Company: HOUS
Filing Date: 2025-02-25
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001398987-25-000020
Chunk: 169

Company: Anywhere Real Estate Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-02-25
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 169
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, display, advertising and related fees or introducing new fees for new or existing services;

•not including our or our franchisees' listings on their websites;

•controlling significant inventory and agent referrals, tying referrals to use of their products, and/or engaging in preferential or exclusionary practices to favor or disfavor other industry participants;

•leveraging their position to compel the use of their platforms exclusively, which may include requiring disclosure of competitively sensitive information;

•aggregating consumer data from their listing sites and ancillary services for competitive advantage; 

•establishing oppressive contract terms, including with respect to data sharing requirements; 

•disintermediating our relationship with affiliated franchisees and independent sales agents; and/or 

•disintermediating the relationship between the sales agent and the buyers and sellers of homes, including through the promotion of products or services designed to replace the role of the sales agent in both buy side and sell side transactions. 

Such tactics could further increase pressures on the profitability of our company owned and franchised brokerages and affiliated independent sales agents, reduce our market share, reduce our franchisor service revenue and dilute our relationships with franchisees, independent sales agents and consumers and our franchisees' relationships with affiliated independent sales agents and consumers.

Our financial results are affected by the operating results of our franchisees.

Franchise Group receives revenue in the form of royalties, which are based on a percentage of gross commission income earned by our franchisees. Accordingly, the financial results of Franchise Group are dependent upon the operational and financial success of our franchisees, in particular with respect to our largest franchisees. If industry trends or economic conditions worsen or do not improve or if one or more of our top performing franchisees become less competitive or leave our franchise system, Franchise Group's financial results may worsen and our royalty revenues may decline, which could have a material adverse effect on our revenues and profitability. In addition, from time to time, we have had to increase our bad debt and note reserves, including with respect to the conversion notes or other note-backed funding we extend to eligible franchisees, which are forgiven ratably generally over the term of the franchise agreement upon satisfaction of certain revenue performance-based thresholds. We may also have to terminate franchisees due to non-payment. Moreover, the ownership model for some larger franchisees has shifted to control by private investor groups that are more likely to have a higher proportion of debt and may have different priorities than historic franchisee owners, which increases franchisee liquidity, termination and