[UPDATED WITH RESPONSE FROM COMPASS] This will be a brief one, but it’s so interesting I had to share. I just got off the phone with a very senior executive at a major national brokerage who relayed a rumor that he or she has been hearing from other senior executives throughout the industry that the … Read more
It appears that Realtor.com has finally made a foray into the most important thing to happen to real estate since the invention of the 30-year fixed rate mortgage. And I can’t help but yawn. So many phrases come to mind: What took you so long? A day late, and two billion dollars short. The Big … Read more
This morning, I woke up to not one but two emails about Rental Beast, a new startup that proposes to become the MLS for rentals and integrate it with existing MLSs. One was from WAV Group, doing their PR thing, so I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention. But the second one was from … Read more
After the past week, it is rather delightful to be writing about real estate issues for a change, rather than big social questions and difficult issues. Without further ado, let’s get into it. Mike DelPrete, a consultant and analyst of real estate technology, sent an email to his list today with the title, “iBuyers Turning … Read more
In Part 1, we looked at what a Platform in real estate might look like, having been inspired by Ben Thompson at Stratechery who talked about platforms in an aggregator world. We then decided that such a platform does not exist in real estate today because of all of the disparate parts that have to … Read more
Ben Thompson at Stratechery is a great read, and he really does get my gears turning. Today’s email/post is particularly interesting as it raises some questions as to what a platform actually is and what it might look like in real estate going forward. Consider this a “big think” post in which I try to … Read more
RE/MAX came into 2020 on a big upswing. Q4 was a good quarter; it was a very good quarter, in fact. And as we have already seen from Realogy, Redfin and Zillow, Q1 was a record-breaking type of quarter until COVID hit. So it’s a bit surprising that RE/MAX’s numbers came in so soft. I’m … Read more
According to its own creation mythology, Redfin was born in the dark as it was founded just before the Bubble burst. If any company knows how to navigate panic, turmoil, and a terrible housing market, it would be Redfin. They like to call themselves “the rabid squirrel.” The whole self-identity of Redfin is of a … Read more
One of my favorite moments in recent earnings calls came when Glenn Kelman, CEO of Redfin, used the phrase “delayed blast fireball” in an actual call. I ended up naming my writeup that, because as a former AD&D Dungeon Master, I got a real kick out of just how legit a nerd Kelman probably is. … Read more