HomeGain, a provider of customized services to consumers using the Internet to buy and sell homes, today named online real estate industry and mortgage-banking veteran Richard F. Sommer as the company’s chief executive officer and a member of its board of directors.
“Richard Sommer has the industry credentials and leadership qualities to take HomeGain to the next level of success,” said HomeGain Founder Bradley Inman. Inman, also the founder and publisher of Inman News, will continue to serve as chairman of the board of HomeGain.
“We spent more than nine months searching for the right kind of leader for HomeGain and we are extremely pleased to have found him,” he added.
Industry leader and executive Steve Ozonian commented: “Richard is a dynamic industry leader who understands the real estate business and is a friend of both Realtors and lenders.”
The privately held company celebrated its fifth anniversary and first full year of profitability in May 2004. More recently, HomeGain experienced a 65 percent increase in revenues between the first and second quarters.
“Richard will help us grow our network of agents and brokers and build our position as a leader in the online real estate category,” said Patrick Stone, a member of HomeGain’s board of directors.
“HomeGain has become a leader by providing the highest quality leads to the real estate industry and coupling those leads with technology tools that help agents and brokers convert them to closed sales,” said Sommer. “I look forward to continuing to build on the HomeGain legacy.”
Sommer previously was senior vice president of business development for the mortgage-banking unit at IndyMac Bank, the largest savings and loan or bank in the Los Angeles area and the 10th-largest thrift, by assets, in the nation. He joined IndyMac in 2002 after serving as president and managing director of International Real Estate Operations for HomeStore, a leading supplier of online media and technology solutions to the real estate industry. There, he played a key role in the development of a next-stage strategic plan for HomeStore following the departure of its founder and CEO and served on the Board of Directors of E-Realtor, a real estate transaction platform.
Prior to joining HomeStore, Sommer was co-founder, president and chief executive officer of Accordus, a technology infrastructure company serving the healthcare products industry. From 1988 to 1998, he was founder, president and CEO of De La Cruz Occupational Healthcare, the largest occupational medical provider to the electronics industry. He began his career with McKinsey & Co., serving the firm’s clients from offices in Chicago, Milan and Paris.
He graduated in 1983 from Princeton University in politics and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, where he earned a master’s degree in International Political Economy. In 1990, he earned a juris doctorate from the Stanford Law School.
Since its inception, HomeGain has generated more than 1.5 million consumer leads for 70,500 agents representing more than 3,200 nationally, regionally and independently branded brokerages. Each month, HomeGain.com attracts more than 3 million unique visitors.
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