8z Real Estate Launches 8z Offers, a Local iBuyer in Colorado

New Technology Helps Home Sellers Close Deals Fast, Make More Money

BOULDER, Colo., April 30, 2019 -- 8z Real Estate, one of the nation's most successful brokerages with 15 offices and over $1 billion in real estate sales in 2018, announced it has launched 8z Offers, a cash instant-offer service for home sellers in the Colorado Front Range region. This includes Colorado Springs, Greater Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins and Greeley.

8z Offers provides the opportunity for homeowners to get a quick cash offer on their home from a trusted local company. Instant Offers removes the uncertainty of selling a home, replacing it with a guaranteed offer and significantly reducing the time it takes to close.

National iBuyers have emerged as today's consumer wants convenience, speed and predictability, and iBuyer instant offers have emerged to meet those demands in real estate. Instant offers are designed to get transactions done quickly at competitive, even market-beating, prices. While iBuyers represented only 0.2 percent of home sales nationally in 2018, or some 15,000-plus homes, they are growing exponentially. In Denver, for example, market share is accelerating rapidly — national iBuyer Opendoor has purchased over 100 homes in the Denver market in the last six months.

The real estate market in Colorado remains robust, but there are signals that the market is shifting. According to the data provided by market-tracking firm InfoSparks, the median days to contract on a home on the Front Range is 11 days, and the average days to close is 44. On average, Front Range homes are selling at 99.9 percent of list price. The strong Front Range market makes the speed and surety of a sale on the open market comparable to accepting an instant offer from an iBuyer. That said, a significant difference between selling via instant offer and selling on the open market is convenience. The median number of showings before a final offer in Colorado is 11, versus skipping the hassle of home showings completely by working with an iBuyer.

Local iBuyers like 8z Offers are uniquely qualified to service home sellers in ways national companies, like Zillow, Offerpad and Opendoor, simply cannot. National iBuyers have rigid program parameters including age of home, type of home, value of home and geographic location. For example, none of the national iBuyers currently make offers on homes in Boulder, Larimer, Weld and El Paso counties. In addition, iBuyers typically will not make offers on homes with values greater than $600,000. This results in less than 50 percent of the homes being eligible for an instant offer. Local iBuyers, like 8z Offers, are laser-focused on local market conditions, allowing them to make fair market offers on more expensive and older homes outside of the national iBuyers' local footprints and parameters.

8z Offers was the clear next step for 8z Real Estate, a brokerage committed to putting the consumer's needs first, as it has helped over 10,000 consumers compare their home-selling options. 8z now buys homes using a multi-million-dollar iBuyer fund, giving it a unique market advantage and allowing it to hold multiple properties at a time. 8z Offers, in only a few months, has made more than 50 offers on Front Range homes, with multiple homes under contract, and its first instant-offer purchase closed in April.

"Like the other major iBuyers, 8z Offers is making fair market value offers. Even still, the vast majority of homeowners are choosing to list with an 8z Real Estate agent on the open market in order to maximize their sales price and proceeds they pocket," says Lane Hornung, founder of 8z Real Estate.

Galina Allam, a Greeley resident, recently sold her home to 8z Offers: "With an instant offer, you pay for speed and convenience. 8z made the entire experience very easy. Having an agent who explains everything made a big difference. Our 8z agent Cameron was always on our side. We would recommend him to everyone we know. He is helping us find a new home now."

In order to best maximize the consumer experience, 8z Offers has partnered with zavvie, the industry-leading instant-offer aggregator. zavvie delivers technology, market-specific data and a seamless consumer experience for their select broker partners around the country. zavvie allows the home seller to begin their experience online and connect with a person who will walk them through all their options, including getting multiple offers from national iBuyers and a local iBuyer – like 8z Offers.

By utilizing the zavvie Offer Optimizer, the consumer has an easy-to-navigate, side-by-side comparison of all options, including working with an agent to sell their home on the open market. The zavvie Offer Optimizer is the first online tool that gives home sellers three key insights: what it looks like to sell to a national iBuyer, a local iBuyer and on the open market.

"zavvie is the Kayak of Instant Offers," says Stefan Peterson, zavvie co-founder and chief data officer. "It is the leading iBuyer aggregator in the real estate space, delivering market-specific data and adding transparency to the instant-offer process from start to finish for the consumer."

"We've been helping clients in Colorado manually sort through the maze of iBuyer offers since they entered our market," said Ryan Carter, president of 8z Real Estate and a veteran Colorado Realtor®. "Most homeowners think all instant offers are the same, but they're not. Most homes are not even eligible for an instant offer. zavvie Offer Optimizer opens the curtain to reveal unique market insights. Consumers get 100 percent transparency, multiple offers on their home and the ability to make the best choice that's right for them," Carter added.

zavvie Offer Optimizer also provides a detailed breakdown of the various costs and fees — which differ among iBuyers — as well as the typical timeframe for a sale to be completed. In Denver, the technology behind zavvie Offer Optimizer features calculations based on actual transactional data specific to the Denver market where national iBuyers compete.

At 8zoffers.com homeowners can access the zavvie Offer Optimizer by clicking a button and comparing instant offers available in the Colorado Front Range from leading national iBuyers including Opendoor and Zillow Offers, and now leading local iBuyer 8z Offers.

About 8z Real Estate

8z Real Estate's mission statement is "Real Estate is broken, we are fixing it," and is committed to putting clients first. Named one of the "Best Companies to Work for" by The Denver Post for five straight years, 8z is one of the most successful real estate brokerages in the nation and the fastest-growing among Colorado's 10 largest brokerages on the Front Range, according to REAL Trends. With 15 offices providing Colorado's Front Range home buyers and sellers with unmatched market data and online tools, 8z generated more than $1 billion in total sales transactions last year. 8z's founder Lane Hornung was named one of Colorado's Most Admired CEOs by the Denver Business Journal in 2018. Find your 8z neighborhood agent at 8z.com.

About zavvie

zavvie helps home sellers close quickly and pocket maximum cash. zavvie Offer Optimizer brings transparency to the iBuyer process, giving consumers a free, online side-by-side instant offers comparison. Home sellers can use the zavvie Offer Optimizer at no charge and without registration at zavvie.com/offer-optimizer.

zavvie partners with trusted local real estate brokerages nationwide who also make instant offers. These local partners include 8z Real Estate in Denver, Colorado Springs and Northern Colorado; McGuire Real Estate in the San Francisco Bay Area, California; Robert Slack in Orlando and Tampa, Florida; BRIX Real Estate in the Twin Cities, Minneapolis-Saint Paul; Path & Post Real Estate in Atlanta, Georgia; Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Winans in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas; and Summa Realty in Portland, Oregon.

zavvie Offer Optimizer is available to sellers in 21 major metropolitan markets, including Atlanta, Austin, Birmingham, Charlotte, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Jacksonville, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Nashville, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland, Raleigh-Durham, Riverside, Sacramento, San Antonio, Tampa, Denver and Tucson.