Holy shit, things just got real. If you haven’t heard the news Errol Samuelson, former President of REALTOR.com and chief strategy officer for MOVE, Inc. just announced he left to join Zillow as their Chief Industry Development Officer. Details are sketchy but here’s what I’ve been able to dig up.
1. It was a total blindside. Not even Errol’s closest friends knew.
2. This represents a tectonic shift in the industry. Unlike like the other poaching that Zillow and Trulia have been doing this represents a whole other level. Brilliant move by Zillow.
3. I don’t think it was just about money. But I’ll save that analysis for another post.
From a larger sense I think that Zillow was losing ground to Trulia. To me Trulia was winning the “industry friendly” game. Zillow didn’t seem to care, hell I don’t think I know anyone that thinks Bemis got a fair shot. That has cost them. Seems that industry relations does matter and Zillow is coming back around to understand that.
But the more interesting narrative I think is this, what does Errol know, that we don’t know? This kind of move doesn’t happen without something else lurking out there. And that’s the real story.
Developing….
UPDATE:
