Unison Home Ownership Investors
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 | |
| Industry | Real estate |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2004 |
| Founder | Thomas Sponholtz Chairman and Chief Executive Officer |
| Headquarters | , United States |
Area served | United States |
Key people | Chief Executive Officer - Thomas Sponholtz Chief Financial Officer - Scott Case |
| Website | www |
Unison Home Ownership Investors (commonly known as Unison) is an American home ownership investment company based in San Francisco, California. The company uses a shared ownership model to allow customers to buy a home when they don't have enough capital to get a normal mortgage taking a percentage of the gain when the house is sold. The company also provides reverse mortgages for people to release funds out of an existing real estate asset taking a share of capital gain. The funding is provided by institutional investors such as pension funds.
Thomas Sponholtz founded the company as FirstREX in 2004, but the company did not start becoming involved in home ownership investment until 2007.[1][2] Sponholtz became the company's chief executive.
Sponholtz founded Unison as a way to connect institutional investors to local real estate agents and home buyers who didn't have the capital required to purchase a home and didn't want to take out loans, make monthly payments, or incur debt.[3] Jim Riccitelli joined Unison as co-CEO several years later and served as head of the company's customer education program. From 2017 to 2019, Riccitelli assumed the role of president, and would focus on consumer education and financial literacy.[4]
In 2013 the company announced it would provide down payment funding in combination with the portfolio loans of HomeStreet Bank and with RPM Mortgage loans in California.[5][6][7]
In 2016, it launched its down payment funding in combination with Guild Mortgage loans in Washington and they expanded the availability to consumers in Oregon and California.[8] That same year the company announced it would offer its down payment funding with California Mortgage Company (First Cal) on single-family homes, condos and townhomes in combination with conventional loans meeting conforming and super-conforming guidelines.[9]
On December 5, 2016, FirstREX changed its name to Unison Home Ownership Investors.[10]
On February 21, 2017, then Prosper Marketplace President Ron Suber joined the company as an investor and strategic advisor.[11][12] The company also raised 300 million in total capital.[13] The company announced findings from the "Unison Home Affordability Report 2017," showcasing the percentage of homes accessible to the median household in major U.S. cities.[14][15][16][17] Later that year, the company announced multiple promotions and additions to its management team.[18][19][20]
In 2018, the company and Valley National Bank, the wholly owned subsidiary of Valley National Bancorp, announced the launch of their 5% down payment program which will be given in conjunction with an 80% loan-to-value mortgage.[21] The New York Times wrote an article about shared equity programs that called attention to Unison, Landed, and Own Home Finance.[22]
On June 26, 2018, Unison closed a $40 Million Series B Funding Round.[23]