Better.com, an American online mortgage firm, has initiated a new round of job cuts in which the entire real estate team has been terminated, and the unit has been closed down. This comes after the company laid off 900 employees over a Zoom call in December 2021. The motive behind these layoffs is Better.com’s transition from an ‘in-house agent’ model to a ‘partnership agent’ model.
The exact number of employees affected in the real estate division is currently unclear. However, an employee who was part of this round of layoffs mentioned that Better.com provided minimal to no severance packages to those who were let go. The same employee also revealed that he personally experienced a 50% pay reduction in November of the previous year.
Additionally, in May 2022, Better.com, led by Indian-American entrepreneur Vishal Garg, who serves as the CEO, requested staff members to voluntarily resign, and approximately 920 resignations were accepted later on.
These recent layoffs are not the first for Better.com, as they have carried out multiple rounds of workforce reductions prior to this latest one. The fourth round of layoffs occurred in August 2022, resulting in approximately 4,000 individuals losing their jobs.
Furthermore, in March, Better.com formed a partnership with Amazon, allowing employees of the e-commerce giant to utilize their vested equity as collateral for a down payment when purchasing homes. Vishal Garg explained that although equity is a valuable asset, most banks do not consider it eligible when calculating the necessary down payment for a home.
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