What the business is
Seattle real estate startup offering buyers upfront funding to make competitive offers, now moving to wholesale mortgage lending.
The bet
That Flyhomes is worth more as a wholesale mortgage lender behind 'Buy Before You Sell' financing than as a consumer home-search company.
Starting capital
About $200M equity raised since 2016 (per GeekWire)
How it started
Flyhomes launched in 2016 and gained attention with a product that gave buyers upfront funding to make more competitive offers, creating the 'Buy Before You Sell' initiative early on.
What happened
The company later went through multiple rounds of layoffs amid rising interest rates and shifting housing demand. As recently as 2024 it was still investing in consumer search, acquiring technology from ZeroDown, a San Francisco startup backed by Sam Altman.
How it ended up
On 1 July 2025 Flyhomes sold its AI-powered consumer home search portal, related assets and team to the Miami-based Real Brokerage, which also made an equity investment; terms were not disclosed.
What has to be true
Flyhomes had been through multiple rounds of layoffs amid rising interest rates and shifting housing demand.
CEO Tushar Garg called the sale a strategic decision to put the company's focus on the 'Buy Before You Sell' financing offering.
For Real, the portal bolsters its technology stack as it uses AI tools to simplify home buying for agents and consumers.
What can be applied
When the consumer front end is costly to sustain and the financing product is the real differentiator, selling the front end can fund the pivot to the part that is hard to copy.
Aftermath
As of 1 July 2025, Flyhomes had declined to share a headcount (LinkedIn data showed more than 200 employees, many in India) and was moving to a wholesale mortgage model, with its financing distributed through Real's One Real Mortgage. Real, founded in 2014 and public since 2021, took over the home-search technology.
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