Our story
Forward is a nonprofit created by the team behind Homeward. The Homeward team loves helping agents and their clients win, but started asking themselves an important question: Is there a way we could use our team’s expertise and resources to help families who struggle to afford a home?
As a company operating in some of the least affordable cities, Homeward has seen low- to moderate-income (LMI) families continue to get priced out of homeownership. Homeward's employees and partners are thrilled to unite in supporting this cause.
So he stopped waiting for someone else to solve his clients’ problem and tried something radical: In December of 2018, he bought the home his clients wanted with his own money. “That cash unlocked the home equity my clients had tied up in their house,” he explains. Then they sold their old house and got a mortgage to buy the new house back from him. Homeward’s first service, Buy before you sell, was born. “My cash made the process easier, calmer, and more certain,” explains Heyl. It also gave his clients the ability to move on their own timeline instead of someone else’s. Heyl’s workaround solved the problem, but it wasn’t scalable.
And Heyl wanted to provide other agents the ability to do the same for their clients. Heyl knew his experience wasn’t unique. He understood that other agents were hamstrung by the traditional real estate transaction, too, and that they needed more innovative ways to attract and help clients.
So Heyl founded Homeward and began working toward our first round of funding — $25M — which closed in July 2019. In May 2020, less than a year later, we closed our second round of funding, this time for $105M.
And in May 2021, we secured $371M of additional growth capital, including $136M in equity and $235M in debt.
“Without Homeward, I never would have been able to help my clients get the home they wanted,” wrote one agent in an early review. “Homeward has helped my business and my clients. Real estate is changing and Homeward is on the forefront of those changes.”
In fact, Homeward’s first solution, Buy before you sell, was so popular that agents clamored for a service for their clients who didn’t have a home to sell. In January 2021, we introduced Buy with cash.
Since cash offers are three times more likely to beat financed bids, this product empowers agents to make every client a cash buyer, helping them compete in multiple offer situations and command better terms in less competitive markets.
Most alternatives to traditional real estate minimize the agent or require homebuyers to work with an agent they don’t know, an agent who may not even live in the market where they’re buying. At Homeward, we’re innovating with agents, positioning them to do more for their clients without earning any less — and homebuyers benefit. We’re proud to play a part in one of the biggest financial decisions of a consumer’s life and work hard every day to make it easier and more enjoyable.
