Company: HOUS
Filing Date: 2025-02-25
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001398987-25-000020
Chunk: 59

Company: Anywhere Real Estate Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-02-25
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 59
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 increasingly important to the recruitment and retention of independent sales agents and sales agent teams and the attraction and retention of franchisees. Numerous companies that market and sell residential real estate leads to independent sales agents, including listing aggregators, compete with our real estate benefit programs and other lead generation programs.

Title Agency Business. The title, escrow and settlement services business is highly competitive and fragmented. The number and size of competing companies vary in the different areas in which we conduct business. In certain parts of the country our title agency business competes with small title agents and attorneys while in other parts of the country our competition is the larger title underwriters and national vendor management companies.

Integrated Services. Increasingly residential real estate market participants have sought to establish more integrated business models that include the provision of additional services to the consumer, such as title agency, mortgage origination and homeowner's insurance. Similarly, certain mortgage origination providers seek to broaden their access to the profit pools surrounding the residential real estate transaction, including real estate brokerage commissions. Some mortgage companies have created their own agent networks and may expand further into real estate. These factors have resulted in additional competitive pressure to our individual business units as well as the Company as a whole.

For additional information on the competitive risks facing our businesses, see "Item 1A.—Risk Factors—Strategic & Operational Risks", in particular under the caption "The businesses in which we, our joint ventures, and our franchisees operate are intensely competitive and we may not be able to effectively compete."

Government and Other Regulations 

See Note 15, "Commitments and Contingencies", to the Consolidated Financial Statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report for additional information on the Company's legal proceedings. For additional information with respect to related risks facing our business, see "Item 1A. Risk Factors," in particular under the heading "Regulatory and Legal Risks", in this Annual Report.

Legal and Regulatory Environment. All of our businesses, as well as the businesses of our joint ventures (such as mortgage origination, title insurance underwriting, and real estate auction) and the businesses of our franchisees are highly regulated and subject to shifts in public policy, statutory interpretation and enforcement priorities of regulators and other government authorities as well as amendments to existing regulations and regulatory guidance. Likewise, litigation, investigations, claims and regulatory proceedings against us or other participants in the residential real estate industry or relocation industry—or against companies in other industries—may impact the Company and its affiliated franchisees when the rulings or settlements in those cases cover practices common