UNLV alumnus and Homie co-founder launches scholarship fund for business students
Ten $1,000 scholarships to be awarded this academic year
Mike Peregrina, co-founder of Homie, a technology company that is revolutionizing the Southern Nevada real estate industry, announced that the company has established a scholarship fund for business students at his alma mater, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV).
“I have said it before…education is a great equalizer,” stated Peregrina. “With a great education, a useful skill set and dedicated work ethic, anyone can really achieve anything. My UNLV business degree enabled me to start Homie and make homeownership easy, affordable, and accessible to all. I am proud and humbled to be able to help the next generation of business leaders at UNLV by establishing the Homie Scholarship Fund. Now, as we face a tumultuous economy due to the COVID-19 crisis, it is more important than ever to find ways to help college students graduate.”
The Homie Scholarship Fund will offer ten scholarships of $1,000 each during the 2020-2021 academic school year to be awarded by the Lee School of Business to full- or part-time students pursuing a major in the College of Business. To be eligible, students must be sophomores, juniors, or seniors with a GPA of 3.2 or higher and submit an essay outlining how funds will help them overcome barriers to graduation.
Peregrina graduated from Bonanza High School in Las Vegas and attended UNLV where he studied architecture and ultimately received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) degree in Finance in 2012. While living in Las Vegas, Peregrina invested in an extensive portfolio of single-family homes. Unfortunately, due to market conditions and bad advice from so-called real estate professionals, he lost everything in the housing crash of 2008. A defining life experience, he saw first-hand that incentives in real estate were grossly misaligned and it was time for a fundamental change in how real estate is bought and sold. As a result, he started Homie to revolutionize real estate just as Lyft transformed transportation.
Homie is now the number one brokerage office in Utah, expanded to Arizona in 2018, and launched in Nevada earlier this year. It is changing the way homes are bought and sold by eliminating high fees and commissions, leveraging virtual experiences through technology, and ensuring quality customer service.
“We needed a better way to buy and sell real estate, so I looked for ways to streamline the process and eliminate excessive commissions,” said Peregrina when he launched Homie in Las Vegas in March. “I consider Vegas home, and it was my dream to bring Homie here so Nevadans can save thousands of dollars when they buy or sell a home – especially important now in the challenging and tumultuous economy.”
About Homie
Homie is a real estate technology company changing the way real estate is bought and sold by eliminating high fees and commissions. The company simplified an outdated and overcomplicated process through a combination of technology and full-service local real estate agent support. Homie is the #1 listing brokerage office in the state of Utah and is growing quickly in Arizona and Nevada. With real estate, home loans, closing services, and insurance, the Homie Tech family is making every aspect of buying and selling a home simple, affordable, and enjoyable. Finally, the way modern real estate should be. To learn more, visit www.homie.com. (Brokerage #: Homie, NV License #: B.144145)