Seattle’s Flyhomes Lays Off More Employees in Multiple Shakedowns

Key Points:

• Flyhomes, a real estate brokerage and mortgage lender based in Seattle, intimates further cuts in staffing on Friday.
• This move marks the third wave of layoffs since July 2022, showcasing the company’s ongoing struggle with financial constraints amid the pandemic turbulence.
• The November 2022 layoffs waved goodbye to 20 percent of the workforce, indicating a significant shrinkage in operations and potential financial distress.
• The specific numbers for the recent wave are yet to be disclosed, giving space to speculations about the severity of the cuts.

My Hot Take:

Well, well, well, looks like Flyhomes is saying “bye” more often to its employees than its clients. This ongoing saga of layoffs is spelling some serious turbulence for the Seattle firm. While shuffling your deck (read: employees) once or twice can be seen as bad luck or a strategic move, the hat trick it’s currently pulling off gives off more “Titanic hitting the iceberg” vibes.

Despite the unclear number for this round of layoffs, it’s safe to say the employee morale must be lower than a basement in a flood zone. The November cut was a heavyweight champion, showing 20 percent of the workforce the door. The question is, will there be any employees left after this round of corporate Russian Roulette?

If Flyhomes were a house on the property market, it would definitely be a fixer-upper. With the metaphorical financial wallpaper peeling and restructuring ‘siblings’ moving in and out more than a teenager in a tantrum, it’s hard to see this as a rock-solid investment right now.

But hey, maybe this is their strategy, rinse and repeat until you find the golden team or save enough for a rainy day. Or maybe Flyhomes believes in the mantra ‘less is more’. Either way, good luck to them. They’re going to need it like a foreclosure needs a buyer.

In the end, though, let’s keep our fingers crossed that this Seattle juggernaut finds its balance and stops playing musical chairs with its workforce. Actually, scratch that, more like musical life rafts on the good ship Fly-homes-don’t-sink!

Original article: https://www.inman.com/2023/12/19/flyhomes-announces-third-round-of-layoffs-since-2022/