New CFOs at CoStar, Inside Real Estate

Editor’s note: In an industry with millions of agents and over 100,000 brokerage firms, new leaders rise to the top every day. Here we profile executives and other notable figures who have recently assumed or left positions impacting the residential real estate landscape.

CoStar appoints mortgage manager as new CFO

CoStar Group will soon have a new chief financial officer. The commercial and residential real estate company has appointed Chris Lown as CFO following the retirement of current CFO Scott Wheeler.

Lown will officially join CoStar on July 1. He brings more than 25 years of banking and finance experience, having immersed himself in the world of real estate lending for the past four years as executive vice president and CFO at government mortgage giant Freddie Mac. Previous roles include EVP and CFO at student loan company Navient Corporation and holding leadership roles at investment bank Morgan Stanley for over a decade.

Lown joins CoStar as the company aggressively expands its home search portal Homes.com and invests $1 billion in marketing. Although the campaign is eating into profits, CoStar remains one of the few publicly traded real estate companies reporting consistent revenue growth.

“As we look to build on our strong performance over the past few years, I am confident Chris is the right person to lead CoStar Group’s financial operations,” said Andy Florance, Founder and CEO of CoStar Group.

Florance added that Lown’s tenure at Freddie Mac gave him “extensive knowledge of the homeownership market at a time when our Homes.com platform is experiencing exponential growth.”

Lown himself said it was “a professional honor” to join CoStar, a company he has “always respected for its incredible evolution from startup to leader in commercial real estate data and online real estate marketplaces.”

Inside Real Estate appoints investment professional as CFO

Leading brokerage technology provider Inside Real Estate has hired Chris Black as Chief Financial Officer.

The company is known for its leading technology platform, kvCORE, which is used by major brokerages such as RE/MAX and has more than 500,000 users among brokerages and agents.

Black has spent more than 20 years as a CFO at companies across a variety of industries, including transportation, manufacturing, technology and media, but Inside Real Estate is Black’s first foray into the proptech and real estate space.

Joe Skousen, CEO and founder of Inside Real Estate, praised Black as a “capable and dynamic financial manager.”

“I am excited about the opportunity he presents to help us drive even greater innovation and efficiency as we continue this next phase of exciting growth,” added Skousen.

“I am thrilled to be joining the Inside Real Estate organization,” said Black. “I admire the company’s strong sense of community and commitment to putting the client first. Joe and his team have built a powerful technology platform that is uniquely positioned in the market to provide cutting-edge end-to-end solutions for clients across the real estate ecosystem.”