.
- ^ "RealtyTrac acquires online data aggregator Homefacts".
- ^ a b Ronan, Courtney (27 January 1998). "RealtyTrac Exposes the 'Hidden Market'". RealtyTimes.
- ^ Ronan, Courtney (27 January 1998). "RealtyTrac Exposes the 'Hidden Market'".
- ^ a b "RealtyTrac". Stevie Awards. The American Business Awards.
- ^ a b c d e Kiviat, Barbara (23 October 2008). "House Hunters". Time Magazine.
- ^ http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/19980123_derekwhite.htm,
- ^ Kiviat, Barbara (20 June 2008). "How to escape your crushing mortgage". Time Business.
- ^ Babb, Danielle; Nazur, Bill (2007). Finding Foreclosures: An Insider's Guide to Cashing in on This Hidden Market. Entrepreneur Press. ISBN 1-59918-131-2.
External links [edit]
- Official website
- Stories in The Business Journals
- Q&A: The Outlook for Home Foreclosures, interview with RealtyTrac's Rick Sharga by Barbara Kiviat, Time Business, 3 November 2009[[Category:Companies established in 1993]
