Lower Acquires Movoto, A Top 5 U.S. Real Estate Portal, To Accelerate National Growth And Build An End-To-End Homeownership Platform

Lower, a digital mortgage lender, announced the acquisition of proptech and flagship real estate portal, Movoto.  This acquisition combines Movoto’s significant reach with Lower’s lending platform and retail network, creating an end-to-end homeownership platform while offering a growth engine for real estate agents and loan officers.

Integrating Movoto.com, which attracted over 150 million visits in 2024, with Lower’s lending experience marks a significant step in Lower’s mission to be the ultimate destination to buy, refinance, and sell a home. Movoto connects hundreds of thousands of consumers with top local agents and will now pair those realtors and consumers with a Lower loan officer to create a super-team to better serve them right out of the gate.

“The future of our industry lies in blending the best technology with the irreplaceable expertise of local agents and loan officers.” said Dan Snyder, CEO and Co-Founder of Lower. “Movoto is the perfect platform to accelerate this vision, allowing us to create a simpler, smarter path to homeownership.  Acquiring Movoto strengthens our position as the challenger platform, enhancing our ability to deliver the best localized and personalized service and capture significant market share.”

Homebuyers on Movoto.com will gain early and on-demand access to Lower’s expert, local loan officers, simplifying crucial decisions around affordability. Connecting with trusted professionals, who have a deep knowledge of their local market from the start, makes answering the big questions – “Where should I live?” and “How much can I afford?” – easier than ever. In the future, the seamless connection between consumer, agent, and loan officer will deliver historically-impossible features at scale.

“The bigger portals touch almost everyone online but fail to help those customers through the whole process. By focusing on how technology empowers local connections we can deliver better service to the consumer and build a business that generates far more profit per visitor.” said John Berkowitz, CEO of Movoto, who will join Lower as President of Real Estate.

Lower’s acquisition of Movoto represents a transformative leap in empowering real estate agents and loan officers with a true growth engine. By seamlessly connecting local originators to thousands of motivated homebuyers and top-performing agents in their markets, Lower is eliminating one of the biggest barriers to growth: customer acquisition. This digital-first platform delivers a steady stream of high-intent buyers looking to get pre-approved – right from day one – allowing originators to focus on building relationships and closing deals.

“Modern technology should work for the local loan officer, not replace them,” said Craig Montgomery, Chief Strategy Officer & Head of Retail at Lower. “Movoto arms originators and agents with real-time opportunities and puts them at the center of the homebuying journey – right where they belong. It’s the kind of innovation that puts originators in a position to win consistently.”

Adam Wiener, Lower’s President, who helped to scale Redfin’s traffic from startup to public company with 50 million monthly visitors, brings expertise perfect for further accelerating Movoto’s growth.

“Movoto provides a unique opportunity to engage consumers from the start of their home-buying journey, through the purchase process and for the entire time they own that home until it’s time to sell and buy the next one,” said Adam Wiener, President of Lower. “Integrating Lower’s lending strength will lead to an end-to-end ecosystem that creates clients for life.”

The combined company will have more than 1,000 employees with offices in Columbus, OH and Austin, TX. Immediately after closing, the teams will integrate Movoto into the Lower brand. The financial details of the transaction are undisclosed. Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive financial advisor to OJO Labs (the prior parent company of Movoto) through the merger.

Combined with the acquisition of Neat Labs and the launch of the LowerOS mortgage platform last fall, this acquisition further positions Lower for rapid growth into a broader fintech organization.