On October 8, eXp Realty and Newrez unveiled Revenos Mortgage, a joint venture slated to debut in early 2027. This partnership merges eXp’s agent network with Newrez’s mortgage platform. Notably, this isn’t eXp’s first joint venture; its initial one, Success Lending, is concluding after approximately five years.
The timing coincides with a challenging market environment. For four consecutive years, existing home sales have hovered around 4 million annually, marking the weakest period since the mid-1990s. In such conditions, larger companies intensify their competition to secure a greater share of the diminished market.
Newrez President Baron Silverstein emphasized that the venture will provide agents with “a lender and servicer that stays with their clients long after closing.” The objective is to maintain control over the customer relationship, from the initial home search through the loan process, closing, and subsequent monthly payments.
Rocket Mortgage’s Strategy
Rocket Mortgage pioneered this strategy, establishing an ecosystem that now includes Redfin, Rocket Mortgage, Rocket Close for title services, and Mr. Cooper for loan servicing. In the second quarter of 2026, nearly half of Redfin’s buy-side clients secured financing through Rocket Mortgage.
Rocket isn’t the only player in this space. Zillow acquired a mortgage lender in 2018, while Lower purchased the home-search platform Movoto in 2025. Compass merged with Anywhere, consolidating major real estate brokerages under a single entity. Some of these moves integrate various stages of the homebuying process, known as vertical integration, while others merge competitors within the same stage, termed horizontal consolidation. Both trends are on the rise.
The rationale is straightforward. Rocket’s projections indicate it will continue gaining market share even as the overall mortgage market contracts. This is the essence of consolidation: larger players securing bigger portions of a shrinking market. No one is expanding the market itself; they’re simply redistributing it.
Independent lenders lack the scale to compete. The critical question is whether the convenience and savings generated by these integrated ecosystems benefit consumers or remain within the companies. Other industries have tested this model, with mixed outcomes.
Pharmacy Industry Parallel
Consider the pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) industry. PBMs were established to negotiate drug prices for insurers and employers. Today, the three largest PBMs are owned by conglomerates that also control major insurers and pharmacies: CVS Health owns Caremark and Aetna, UnitedHealth owns OptumRx, and Cigna owns Express Scripts. Together, these PBMs handle nearly 80% of U.S. prescriptions.
In January 2025, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported that pharmacies affiliated with these PBMs collected over $7.3 billion above their estimated acquisition costs for specialty generic drugs from 2017 to 2022. For commercial plan members, more than half of the drugs studied were marked up by over 100%, with 22% marked up by more than 1,000%. Meanwhile, health plans’ payments for these drugs increased by 14% to 21% annually.
Josh Golden, Senior VP of Strategy at Judi Rx, commented: “When the wave of vertical integration swept through the PBM industry, it gave the three largest players unprecedented influence and control across the pharmaceutical supply chain. The promise was that increased scale and integration would help lower drug prices and improve care for patients. Ultimately, this promise has not played out. Instead, we’re left with a drug delivery system where enormous value is extracted through opaque revenue streams buried in the dark corners of a complex financial black box.”
The Congressional Budget Office found that while insurer and PBM combinations can reduce drug prices, those savings may not translate into lower premiums for patients. Integration has made the system more cost-effective to operate but not necessarily more affordable for users.
This scenario offers a cautionary lesson for the housing industry. While companies involved in these integrations may achieve significant efficiencies and economies of scale, there’s no assurance that these savings will reach consumers. As competition diminishes, the incentive to pass on savings may also wane.
What’s unfolding isn’t merely companies expanding into related businesses. It’s the fusion of vertical integration and horizontal consolidation, resulting in greater control over the entire homebuying process and increased concentration within specific industry segments.
Live Nation Monopoly Case
The 2010 merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster serves as a powerful example. By combining the largest concert promoter with the dominant ticket seller, the company also owns or operates major venues. During a trial, jurors heard testimony that Live Nation threatened to withhold concerts from venues that didn’t agree to exclusive Ticketmaster deals.
On April 15, 2026, a federal jury ruled that Live Nation illegally maintained monopoly power and overcharged fans on tickets sold at major concert venues. Live Nation is contesting the verdict, with remedies to be determined next year. However, the case’s logic is clear: controlling the venue enables control over ticket sales.
While the housing industry is far from such concentration, the initial steps of the strategy are similar: extending into interdependent verticals and leveraging scale. By owning the home search, transaction, and recurring revenue from servicing, companies can direct customers through their own businesses.
The safeguard against steering is RESPA, which mandates disclosure of affiliated relationships and protects borrowers’ right to shop. However, this safeguard assumes consumers actively compare options. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) found that fewer than one in four borrowers apply with more than one lender.
Consumer Comparison Concerns
A critical issue is the lack of consumer comparison. The CFPB’s findings highlight that fewer than one in four borrowers apply with multiple lenders, limiting competitive pressure that could reduce costs and enhance service.
RESPA’s disclosure requirement may not suffice to prevent consumers from being directed into closed ecosystems if they don’t shop around. This raises concerns about the effectiveness of current safeguards.
The Question of Industry Progress
Industry leaders now face a key question: Are these moves creating new homeownership opportunities or merely competing for larger shares of a shrinking market? Corporate growth and industry progress aren’t synonymous.
