TRENDS & ISSUES Running a profitable real estate business with our model requires us to keep our costs low. The best way to do that is by owning our technology and eliminating the bloat that accompanies office spaces. Our full technology platform allows us to streamline our operations, reduce required manpower, cut our costs and reliance on others, and provide a better user experience for our agents and clients. As we invested capital in our technology, we made two more strategic acquisitions: home search and CRM company Naberly, and big data aggregator and hyperlocal content creator LiveBy.
Lessons From Fathom Realty’s Successful IPO Commentary by Josh Harley
S
omeone once told me that taking a company public the right way would be one of the hardest things I’d ever do in my life. As an eight-year Marine Corps Infantryman, that idea was absurd. While it certainly wasn’t harder than fast-roping onto the deck of a moving ship or clearing enemy combatants from a building, I can now fully appreciate what they meant. It’s a different kind of hard. Many people ask us why we decided to go public so early in our business, and the answer is simple: We had more opportunities than we had capital. Our biggest expense wasn’t offices, employees or technology. It was keeping up with our explosive growth. After two years and countless man-hours, plus millions of dollars spent on the process, we made our debut on the NASDAQ on July 31, 2020. During our IPO, we stated that we were raising capital for three main purposes: accelerate growth, invest in our proprietary technology, and make strategic acquisitions to include mortgage, title, insurance and smaller 78 October 2021 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE
brokerages. We didn’t miss a beat executing on our vision. Fathom Realty has a unique business model. We charge our agents a simple, small, flat transaction fee per sale. Plus, we don’t charge monthly fees. Yet, even with taking a fraction of the fees our peers charge, we could still achieve profitability on the brokerage business at fewer than 10,000 transactions per quarter. To accomplish this, when most of our peers didn’t achieve profitability at even 30,000 transactions per quarter, is a testament to our operation, especially when we provide everything an agent needs to be successful without sacrificing anything.
We’re exceeding every promise we made on our IPO roadshow. In the last 15 months, we’ve grown revenue, agent count and transaction volume. We made numerous strategic acquisitions, and we’re exceeding every promise we made on our IPO roadshow. Plus, as we expand across the U.S., we’re talking to more brokerages about mergers and acquisitions. I couldn’t be prouder of our humble beginnings and the fantastic employees and agents who I’m honored to serve every day. To learn more about Fathom Realty, visit FathomCareers.com. RE Josh Harley is a serial entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Fathom Holdings, tech geek, innovator, disruptor, marketer, teacher, artist, U.S. Marine and Alaska-raised sweet tea fiend. He believes deeply in the principles of servant-leadership and strives to be an example to his leadership team and his agents on serving others first.
