Houwzer Reviews

3.8

60% would recommend to a friend

(95 total reviews)

Mike Maher

65% approve of CEO

54% positive business outlook

Houwzer has an employee rating of 3.8 out of 5 stars, based on 95 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Houwzer employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Real estate industry (3.8 stars).

Reviews by job title

95 reviews
2.0
29 Oct 2018

Weird environment

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

LOTS of flexibility and a great chance to learn while getting paid.

Cons

-No accountability -No clear goals -Not a motivating environment -Lower management comes off as weak -No transparency -They use the term "salaried agents" to market to buyers but agents are not actually salaried.

avatar
Houwzer Response
7y
Thank you for taking time to provide us feedback. We are committed to changing the real estate brokerage industry for good – especially when it comes to enriching the lives of our agents. It's disappointing to hear that we were not able to provide that experience during your time at Houwzer. We find constructive feedback value and work constantly to improve wherever possible, and with that in mind, I'd like to address some of the concerns you brought up. Salary: We always strive to be both honest and accurate in our messaging, and it is most certainly not a lie to say our agents are salaried. All of our agents are classified as W2, full-time employees. We previously used language to the effect of a "guaranteed draw" internally to calculate what buyer agents would make on top of their salary. We recently recognized that this has created some confusion with our buyer agents, and as of January 1, 2019, we are revising our compensation model to reflect a more simpler methodology. All of our buyer agents will make more money in this new model. We also think that the company contribution towards employee benefits is a significant value on top of the salary and bonuses. Pressure-Free: Unlike the life of a traditional agent where you do not know when you will get your next paycheck, we have always paid our agents regular and consistent salaried compensation. In fact, our base salary compensation in the Philadelphia market is higher than the annual median gross income for REALTORS nationally ($39,800) according to the National Association of Realtors (https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics/quick-real-estate-statistics). We believe this provides them the time required to build a client base, while still making a competitive living wage. It also allows them to focus on their clients' goals, not just commissions. Accountability: As we have grown and added managerial capacity, we have been able to increase the time and resources spent on enhancing structure and accountability. We believe this is a critical component of ensuring that Houwzer can provide a consistent level of service to our clients. We believe that expectation setting and employee accountability is an important part of any organization, especially sales organizations. Our agents have weekly check-ins with sales managers and quarterly and annual goals. Transparency: We continue to find more ways to increase our transparency, both internally and externally. For example, in the last quarter, we launched Town Hall meetings with the CEO and the leadership team, weekly office hours with the Executive team, and shared an abridged version of the quarterly investor update. We also leverage a business intelligence platform with shared dashboards openly visible in the workspace. The agent role at Houwzer is not for everyone. We strive to find candidates who will thrive in our system, and although our agent retention rate is one of the highest in the industry, not all agents will make it at Houwzer. We do thank you again for your feedback, and we certainly wish you the best of luck in all your future endeavors. Best, Mike Maher Founder, CEO
2.0
1 Aug 2023

Not what it used to be

Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The agents on the team work really hard and want to help each other succeed. The commission model really does help home sellers with saving some money while getting most of the same services you'd expect from the other brokerages.

Cons

It really has changed. There was a time that it was very refreshing to work here. There were always high expectations, but the environment was very supportive, collaborative, and you felt the appreciation. You were happy to be a part of something special. But then things made a quick turn. Employee and customer satisfaction took a backseat to showing profits, even in a tough real estate market. The layoffs started and became more frequent over the past year or so, to the point that everyone began to look over their shoulder continuously. The "acquisition" of Trelora at the end of 2022 didn't help the morale. It was advertised to be a good thing, as expected, but the new procedures took away a lot of personal touch with the clients and decisions are being made by leadership members on the other side of the country that hardly know their employees. On top of that, this salary model for agents is based on the promise that leads are generated by the company but those leads were almost non-existent anymore and the agents began to be judged (unfairly) for their productivity. The modest salary compared to the constant worry and new, insanely low "bonus" structure really don't make this company as appealing as it used to be. It's a shame because this company once was amazing but that changed in a few short years.

3.0
16 June 2022

Rapidly declining culture

Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Learn news things. Wear many hats. Things are always changing. Work from home 4/5 days Flexible PTO (not unlimited)

Cons

Layoffs. Layoff. Layoff. Things are always changing. Wearing many hats. Watching coworkers get laid off or quit all around you makes you feel like walking on ice. Pay freezes when salary is far below market. Only agents get shout-outs and receive awards/bonuses. Most of the company is failing to understand the hard work other departments do. Agents have no real idea how supported they are! One department has no idea what other departments' roles are. Hard to work together completely when people don’t understand the how. Communication is either too much or not enough. Leadership is not transparent. Mike Maher is great on paper. When it’s time for him to actually know his employees, he’s gone. I sent him a connection on LinkedIn months ago. He looks at my profile but hasn’t accepted my connection. If your CEO doesn’t wanna connect, what is the point!? They made a mistake in some hiring but instead of fixing the said mistake, they are rolling with it. Losing amazing people in the process. I don’t have high expectations about the longevity of Houwzer. Each employee works with a layoff shadow over them looming. It’s not comfortable. Teams lost half their staff and are told they just have double the work. D&I isn’t a “passion” All white male speakers at “Launch 2022” was pointed out and the response was “I didn’t even think of that." Very tone-deaf emails are being sent to employees. There is even a lack of diversity in our marketing on LinkedIn... Suz did an amazing job representing the females at Launch. One speaker.

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Glassdoor has 97 Houwzer reviews submitted anonymously by Houwzer employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Houwzer is right for you.