Jacksonville, Florida-based construction company Dream Finders Homes has purchased Cherry Creek Mortgage LLC and is folding the acquired company’s servicing capabilities and secondary market approvals into an existing home lending affiliate.
Dream Finders’ Jet Homeloans unit bought the Greenwood Village, Colorado-based entity. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
The purchase adds to the growing wave of consolidation in housing finance, a larger example of which is Rocket Mortgage’s recently announced agreement to purchase technology-focused real estate, mortgage and title firm Redfin for $1.75 billion.
“This partnership leverages Jet Homeloans’ existing retail production strength with Cherry Creek’s robust expertise in servicing along with all necessary industry approvals. The result is a stronger, more diversified company,” said Kelley Hailstone, president of the Dream Finders mortgage unit, in a press release.
Cherry Creek Mortgage has approvals to sell loans to influential government-related mortgage investor Freddie Mac and securitization guarantor Ginnie Mae, a division of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The CCM entity Dream Finders acquired is separate from the Cherry Creek Mortgage production division Guild acquired in 2023.
Guild issued an $11.3 million note, receivable to Cherry Creek Financial LLC, in connection with the acquisition of certain assets of CCM that year. The acquirer funded the transaction with approximately $2.6 million in cash on hand. At that time, CCM had 68 branches in 45 states. Guild owns Cherry Creek Mortgage’s branding,
In addition to servicing operations and secondary market approvals, CCM also has a branch office in Nevada, according to an industry registry. The registry also shows that Jet Homeloans has licensed branch offices in six states: Arizona, Florida, Tennessee, Texas, North and South Carolina.
Dream Finders builds homes in those six states, Georgia, Colorado and the Washington, D.C. area, the last of which includes Northern Virginia and Maryland. Jet has approvals to make government-backed loans and is licensed to lend in a total of 13 states, according to the company. It originated over $2 billion last year.
Sterling Point, Milliman and New Orleans-based law firm McGlinchey Stafford PLLC served as advisors to Jet Homeloans regarding the Cherry Creek acquisition.
Dream Finders has been growing its presence in residential building, finance and insurance-related businesses since 2021, when it bought a variety of housing, mortgage and title assets from McGuyer Homebuilders for $470 million.
While the company paused such acquisitions amid the runup in interest rates during 2022, it restarted in 2023 with the purchase of a 200-unit luxury townhome subdivision in Ashland, Virginia, from Rithm Capital Corp., GreenBarn Investment Group, and American Real Estate Partners for $120 million.
It subsequently became the full owner of what previously was a partnership with Jet when it bought the remaining 40% stake in the company for $9.3 million last summer.
Dream Finders then bought Alliant National Insurance Co. from Presidio Investors Atc Holdco in October 2024, and acquired the core homebuilding assets and operations of Liberty Communities in January of this year. Terms of those transactions were undisclosed.
