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Home sale-leaseback platform EasyKnock continued its expansion spree on Tuesday when it announced it had acquired home equity company Balance Homes for an undisclosed price.
EasyKnock serves existing homeowners by purchasing their homes and letting them stay on as renters. Balance Homes gives homeowners access to their equity as an alternative to traditional cash-out refinancing or home equity loans.
“Acquiring Balance Homes complements EasyKnock’s existing sale-leaseback offering by providing homeowners additional options to convert the equity that is rightfully theirs into cash for their current needs,” EasyKnock CEO Jarred Kessler said.
EasyKnock said the acquisition comes at a time when lenders are denying home equity line of credit applications 46 percent of the time, according to the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council.
Kessler said Balance Homes’ co-founders, Judd Schoenhotltz and Aaron LaRue, would join EasyKnock in executive leadership roles. Schoenholtz will become chief revenue officer and LaRue will join as chief technology officer, Kessler said.
EasyKnock has been working to add more services to its portfolio in recent months. The Balance Homes acquisition is only the latest attempt to give homeowners added flexibility.
EasyKnock announced in May that it had scooped up the power buyer Ribbon, saying at the time the acquisition would allow it to add to its customer base by offering cash offer services to homebuyers.
That deal merged two companies that had previously been working on opposite ends of home sales — homeowners and homebuyers.
Balance advertises itself as a way for homeowners with low credit scores to access their equity and pay off debt while keeping their homes. The company pays off its clients’ mortgages in exchange for an ownership stake in their homes.
“This acquisition is the next step on EasyKnock’s clear path to lead the industry as the first platform to offer customers alternative solutions to buy and sell, finance new homes and utilize their equity in one place,” Kessler said.
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