OJO acquires The LEAD Syndicate, rebrands around Movoto

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Real estate technology company OJO announced Tuesday that it has acquired The LEAD Syndicate, an agent-focused technology company, and will use the new acquisition to launch a new all-in-one platform — and to rebrand.

The new platform will be called “Lever by Movoto.” In a statement, OJO described the platform as “delivering an all-in suite of solutions that will handle agents’ marketing, supplemental lead generation, database management, transaction management, wrapped with training and accountability solutions to ensure the agents’ ultimate success.”

Chris Heller, OJO

Chris Heller, president of OJO, explained in a call with Inman that the goal of the new platform is to help individual agents who aren’t going to join a team but who also aren’t low producers on the verge of washing out of the industry. He added that “this group in the middle is a very large group.”

The statement goes on to describe Lever as a “comprehensive support system” that allows agents to retain their own branding.

Lever’s launch also comes as OJO engages in a kind of rebranding that will make the Movoto name the company’s public-facing identity. The OJO name will still exist, but its relationship with Movoto will be similar to Meta and Facebook or Alphabet and Google — the latter names are all parent companies that oversee public-facing brands.

“With the launch of Lever, OJO is making the strategic decision to align all of its products under the Movoto brand umbrella,” the statement adds.

OJO, which got its start by pioneering the introduction of artificial intelligence into real estate before evolving to offer an array of services, acquired residential search site Movoto in 2020.

Nikki Miller

The acquisition of The LEAD Syndicate is a key part of Lever’s launch. Nikki Miller founded The LEAD Syndicate in 2020, explaining to Inman in a call that she was an individual agent who found herself wanting to advance her career but who also didn’t want to join a team or cobble together a make-shift technology solution on her own. Eventually, she formed The LEAD Syndicate to give agents a single platform they could deploy in a variety of situations.

On its website, The LEAD Syndicate states that it handles lead generation, marketing, transaction and database management, and other tasks.

Like Heller, Miller also said that the middle group of individual agents who close deals but don’t join teams is large, yet underserved.

“Nothing has been built for them and nothing has been optimized for them,” Miller told Inman. “We want another way for them to be able to grow.”

The companies did not disclose the financial terms of the acquisition. Miller will stay on with the company in the role of vice president of agent platforms. Asked about the acquisition, she said she has been working with OJO already and the new deal represented a “no-brainer partnership.”

“I am thrilled to join the incredible team at OJO and Movoto in launching Lever,” Miller added in a statement.

Asked about pricing for Lever, OJO declined to provide specifics and pointed agents to its website.

Heller was upbeat about having Miller and her company come on board.

“OJO and Movoto have long been in the corner of real estate professionals,” Heller said in the statement, “and Nikki’s superpower of helping agents skyrocket their businesses is the perfect complement to the existing programs we have at OJO.”

The new acquisition and branding come at a time of significant disruption for the real estate industry. After a red-hot market in the early years of the coronavirus pandemic, 2022 and 2023 saw steadily rising rates and falling transactions. At the same time, new entrants such as CoStar have sought to disrupt the status quo in spaces such as residential home search — an area where OJO is also competing via its Movoto site.

John Berkowitz

In Tuesday’s statement, OJO notes that despite “market headwinds” it has still seen its “agent network and programs grow in size over the past year.” The company first launched a referral network for top agents in 2020 and last year debuted two new lead generation programs for high-performing teams.

In the statement, company founder and CEO John Berkowitz was also optimistic about the future.

“We are laser-focused on ensuring the millions of consumers that come to Movoto actually find or sell a home, and that often starts with finding a great real estate professional,” Berkowitz said. “Partners like Nikki Miller ensure that agents continue to be a critical part of our journey as a company and I’m thrilled to have her on board.”

Email Jim Dalrymple II