Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

CONTENT PRESENTED BY Homie

The real estate company that’s disrupting the industry

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Powered by Homie

Homie was created when founder Mike Peregrina saw an opportunity to improve real estate transactions and turn the traditional model on its head.

“I feel like launching Homie was a social responsibility and a calling. I lost my home—my safety, my shelter—in Las Vegas during the 2008-09 financial crisis,” Peregrina said. “I was left feeling like the real estate industry was not set up in a way to give a consumer the proper step forward, and it felt like my responsibility to fix it.”

Homie differentiates itself as a real estate company by its simple, transparent, cost-saving approach: It offers consumers the ability to buy and sell a home without paying high real estate commissions.

All Homie agents are W-2 employees with benefits, and they receive a flat fee for buying and selling homes, incentivizing them to find the right home for the client, regardless of budget.

In the four years since the company’s inception, it has saved consumers more than $60 million in commission costs and closed more than $4 billion of real estate value. This is made possible by offering additional services through Homie’s family of companies, which includes mortgage loans, closing services and homeowner’s insurance. And Peregrina continues to bring the mission back home.

“I went to Bonanza High School. I went to UNLV. Las Vegas is my hometown. I love Las Vegas and it holds a special place in my heart. Our mission to make homeownership affordable, simple and accessible is so important,” Peregrina said. “I empathize that people lost faith in the industry after the crash, because I was one of them. And this is where the genesis of the Homie story came from.”

Operating on four main pillars—service, savings, simplicity and social good—Peregrina is often asked if the model is too good to be true. The truth, he says, is it’s not.

“The goal is to transform the industry and shift these huge economics back to the consumer. As the company grows and gains market share, we never want to forget that we’re doing this for the right reason: To have a homie in your corner when you’re buying or selling your most expensive asset,” Peregrina said.

Helping the community bounce back

The company recently seeded a $10,000 fund to be managed by the United Way of Southern Nevada to help those who lost their jobs during the coronavirus pandemic. They are also refunding the flat fee to homeowners selling their home during this time. “We believe that business is one of the most powerful social platforms, and it’s our responsibility to help the community where we can,” Peregrina said.