I’ve been having a number of conversations with friends over this past week, as the quarantine situation got serious then even more serious. Some of it was sparked by my series on the aftermath of this crisis for real estate, and others sparked by just general events these days. As I write this, I’m debating … Read more
In Part 1, I looked at the possible aftermath for real estate brokerages in the wake of the current crisis with COVID-19. In this part, let’s think about how organized real estate might be impacted. Since I laid out the possible scenarios in Part 1, if you need a refresher, please go refer to those … Read more
So here we are in the Brave New World of quarantines, lockdowns and barely contained (?) panic. May it be short, as it is simply unsustainable over the long haul. Activity will be grinding to a halt if it hasn’t already. We all know the main stories in the news — stock market plummeting, the … Read more
I’ve been asked by many of you to offer my opinions on COVID 19 / coronavirus and how it will impact real estate. Obviously, I have zero expertise on infectious diseases, am not an agent on the ground, and have very little to add other than what everyone has been reading from the CDC and … Read more
I realize this is almost two weeks after Realogy reported, but… between international travel and my computer giving up the ghost, it’s been a bit of a challenge to write this. It likely would have been a challenge anyhow, because of how much I like Realogy (I have written often about my biases). Q4 was … Read more
I got my laptop back, finally, after spending three days in intensive care and undergoing surgery. So to celebrate, I thought I’d put up a brief (hopefully) post for your weekend reading pleasure. Well, “pleasure” might be the wrong word here, given the topic and the issues… but it will give you something to think … Read more
Since it’s been a few days since my VIP subscribers got to check out my analysis of Zillow’s Q4 earnings, I wanted to have more of a public open discussion on two incredibly important things from the Q4 earnings. Rich Barton, Zillow’s CEO, mentioned the Bob Seger song, “Turn the Page.” He was talking about … Read more
I speak again with John Campbell, Managing Director of Equity Research at Stephens, Inc., a powerhouse regional investment bank and private equity firm based in Little Rock. He is one of the finest analysts of the small corner of the public markets that real estate represents and I have consistently found his coverage to be … Read more
In the Q3/2019 writeup, I wrote that Zillow is not experimenting, but trying to pivot with great delicacy: My take on Q3 is that Zillow is in the midst of a BCG 2×2 Matrix exercise and a delicate point (in a good way) in the transition from Zillow 1.0 to Zillow 2.0. What they’re doing … Read more