McKinney-based Fathom Realty Announces IPO Plans

Fathom Realty CEO Josh Harley (Photo courtesy Fathom Realty).

From staff reports

McKinney-based Fathom Realty announced last week that it would begin working towards taking the company public, saying it would file documents for an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the second quarter of 2019.

The cloud-based, 100 percent commission brokerage said it will submit a Form S-1 with the SEC to begin the process of publicly listing its common stock.

“The public listing is expected to take place after the SEC completes the review process initiated by Fathom’s confidential submission of its draft registration statement,” the company said in a press release.

Fathom CEO Josh Harley started the company in 2010, and while it now covers 18 states and 75 markets, it still calls McKinney home. Nationally, the company has 2,724 agents. Locally, there are five offices, the company told the Dallas Morning News last year, with almost 800 local workers.

Agents pay Fathom a fee of $450 per transaction for the first 12 transactions in a year. Once that threshold is met, agents pay a fee of $99 per transaction and a yearly $500 transaction fee.

At the end of 2018, the company could boast not only 65 percent year-over-year growth, but also the top spot for large companies in the Dallas Morning News’ Top 100 places to work.

In January 2017, Harley gave employees shares in the company, and outlined a plan where they would earn more. Each agent and employee currently gets 100 shares upon joining the company, and then additional shares for various benchmarks. As of the end of 2018, employees owned roughly 20 percent of Fathom.

Earlier this year, Harley was named a real estate “Game Changer” by REAL Trends.

“It’s an honor to be listed among this small group of industry leaders and disruptors,” Harley said of the honor. “From the first day I launched Fathom, it was my goal to change the dynamic between brokers and agents, and ultimately change the game. I believe we are doing just that. It feels good to know that others are beginning to recognize our efforts. Fathom is poised to be a major player in the real estate space and I’m excited for the future.”

When the IPO comes to fruition, Fathom will join fellow cloud-based brokerage eXp Realty as a publicly traded brokerage, along with Redfin, RE/MAX, and Realogy.