Three years ago, I wrote a post titled, “The Case for iBuyer Becoming the Default.” It came up in my social media feeds, thanks to the hard work of my social media manager. And the timing couldn’t have been better, since I’ve been thinking that I need to reassess iBuying as a category in light … Read more
I’m still traveling around the country, but wanted to jot something down real quick from a random hotel room in Houston. Based on this story in Business Insider about Project Ketchup, I’m expecting fantastic things from Opendoor’s earnings call. [Note: I own OPEN in my personal portfolio.] All of the jubilation from the industry about … Read more
Ben Thompson at Stratechery, the man responsible for setting Zillow on its path into iBuying, has published a newsletter discussing Zillow’s exit from iBuying. He’s very generous to Rich Barton and to Zillow, and eats a bit of crow. I rarely find anything in Thompson’s writings and opinions to disagree with, because he is one … Read more
I was in mid-air when the Zillow Q3 earnings release happened. By the time I had landed, there were dozens of texts, emails, and of course, social media postings. There were and are a lot of hot takes. I’m reasonably convinced that all or most are wrong in some significant way. Many are laughably shallow. … Read more
I was asked multiple times over the last few days about Zillow pausing its iBuying business, over email from some of you and in person at Inman that concluded last week. I haven’t written on it because I didn’t think it was a big deal, and others have already written on it. But since I’ve … Read more
I’ve now been asked by more than a few people on my take on the acquisition of Remine, the MLS technology provider, by MLS Technology Holdings, LLC., a new company formed by four major MLSs: ACTRIS (Austin), Heartland (Kansas City), FMLS (Atlanta) and Miami (er… Miami). Disclosure: I have personal relationships with three of the … Read more
Over on LinkedIn and on Facebook, the real nerds of real estate are posting how they’re en route to South Carolina for the RESO Fall Retreat. Hope my friends have a wonderful time on Kiawah Island. At the same time, a discussion of sorts has broken out over “native” data dictionary and so on. The … Read more
In my consulting work, I often say that strategy is 18-24 months, because things change too fast to make any reasonable plans past that point. It isn’t simply black swan events like the pandemic either; just the pace of technology change is that fast, and if the strategy worked, then the organization should be in … Read more
Back in 2018, I had a series called The Red Dot. The very first red dot report was on real estate photography and copyrights. This was then and remains now an important issue for the industry, and one that still remains not very well understood by most brokers, agents, and MLS leaders. So it is … Read more